Last November 8, UP AME, sponsored by Japan Foundation and the UP Diliman Office for Initiatives in Culture and Arts (OICA), hosted a talk by Professor Ana Micaela Chua-Manansala. This was held at PH 400 from 2:30 to 4:30 pm.
The talk was entitled “The Incubation of the Eternal Feminine” where Prof. Chua talked about Intersemiotic Transmutations of the Faust Myth from Goethe’s Faust in the text The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and the magical girl anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Opening remarks were given by Elizabeth Mendoza, the organization’s president and the master of ceremonies was Paul Hernandez.
To start, the term transmutation was defined. The myth is explained as well since it is adapted in the form of different narratives. Then elements of the story were presented and explained briefly, but the focus of the talk was on characters since that is the element that audiences relate to the most. Prof. Chua showed a chart containing Faust and Gretchen from Goethe’s Faust, Margarita and Master from The Master and Margarita, and Madoka and Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica where similarities among them were seen. The talk then started to look at each text deeply.
Faust was discussed – both the historical and the fictional person. Then Goethe’s Faust was discussed, after which came the Faust Myth and what it was. The Master and Margarita was talked about next, then it was compared to Faust and how the Faust Myth was shown in the characters. The same was done for Puella Magi Madoka Magica: the anime, more specifically the characters, was discussed first before it was compared to Faust and how the Faust Myth can be seen.
The conclusion was an explanation of “The Eternal Feminine” and how it can be a powerful thing.
A question and answer portion followed where it was mentioned that Prof. Chua plans to make another study regarding other anime.
The closing remarks were given by the Academic Committee head, Christian Boro, who also presented our speaker with the honoraria. It was also said that UP AME will be having another talk in the next semester.
