Soledad Reyes

Soledad Sarmiento Reyes (born March 5, 1946) is a Philippine literature scholar, literary and art critic, author, anthologist, consultant, professor, instructor, editor, annotator, researcher, and essayist in the Philippines. She is an accomplished author of books and anthologies. "sa nobela mababalatuba ang mga pangyayati sa buhay ng isang kagawad sa union

Education In 1966, Reyes received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Maryknoll College (now known as Miriam College. She obtained a master's degree, from Ateneo de Manila University. She completed her Ph.D. in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1976. In 1981, Reyes obtained her Masters in Arts degree in the field of Sociology of Literature from University of Essex in England.

Works Reyes authored works such as the Nobelang Tagalog, 1905-1975: Tradisyon at Modernismo ("Tagalog Novel, 1905-1975: Tradition and Modernism", 1982),

In her 2009 essay, From Darna to Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Desire and Fantasy and Other Way, Reyes compared two Filipino superheroines existing in contemporary Philippine popular culture and literature, namely Darna and Zsazsa Zaturnnah. According to Reyes, Darna was the modern-day superheroine rooted and molded in Philippine folklore and tradition, while ZsaZsa Zaturnnah was "unarguably a postmodern text that could have emerged only in the twenty-first century, a period of awesome advances in science and technology, and/or frightening borderless wars." Reyes's use of the phrase postmodern hero or postmodern text to describe ZsaZsa Zaturnnah the superheroine and graphic novel was further explained by Emilou Lindsay Mata Mendoza and Irene Villarin Gonzaga in their Visual Literacy and Popular Culture in the Philippine Literature Classroom: Teaching Filipino Literature through the Graphic Novel, as a comparison between Darna, the female superhero, and ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, the effeminate superhero. Darna was the traditional mold of a Filipino superheroine (gender-wise, a true female superhero) while ZsaZsa Zaturnnah was an "outright subversion" of the conventional form of that superheroine. Because ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is, in reality, a homosexual male or "gay man" named Ada (from Adrian) who works as a beautician (i.e. cosmetologist, hair stylist, and nail stylist), but is able to transform himself into "a voluptuous, red-haired Darna-like [real] woman who possesses super powers" whenever he swallows a magical stone and shouts the word "Zaturnnah". In short, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is in reality a man who literally experiences a sex/ gender change whenever he becomes the superheroine.

Awards The awards Reyes obtained include recognitions for her From Darna to Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Desire and Fantasy and Other Way and A Dark Tinge to the World: Selected Essays 1987-2005. In 2009, Reyes was conferred the rank of Professor Emeritus (together with two other Loyola Schools faculty members of the Ateneo de Manila University, namely Jose A. Marasigan and Mari-Jo P. Ruiz) for her exceptional service and distinguished academic record. Reyes's Nobelang Tagalog 1905-1975: Tradisyon at Modernismo, an anthology tracing the history of Tagalog-language novels has been considered a landmark in Philippine literature,