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Nationalism and Rizal's Legacy in Asia

Benedict Anderson discusses learning to read Spanish by reading Jose Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in the original, with Leon Ma. Guerrero's translations as a reference. Anderson notes issues with some translations of Rizal's works, including demodernization, exclusion of the reader, excision of Tagalog passages, bowdlerization, delocalization, de-Europeanization, and anachronism. The summaries aimed to preserve the high level ideas while keeping it concise in 3 sentences or less as requested.

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435 views41 pages

Nationalism and Rizal's Legacy in Asia

Benedict Anderson discusses learning to read Spanish by reading Jose Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in the original, with Leon Ma. Guerrero's translations as a reference. Anderson notes issues with some translations of Rizal's works, including demodernization, exclusion of the reader, excision of Tagalog passages, bowdlerization, delocalization, de-Europeanization, and anachronism. The summaries aimed to preserve the high level ideas while keeping it concise in 3 sentences or less as requested.

Uploaded by

arjhen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SPECTRE OF COMPARISON:

NATIONALISM, SOUTHEAST
ASIA and the WORLD BENEDICT ANDERSON

Anderson, Benedict, 2004. Hard to imagine. In Spectre of comparisons:


Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the world, 235-247 only. Quezon
City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Introduction
• Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Realonda
• 1950s – Preparation for centennial celebration of
the birth of Dr. Jose Rizal (June 19, 1861)
o Poet
o Historian
o Scientist
o Journalist
o Linguist
o Satirist
o Political activist
o Novelist

• Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo – chefs


d’oeuvre of the Philippine Literature.
• 1899-1942- American colonial regime had
by the end wiped out the local use of
Spanish except in the few rich mestizo and
creole families
• 1950s- Rizal’s 2 novels had become
inaccessible
• Mid 1950s- Rizal had become the center of
bitter political controversy.
- The Church was put in a difficult spot. The
chief of the villain of both novels are clerics:
o Brutal Franciscan
o Lascivious Dominicans
o Power-hungry Jesuits
• 1915-1982- Among those stimulated by the
competition to undertake a new translation was
Leon Ma. Guerrero at that time the Philippine
Ambassador to the Court of St James.
 I will have more to say about Guerrero
later. It is enough to note here that his fluent
translations were very successful, and quickly
supplanted all older versions in high- school and
university libraries.
As Doreen Fernandez noted, they have
become the only translations anybody reads
now.
• Anderson needed to learn to read Spanish and decided to
teach himself by reading the 2 novels of Rizal in the original,
with the Guerrero’s translations as a cribs.

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DEMODERNIZATION
EXCLUSION OF THE READER
EXCISION OF TAGALOG
BOWDLERIZATION
DELOCALIZATION
DE- EUROPEANIZATION
ANACHRONISM
DEMODERNIZATION
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EXCLUSION OF THE READER
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EXCISION OF TAGALOG

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BOWDLERIZATION
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DELOCALIZATION
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DE- EUROPEANIZATION
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ANACHRONISM
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