Module 2: RIZAL AND THEORY OF NATIONALISM
Content:
Nationalism is best understood by first looking into the term nation. Benedict Anderson, a prominent historian and political scientist who explored the origins of nationalism, defined the nation as a fabrication, a bond between people who did actually exist prior to its own recognition. For him, the nation “ is an imagined community- and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (2006). Anderson argues that the nation is imagined as a community because regardless of the actual inequalities that prevail, the nation is always conceived as deep, horizontal comradeship. It is imagined because it exists in the figment of the people’s collective imagination. According to Anderson, nation-ness is a cultural artefact that is felt as having existed since time immemorial but is objectively modern as it first emerged toward the end of 18th century.
Following this conceptualization by Anderson, the Philippine nation is a imagined community because one who identifies himself or herself as a Filipino will never meet all the other Filipino will never meet all the other Filipinos around the world, yet he or she is convinced that they exist and he or she is related to them. Anderson also present the concept of homogenous empty time, borrowed from the ideas of Walter Benjamin, Which replaced the idea of simultaneity-along-time which referred to the medieval conception of time as situating events in the past, present, and future simultaneously. Homogenous empty time suggest that a nation can be imagined as a unit, moving through time. Rizal’s works and Nationalism- Anderson points out that Rizal Noli Me tangere conjured an imagined community as if the readers and the author were familiar to and intimate with each other, with the characters and readers being situated in the same context of time and space. The novel provided the means of representing the nation as an imagined community that operated on empty time enabling the reader to be omniscient to see a delimited society and the actuations of key people in it.
Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo emerged as the founding texts of Philippine Nationalism. These novels exposed the ills of Spanish colonial government and the evils prevailing in the Philippine society by presenting a narrative that contextualizes the country in terms of politics, economy, and culture.
Rizal was able to go against the colonizers and show how literature can be used to arouse people to be catalysts of social change. In both his novels, Rizal was able to portray the Filipino in different dimensions, from those who had colonial mentality, to those who willingly fought for the country at all costs. (The Life and Works of Rizal, Clemente and Cruz 2019, P.19-20)
The Novel’s Legacy -For fearlessly depicting the corruptions and abuses by the Spaniards clergy and the colonial government during the Spanish in the Philippines, the two novels are historically very significant. Basically a social sketch of the country then, the Noli and Fili reveal the true setting and condition of the Filipino society in the era.
As essential sources of sociological and anthropological studies, the books provide rich insights into the culture of the 19th and 20th century Philippines. Their realistic depictions expose a conflicted colonial society seriously split between the oppressors and the suffering local slaves. The novel’s characters mimic the various elements and types of individuals in the society. Furthermore, they show favourable positive traits of the natives then, like the sense of gratitude, the fidelity of women to their loved ones, and the yearning for freedom and equality.
For their explicit portrayal of what the locals really wished for their country, the books were instrumental in forming the Filipinos (Indios) sense of national identity but significantly, the novels influenced the revolution led by the Katipunan as they inspired Andres Bonifacio and the other revolutionaries in their cause.
Rizal was arrested, exiled to Dapitan, and ultimately executed in 1896 based principally on his writings. In 1956, the Spanish Congress passed the Rizal Law (Republic Act 1425) requiring all levels of the Philippine schools to teach as part of the curriculum the hero’s two novels.
Originally written in Spanish, the Noli and the Fili had been translated into various languages like Filipino, English, German, French, Chinese, and some other Philippine languages. In 2007, an English version of the Noi Me Tangere was released to major Australian bookstores. It was published by Penguin Books Classics as part of the publication’s commitment to publish the major literary classic of the world.( Life and works of Rizal Biography, Writings, and Legacies of our Bayani, Manebog et.al 2018 p.126)
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