Why Counting Counts: A Study of Forms and Consciousness and Problems of Language in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Benedict R. O'G. Anderson

by Benedict Anderson

This book examines Jose Rizal's great novels, "Noli me tangere" and "El filibusterismo", through a hitherto untried quantitative analysis of the scope and evolution of their political and social vocabulary, as well as their use of Tagalog and the "lengua de Parian". Special attention is given to which characters (including the Narrator) use these terms and languages, and with what frequency. The study aims to throw new light on Rizal's changing political consciousness and use of his native language. The most important questions raised the shifting nature of Rizal's intended readership; the geographical location of the birth of a Filipino identity in the modern sense; the odd concealment of the Chinese mestizos combined with a growing hostility to the Chinese as an alien race; the level and ambit of the author's political sophistication; and the complicated relationship between the colonial-international aspects of Spanish, the ethnic-nationalist claims of Tagalog, and the emergence of a democratic cross-class lingua franca, especially in Manila.

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson was Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor Emeritus of International Studies, Government & Asian Studies at Cornell University, and is best known for his celebrated book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, first published in 1983. Anderson was born in Kunming, China, to James O'Gorman Anderson and Veronica Beatrice Bigham, and in 1941 the family moved to California. In 1957, Anderson received a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Cambridge University, and he later earned a Ph.D. from Cornell's Department of Government, where he studied modern Indonesia under the guidance of George Kahin. He is the brother of historian Perry Anderson.

Reviews

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful and novel guide in reading Rizal's two novels

[Nitoy Gonzales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short read but the stat run down is not my turf. Nevertheless it yields a few of but thought provoking prespective more on Rizal than Noli and Fili