Noli Me Tangere, Continuing Relevance: Nadal, Vallega, Cajuelan
Noli Me Tangere, Continuing Relevance: Nadal, Vallega, Cajuelan
Noli Me Tangere, Continuing Relevance: Nadal, Vallega, Cajuelan
10
NOLI ME TANGERE,
CONTINUING
RELEVANCE
NADAL, VALLEGA,
CAJUELAN
t h i s c h a p t e r , t h e
A t t h e e n d o f a b l e t o :
st ude n t s s h o u l d b e
ortan ce of Ri zal a s a
Appreciate the im p
thinker; and
e s ra is ed in t he no ve l
relate th e issu
n g la n ds c a p e o f th e
to the ch a n g i
ontem p o r ar y w o rld .
c
While the Noli Me Tangere triggered social
conversations the late nineteenth century
Philippines, it is important to note how the
novel continues to resonate beyond its
time.
The success of Rizals's novel also rests on its
timelessness in terms of present-day social
issues and political/economic relaties. In
this chapter Noli's legacy and continuing
relevance will be explainedas a text not
only in the field of literature but also in the
areas of history and the social sciences.
Censorship
the suppression of the release
publication
or of material
inappropriate,
deemed obscene,
unacceptable, or a threat to
politically
security.
Critique
an evaluation, analysis, or assessment
of a literary, philosophical or
scientific work.
S ociolog
y
the social science dealing
study of the development,
with
the
and functioning of human
structures
Noli A f t e r its f i r s t publication
At present, Noli
tangere
Me is
by many
considered as scholar Resil
landmark
a piece even went to
literature Mojares
extent of naming
of the
. as the "Father
RizalFilipino of
the themes of the the
revolved
novel around Novel"
societal
the as such, the
experienced
issues in did not
Philippines under novel
unnoticed
the
Spanish colonial go
the became
and a
rule. of discussions
subject debate..
and
Antoni Ferdinand
o Bluementri
Reg ido t t
r "the book
issuperior."
"Your work as
Germans
we say,
been
has written
blood
with and
heart."
tfraises
Senator Vicente
Fernando Barrantes Anonymou
Luis VIda Moreno
described s
condemened as a man "ungrateful
novel as anti- Rizal
contradiction man.
the of
catholic. s. "
offensive r e m a r k s
In the immediate years after
publication,
its the Noli was translated
several
into languages. One of the
translations
earliest of the novel was done
French.
in Many scholars posit that
were early
there attempts to translate the
into
novel German and even by Tagalog
these
but plans never came into
fruition.
Fr. Vicente Marcelo H. Leon M a
Garcia Del Pilar
"Noli is a work Guerrero
"The novel has
literature, it should another defender yet been
judgeof that way and Rizals Noli not
be of Tanger rightly
judged as its
notin a doctrinal Me are still being
e effects
level." felt."
defended Rizal
During the American Colonial
several other
Period, traditions and editions of
novel came out. Arguably
the circulated versions were the the
most
translations of Charles
English
Derbyshire.
The very controversy surrounded
passage
the of the Rizal Law indicated
relevance
the of the text in the 1950's
and even
beyond.
In academia, many scholars have also made it
point
a to discuss the politics of translation and
nuances
the of transforming the text in several
As Testa
forms. de Ocampo points out, as much as
thenovel is elevated in the highest echelons
Philippine
of literary history, seldom do we
Filipinos
find reading it in the original
Spanish.
Versions and translations of the Noli
also did not go without scrutiny
from academics like Benedict
Anderson.
Truly, be it about its content, context,
or the way it is read or used, the
value of Rizal's novel is definitely felt
in the Philippines.
Benedict
Anderson
A remarkable aspect of Rizal's Noli lies in its
text which espoused the national hero's
articulations of a social-scientific view of
the nineteenth century of the Philippines he
was describing. Sociologist Syed Fareed
Alatas even went as far as describing Rizal
as "probably the first systematic social
thinker in the Southeast Asia."
Syed
Fareed
Many scholars interpret the Noli as
diagnosis
Rizal's of the ills of colonial society as
assessed
he the role played by the church, the
and
statethe people. In the Noli, Rizal highlighted
of
some his ideas on how the Philippine society
be
couldemancipated from the bondage of
colonial rule
He underscored the importance . of education as
powerful tool to achieve
a also exposed the complexities andprogress. However,
hewrought by the colonial condition not only
constraints
foreigners, but also on some misguided
on that contributed to the ills of
Filipinos
society.
Thank You
for
listening!