A study of the effects of translation practices and historical writings in the Philippines on questions of nationalism.

Acknowledgments xi
Preface xv
Introduction: Forgiving the Foreign 1
1. Translation and Telecommunication: Castilian as Lingua Franca 17
2. The Phantasm of Revenge: On Rizal's Fili 36
3. The Call of Death: On Rizal's Noli
4. The Colonial Uncanny: The Foreign Lodged in the Vernacular 96
5. Making the Vernacular Foreign: Tagalog as Castilian 119
6. Pity, Recognition, and the Risks of Literature in Balagtas 132
7. "Freedom = Death": Conjurings, Secrecy, Revolution 159
Afterword: Ghostly Voices: Kalayaan's Address 183
Notes 191
Works Cited 213
Index 223

Vicente L. Rafael is Professor of History at the University of Washington. He is the author of White Love and Other Events in Filipino History and Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule, both also published by Duke University Press.