In Motherless Tongues Vicente L. Rafael examines the vexed relationship between language and history as seen through the work of translation in the context of empire, revolution, and academic scholarship in the Philippines, the United States, and beyond.

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction. The Aporia of Translation  1

Part I. Vernacularizing the Political

1. Welcoming What Comes: Translating Sovereignty in the Revolutionary Philippines  21

2. Wars of Translation: American English, Colonial Schooling,and Tagalog Slang  43

3. The Cell Phone and the Crowd: Messianic Politics in the EDSA II Uprising  70

Part II. Weaponizing Babel

4. Translation, American English, and the National Insecurities of Empire  99

5. Targeting Translation: Counterinsurgency and the Weaponization of Language  120

Part III. Translating Lives

6. The Accidents of Area Studies: Benedict Anderson and Arjun Appadurai  149

7. Contracting Nostalgia: On Renato Rosaldo  162

8. Language, History, and Autobiograhy: Becoming Reynaldo Ileto  173

9. Interview: Translation Speaks with Vicente Rafael  189

Notes  203

Bibliography  233

Index  247