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Many of these initiatives were Many of these 4 Marking a Turn: a Marking However one will explain it, the fact However Professor Resil B. Mojares Professor Resil 3 The paradoxis that, beyond its of this period 2 A great deal has been written on how the Marcoses - dark years of the dicta political stereotyping as “the intellectually torship,” it is in fact one of the most cite can One history. in Philippine periods dynamic unprece- several reasons for this: that the largely of martial dented experience years of living rule (“the both in fantasy and reality) was not dangerously,” that as well; fertilizing but mentally stultifying just president Marcos was our most intellectually-minded and that could not but invite an intellectual response; that Marcos authoritarianism was not, after all, the hegemonic kind that existed, for instance, in Central European states; or that are equipped with at creating reserve of survival skills, adept a large conditions of restriction under of autonomy spaces and repression. linked to the anti-Marcos opposition but many anti-Marcos opposition but many linked to the is that the long 1970s was, creative terms, truly an in “interesting” time. of culture and mystifying power the sought to exploit the arts through patronage, state institutions, and other instrumentalities. But the most important initia- circuits. As state outside undertaken were tives formation in of his own intellectual narrates Rafael in the late martial-law period, disaffection and fueled a great deal of excitement and cre- risk-taking and cinema, as well ativity in popular music, theater, as the informal sites and networks of artistic and intellectual exchange. political crisisfor instance, by the vio- was marked, time as the lent elections of 1969, regarded at the history. most degraded and corrupt in Philippine Rafael calls this period “the long 1970s,” Vicente by 1965 to from years, Marcos the means he which 1986. of Philippine Scholarship of Philippine Thoughts on a Generation a Generation on Thoughts

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Thinking about Nic Tiongson reminded me that that me reminded Nic Tiongson about Thinking f there is the sense that Philippine studies is taking is the f there a “turn,” we have to ask where it has been before asking where it is going. The question of where Filipi- few months no scholars have been came to me a ago when I was asked to write the introduction to a scholar, festschrift for the country’s leading theater (Chua et al. forthcoming). This re- Nicanor Tiongson minded me that we are indeed in a time of com- the with back, sometime started This memorations. In 1970s , widespread disillusion with the and economic of a deepening context in the state Conjunctures in Recent Philippine History Nic and I belong to the same generation (the men men (the generation same the to belong I and Nic and women who set out to be writers and scholars at 1960s), and that it is a generation of the end the (if can rightly we while that And a close. to coming immodestly) claim that it has been one of the most country’s in the generations and productive vibrant it isquite clear what its not work intellectual history, has amounted to (I am thinking here of the social sciences and the humanities although I imagine this gained, What has been extended). claim can be And what do missed, left unclarified or unfulfilled? these suggest of directions, new or renewed, that Philippine scholarship can or should take? and Fr. John Schumacher, and it has ominously and it has ominously John Schumacher, and Fr. heightened, with similar tributes to the contributions of scholars Soledad Reyes and Isagani like Cruz. Ateneo de Manila had commemorative And last year, events on the works of Reynaldo Ileto and Vicente Rafael. festschrifts for William Henry Scott, Doreen Fernandez, festschrifts for William Henry Scott, Doreen Fernandez, I On the These These 7 8 These studies, it can be said, helped create 9 This was the case with studies in local history This was the case with studies in local history In their overview of Philippine studies, Miralao In their overview and But whether “significantly new,” I am not too sure. But whether “significantly new,” themes can be viewed as expressions of the much themes can be viewed as expressions of the much use that I of “nationalism”––a word current broader here as shorthand for what is in fact a variously con- ceived and contested idea, as well as the heated context in which it played out in the Philippines. The of engine the is nationalism while is that paradox that long ‘70s,” it is also one scholarship of “the scholarship of the the and constrained biased period. and by the popular- regional literatures. Stimulated democratic sentiments of the 1970s and subsequent efforts at decentralization after 1986, these studies were driven by the hope of redefining the nation as and broadly people-centered, inclusive, more one based. other hand, the PSSC reports of the 1990s, simply by the sheer density of their content, clearly indicate from the that the field’s center of gravity has shifted in (assuming that it was ever Philippines to the US the US in the first place). Impact on Scholarship or theater, Unlike popular forms like cinema and studies, such types of intellectual work as policy action-oriented research, journalism, or polemical writings, scholarship the impact of much is rarely direct and dramatic, and much more difficult to trace and assess. move- Bautista cite Marxism and the “indigenous science ment” as the two major themes of social scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s (and this can well be said of the humanities as well). because of the particular because of circumstances their pro- of telling. nevertheless are differences the duction, yet guide as primarily produced assessments, NIU The the field, are almost researchers in for American Americans and mostly cover entirely written by English-language works. the On the other hand, PSSC in volumes, addressed primarily to Filipinos national of celebrating context self-conscious the by Filipinos. The NIU reports scholarship, are done of the 1970s of an American- leave the impression list, for instance, of 47 “major” dominated field. In a 1955 between historiography Philippine in works 20 by Americans, by authored and 1976, 23 were Filipinos, 20 the Of 1 Australian. and 3 Spaniards, And dissertations. US were eight cited, works Filipino published in the US. 31 of the 47 works were a more inclusive awareness of the country’s regional of the or subnational units, and an understanding national literature and history geographically wider and empirically thicker. - 5 Separated by some 20 years, the Separated by some 20 years, the 6 One can, for instance, compare two state-of-the- compare One can, for instance, By the late 1980s, after “People Power,” the mood Power,” By the late 1980s, after “People In the above context, as the sociologists Virginia Still, it can be said that Filipino scholarship has field assessments of Philippine studies, one done in the 1970s by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Northern Illinois in University (NIU) the US and the Science Social Philippine the 1990s by in the other Council (PSSC). (Rafael says) and contin- simply “conjunctural were in ambivalent well as “counter-cultural,” gent,” as the Marcos that of to authority whether their relation In any case, Party. or the Communist government they nurtured and preserved that space of creativity is largely unacknowledged and autonomy that (because of the focus on the “event” of the Benigno Aquino assassination) for cultural groundwork as the uprising. Power” the 1986 “People became less polarized and more pluralist. There was the so- with excitement of intellectual deal a great democratic space,” and much called “opening up of of Corazon government new the interest in providing “civil society” Aquino and a newly-self-conscious for the with the academic and intellectual support But the transition to democracy. post-authoritarian situation also became more diffuse and fragmented, theories and the with the flourishing Western of new diversification of scholarship, with the interest (often migration, as gender, in such fields sector-bound) development aid-driven foreign and in particular studies. Miralao and Cynthia Bautista see it, Philippine stud- ies moved “from polarization to pluralism and con- vergence.” Greater tolerance and dialogue among different perspectives tempered the rabid ideological and factional partisanships of the 1970s, and there has been a convergence of methodologies as schol- that cut across discourses integrative ars attempt disciplines. This assessment is rather generous facts as well: can point to countervailing one since or subject- much scholarship remains discipline- bound, with little conversation across disciplines; by fresh theo- much empirical research, unenergized retical perspectives, remains dreary and unimagina studies are frequently tive; and theoretically-smart empirically thin (subsisting, like orchids, air rather on than grown out of the rich loam of local data and knowledge). in the into its own. The past half-century truly come expansion and diversi- Philippines has witnessed the fication of academic disciplines, in the vol- advances ume, range, and quality of research and publishing; the emergence of academic professional societies and research institutions, and by implication a larger, more diverse community of scholars and academics. NIU and PSSC reports are not quite comparable NIU and PSSC reports are not quite comparable

NEWSLETTER No. 70 006 Center for Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto University 007 - Such thinking need not mean we now Such thinking need not mean we now 11 - tremen the fully appreciate I As a “home scholar,” is a measure of bad faith in urging a country There wards. While this can be understood as a necessary mode of concentrating and building up local intellec- tual resources, it has to be done as well in vital con- of the world. versation with the rest Approach” a More Expansive “Toward have been asked “to think ourselves beyond the We nation.” of global/local, center/periphery, or inside/outside, or inside/outside, center/periphery, of global/local, with- at the same time both in view to hold need we their distinctness out blurring or subordinating one to If studies of local histories, local literatures, the other. and mentalities have reached a theoretical native such studies––in an intellec- impasse, it is because tended to draw tual form of “protectionism”––have instead of building out circles around themselves begin to do transnational or post-national studies. studies. begin to do transnational or post-national fromMy own proposal is quite modest and proceeds can begin accomplished.We been what has already “world” within by deepening our appreciation for the - connec linkages, the investigating by “nation,” the tions, that extend beyond the and correspondences by of the nation and its localities, territorial borders stud- undertaking more comparative and multi-site of “world” ies, or by simply making greater use nation and scholarship in better understanding the greaterits localities. This crucially includes cultivating interest in studies on the Philippines in done Japan, and other Spain, the United States (unavoidably), augment or places, not only for how these studies affirm what we know about ourselves but, more the particu- because these studies––with importantly, lar advantages do things of their location––can we cannot do and see what we do not quite see. approach to dous constraints in a more expansive Philippine studies (constraints that include opportu- or even nities to do research outside one’s locality, simple access to information resources). That is why when we speak of accumulating and building intel- lectual resources, we mean not just the mental but the material as well––in terms of the infrastructure for education and scholarship, like research support institutions, publishing houses, and a large and active community of readers, scholars, and writers. that has been colonized by foreign powers to “glo- balize,” since by definition a nation is colonized glo- the imperative lies in whether it is balized. Ultimately, being globalized in ways that people are critically and in terms that they can effectively nego- aware of, tiate with or command. - - - -

10 post, but as part and Related to the privileging of the “nation” is the “nation” is the of the privileging to the Related how In today’s more open, pluralist environment, Indeed, there is quite nothing like “progress”––with My The dilemma is not a case of one or the other. While there are exemplary exceptions, much of the the of much exceptions, exemplary are there While studies has remained and literary work in historical few cross-regional, There are very distinctly “local.” direct, little studies, integrative and cross-national, critical engagement with established conceptions of of units, and a low level the “nation” or its constituent (as area this in work much that such theorization, does not significantly recon- some have complained) dominant national narratives. figure the familiar, One of the tendencies of nationalism is the readiness readiness is the of nationalism tendencies of the One to take the nation as a given and thus address one- self to simply inscribing into the received narrative critically without excluded the and marginalized the logic of this interrogating or revising the form and Another is narrative (as Reynaldo Ileto has argued). the tendency to essentialize the nation––whether it as to define struggle or not––in the strategically discourses something other than what dominant (whether that of the elite, the authoritarian state, or have claimed it to be. Thus, there is the the “West”) or gloss over internal predisposition to short-circuit social divisions and disjunctures to claim the author Nationalism and Certain Tendencies Tendencies Nationalism and Certain organic, and encompassing. ity of what is unitary, While the bias in favor of privileging of the “popular.” the marginal was a necessary one, and the excluded bias for cer it also occasioned gaps in research, a history and tain research problems (particularly in and anthropology) that left subjects of privilege power relatively unexamined. extent what of “nation”? To idea is the compelling has this obsession been overtaken by the realities of the country’s prospects for an economic break through, the pressure of globalizing forces that are and struc- territoriality, redefining ideas of identity, tures of economic and political power? and cosmopolitanism it brings–– the confidence more conducive to an “internationalizing” scholar old, country still finds itself mired in the the ship. Yet, rule the and inequality, tenacious realities of poverty corruption, and large-scale elites, of predatory chronic natural and man-made disasters. And if is quite nothing like progress internationalizes, there - of oppres feelings the and inequality––with poverty they fos- and vulnerability sion, dependence, danger, conducive for the appeals of nationalism. ter––more own sense is that “nationalizing” and “internationaliz- ing” forces in the intellectual field need not be viewed as antithetical or a case of pre of a simultaneous process. Instead of dichotomies - and and Conceived in

, 1–97. , 344–80, 381–409. The Philippine Social Sci- , ed. V. N. Sugbo (Manila: , ed. V. Philippine Studies: History, Philippine Studies: History, Illumined Terrain: Sites and The Illumined Terrain: (Quezon City: Index, 1984), 103– Philippine Social History: Global Trade (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Press, of Minnesota University (Minneapolis: Revaluation: Essays on Philippine Literature, Revaluation: Essays on Philippine Literature, (DeKalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, North- for Southeast Asian (DeKalb: Center (Quezon City: Philippine Social Science Council, Social Science Council, (Quezon City: Philippine Archipelago,” Globalization Globalization 1996), 158; Umut Ozkarimli, Contemporary Debates on Palgrave York: Engagement (New A Critical Nationalism: Macmillan, 2005), 195–205. ment and Promise, 1955–1976,” Mass Media and Bibliography Sociology, Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, 1978); 1978); University, Illinois Northern Asian Studies, Southeast PoliticalPhilippine Studies: and Lin- Economics, Science, guistics papers collect volumes 1981). These University, Illinois ern presented at the 1973 Association for Asian Confer Studies and on Asian Affairs, Conference 1977 Midwest ence, the the 1980 on the Philippines at First International Conference See Michigan University. Western A. Miralao (Quezon Nation, ed. V. ences in the Life of the Council, City: Philippine Social Science 1999). City Congress in Quezon National Social Science the Fourth of Philip- Centennial of the in 1998, celebration of the as part disci- of the view This is a condensed Independence. pine plines surveyed in Philippine Encyclopedia Sci- of the Social ences 1993), 5 vols. and Cynthia ance: Reflections at the Close of the Century,” Philippines: Rose B. Bautista, “The Social Sciences in the Philippine Reflections on Developments and Prospects,” Social Sciences in the Life of the Nation studies aimed to accomplish, see John A. Larkin, “The Journal Place of Local History in Philippine Historiography,” of Southeast Asian History, 8: 2 (September 1967), 317, and of Vernacular Bienvenido Lumbera, “The Rugged Terrain Literature,” Cinema & Popular Culture on statement agenda-setting an essay, 115. Lumbera’s vernacular literary studies, at the was delivered as a lecture - pub and first in 1976 City, Cebu Carlos, of San University see studies, literary of regional in 1977. In the case lished of Literary The State Resil B. Mojares, “The Rugged Terrain: Research in the Philippines,” Dimensions of Philippine Literature 6–14. National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 1998), , ed. A. W. McCoy and E. C. de Jesus , ed. A. W. Local Transformations (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1982), calls for com- McCoy local history, 1–18. Looking beyond parative work within and beyond Southeast Asia as well as studies that are nor necessarily tied to the local/national axis. This has not quite happened. Alfred W. McCoy, “Introduction: The Social History of an of an Social History The “Introduction: McCoy, W. Alfred Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of of Dimensions Large: Cultural at Appadurai, Modernity Arjun For early statements for what local historical and literary early statements historical and literary for what local For Bruce Cruikshank, “Philippine Historiography: Accomplish- Bruce Cruikshank, “Philippine Virginia A. Miralao, “The Philippine Social Sciences in the Bal- 10 11 7 8 9 Phil- (Que- and the Long and the Long

. , 58: 1–2 (2010); , 58: 1–2 (2010); (DeKalb: Center for (DeKalb: Center Philippine Studies: History, Philippine History, Studies: , 61: 4 (2013), 477–94. (Quezon City: Office of Research and City: Office (Quezon and Department of History and of History and and Department Philippine Studies (DeKalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, (DeKalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Philippine Studies 1970s,” Doreen G. Fernandez Publications, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University, ed., Reflections Philippine on Culture Peralta, 2000); Jesus T. and History: Festschrift of William in Honor Henry Scott zon City: Ateneo de Manila zon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2001); Eduardo Heart the Jose Calasanz et al., eds., Thought the Harder, A FestschriftKeener: City: Reyes (Quezon S. Soledad for Publications, and of Research Office Ateneo Schools, Loyola 2008); David Jonathan Bayot, ed., de Manila University, Manila: (Metro and Friends Cruz R. Isagani Inter/Sections: John N. in Honor of Fr. Anvil Publishing, 2010); “Festschrift Philippine Studies J.,” S. Schumacher, L.[Symposium on Vicente Rafael’s Contracting Colonialism of its publication], year twenty-fifth in celebration of the 4, 2013, ippine Studies, 61: 4 (2013), 477–520. On February “Historiography and Nation since Pasyon: and Revolution Reynaldo Ileto” was held at Conference in Honor of Prof. under the sponsorship of Ateneo de Manila University, Ateneo’s University’s Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto Norhern Illinois University, 1974); Norhern Illinois University, Mass Media and Bibliography Sociology, Psychology and Research Knowledge Present and Literature: Trends ence Association (1962), Philippine Economic Society Society Economic Philippine (1962), Association ence Association of the Philippines (1963), (1962), Psychological Philippine Sociological Society (1963), Linguistics Society of Tao the Philippines (1969), and Ugnayang Pang-Agham (Anthropological Association of the Philippines) (1977). In 1968, the Philippine Social Science Council was established science social country’s of the body as a coordinating associations. characteristics of the developments in what he calls “the characteristics of the developments in what he calls “the long 1970s” (1965–1986): they were conjunctural and con- “modernizing” (in the sense of tingent; “counter-cultural”; consciously seeking to reinvent traditions); “obsessed with the collection and archiving of artifacts of all sorts”; and as nationalism” of “cosmopolitan a kind by characterized well as “nationalist cosmopolitanism.” east Asia Regional Advisory Panel (of which I was a mem- (of which I was east Asia Regional Advisory Panel Lumpur, ber) organized roundtables in Bandung and Kuala - Thai Malaysia, Indonesia, from scholars selected which in in a land, and the Philippines narrated how their involvement revolutionary movement influenced their intellectual careers. the serious, What was striking was the difference between Malaysian, tense, and inhibited presentations of the Thai, Indonesian participants, and the and (to a lesser extent) narrations of the Fili- candid but funny and self-deprecatory pinos. Not that the Filipinos’ “confessions” were devoid of (apart from the were they honest, or less emotion “deep” contextual differences in the experiences narrated) simply more skilled in the arts of distancing and detachment. Vicente L. Rafael, “Contracting Colonialism See Jonathan Chua, ed., Feasts and Feats: Festschrift for Philippine Studies: Geography, Archaeology, Archaeology, Hart, ed., Philippine Studies: Geography, Donn V. This is illustrated in the founding of the Philippine Political Sci- This is illustrated in the founding of the Philippine Political Rafael (Contracting Colonialism and the Long 1970s) cites five In 2000–01, Social Science Research Council’s the US South-

6 5 4 2 3 1 Notes was that paper a keynote from adapted is This article in Conference at the Philippine Studies presented Center forJapan (PSCJ), Southeast Asian Studies, 28 – March 1 February Japan, Kyoto, University, Kyoto 2014.

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