Reinventing The Philippines: Images and Literary Representations of the Islands in Late 19th Century Spanish Narratives (1872-1896).

The study of Spanish colonial texts has been traditionally limited to the context of Latin America and conditioned by claims of difference in the Spanish colonial methods and discourses with regard to other European experiences. The distinct character of Spanish imperialism was typically argued to derive from practices of miscegenation and its divergent historical trajectory. The main objective of this study is to provide a theorization of the Spanish colonial discourse about the Philippines during the final years of the Spanish rule, in the last third of the nineteenth century. While other colonial powers were at their zenith in Asia, the Spanish colonial administration underwent significant readjustments at the same time as intellectuals wrote extensively about the nature of Spanish colonialism and its future in Asia. This project will analyse the literary representations of the islands in ten unknown narrative works of eight Spanish authors who travelled and lived in the Philippines. These literary articles and short stories aimed to produce knowledge in Spain about the remote colony, in line with other different political initiatives proposed by the Spanish government. The combination of all these administrative, economic, and social actions pursued a common twofold goal: to strengthen the relations between the metropolis and the colony in order to reinforce the Spanish control of the territory and prevent a possible revolution of the population of the islands – as it had previously occurred in the Latin American colonies-. Thus, in their works, the authors presented their personal experiences and considerations about the islands but offered a convenient image of the territory for the Spanish colonial interests. The research is based on a postcolonial approach, building upon different analysis of European colonial discourses about other colonized territories -mainly English and Spanish discourse about Africa and America-. This study will examine both the representation of the Filipino colonial subjects and the Spanish colonizers and it will be structured in different sections regarding the main topics described in the text: the influence of the environment, traditions and practices, gender issues - representations of masculinity and femininity-, education in the islands, and the role of the Spanish Church. The study of these subjects not only seeks to provide a holistic but detailed picture of the Spanish colonial discourse about the Philippines, but also intends to prove its close connection with the political and economic reforms implemented during this period. Finally, this research also attempts to rescue these unknown writings, which often have gone unnoticed by the critics despite their testimonial, social and literary value. The study of the Spanish colonial discourse about the Philippines in these works will provide a better understanding of the relations between the two nations, in their common colonial past and even during the years to follow.

Keywords:COLONIALISM, PHILIPPINES, SPANISH LITERATURE

Disciplines:Literatures in Spanish, Postcolonial studies

Project type:Collaboration project