REFLECTING ON VICENTE RAFAEL’S MOTHERLESS TONGUES: THE INCURSIONS OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SELF AND THE APORIA OF TRANSLATION
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Abstract
In reflecting on Filipino historian Vicente Rafael’s book, Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language amid Wars of Translation (2016), this article examines the author’s critique of Filipino nationalism and its pursuit of a national language and culture. It brings to question Rafael’s characterization of nationalism as a monolingual project that rejects the foreign, arguing that such assertion not only presents a reductionist view of Filipino nationalism, but also undermines its value as form of resistance to enduring structures of linguistic and intellectual imperialism. Submitted: 06 Septembet 2025
Submitted: 06 September 2025
Accepted: 04 January 2026
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References
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