Description
Book SynopsisA study of Filipino intellectuals that reevaluates the political uses of colonial Orientalism and anthropology
Trade Review"Rigorously researched and lucidly written, Orientalists, Propagandists, and Ilustrados breaks new ground in the study of the 19th century Philippines. In particular, the book stands out in its careful attention to texts produced by the intellectuals at the center of its story. Importantly, Megan C. Thomas frames—and powerfully defamiliarizes—canonical works and authors by placing them alongside lesser-known texts, a move that is not only recuperative and inclusive, but transformative." —Paul A. Kramer, author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States and the Philippines
"Megan C. Thomas’s attention to the dissonances between writers of the late nineteenth century is as important as her observation of the emergent nationalism that was their legacy." —Rosalind Carmel Morris, Columbia University
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Worldly Colonials: Ilustrado Thought and Historiography
1. Locating Orientalism and the Anthropological Sciences: The Limits of Post-Colonial Critiques
2. The Uses of Ethnology: Thinking Filipino with “Race” and “Civilization”
3. Practicing Folklore: Universal Science, Local Authenticity, and Political Critique
4. Is ‘K’ a Foreign Agent? Philology as Anti-Colonial Politics
5. Lessons in History: The Decline of Spanish Rule, and Revolutionary Strategy
Conclusion: Politics and the Methods of Scholarly Disciplines
Notes
Index
