Decolonising Transculturally via José Rizal’s Life & Legacy as Motif

Abstract

While José Rizal was not a separatist, he prompted the development for the Philippine Revolution from colonial Spain. His life and legacy are motifs for a movement away from colonial mentalities, which are evidenced in his writings, particularly his novels. This thesis encourages decolonisation as a praxis, by advocating plurilingualism and plurilingual literatures. By juxtaposing Rizal’s life and legacy with theories from (decolonial) thinkers, we may look for a decolonised future beyond nation-ness, nationalism, and sovereignty to create a personal and collective consciousness through enlightenment and empathy—a pluriversal humanity where love is the main cause; the heart as the forerunner for a mental revolution. We engage with creative resistance for plurality from Mikhail Bakhtin and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘polyphony’ or ‘dialogism’ then delve into Jacques Derrida’s ‘Deconstruction of Language’ and his critiques on Emmanuel Levinas; Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation then Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ‘Politics of Language’, in effect inverting canonical comprehensions of colonialism to reinscribe the linguistically, culturally and discursively marginalised. Imagining the nation as an evolving community of language and culture, this thesis moves normative colonial Western hegemony that occupies the front and centre of thinking and practise through local self-determination while emphasising global decoloniality. This may be achieved primarily through linguistic and transcultural transformation and translation, i.e., plurilingualism. Going beyond our hegemonic monolingual ideologies refracts our consciousness by dislodging the sense of entitlement held by dominant groups and languages. This thesis and poetry collections help through enlightenment of Rizal’s polyglot consciousness—his life and legacy, and draws attention for Australians and regions of the world that remain oppressed where colonial subjugation are radically undermining ways of being, thinking, and relating.