Looking through the sweetheart, flamboyant and insane: Rereading rizal's critique of the 19th century filipina in noli me tangere

Abstract

This paper aims to show how Jose Rizal, in the Noli Me Tangere, portrayed the Filipina's struggle for an identity and role in nation building at the height of the resistance against the Spanish colonizers and the global clamor for enlightenment. Through character analysis, three iconic women characters in Noli Me Tangere-Maria Clara, Dona Victorina de Espadana, and Sisa-I critically expose images of female subjugation and/or voluntary passivity, which must explain Rizal's persuasions as he described how a Filipina should see herself as stated in his "Letter to the Women of Malolos. " In this historical and critical hermeneutic, we shall see Rizal's discourse as product of his dialogue with the Western Enlightenment thinkers but is still deeply embedded in the Filipino value-system.