Revisiting Two Classics
Charting the Mental World of the Oppressed
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6086660 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kee Beng Ooi (0000-0001-7589-860X, Ateneo de Manila University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 47-59 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-31 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0217-9520 • E-ISSN: 1793-2858 |
| Publisher | ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute (PUBLISHER • SG) |
| DOI | 10.1355/sj24-1d |
| OpenAlex | W1528201821 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
It is true that history is largely based on textual accounts of past events. Non-textual material such as archaeological artefacts can speak only through intervention and interpretation from a latter-day agent. But to be sure, it is also the fate of texts to remain relatively silent until a latter-day agent intervenes. And from that point onwards, they go through a transformation that turns them into the raw material of historical description. What this means is that some texts tend to be more popular than others among scholars, owing to the latter’s training, the preferences of his or her peers and superiors, and the individual scholar’s ability to tease significance out of the words he or she studies. The thing Reynaldo Clemena Ileto attempted to do back in the 1970s in his classic was to achieve “a history from below”. Such an ambition is not uncommon as such, and works inspired by that commendable goal usually do succeed in writing the lower classes into the interlinked processes of oppression and resistance, even portraying them as active participants and not as grey and passive shadows fluttering in the background, hoping for salvation
Sociology · History · Music History and Culture · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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