Promise of the Foreign

"In the tradition of James Siegel and Benedict Anderson, Vicente L. Rafael has given us a daring book about the ambivalent origins of the nation in the Philippines. It will be loved and emulated by students of nationalism, Southeast Asia, and comparative literary studies everywhere. There is good reason for this, for it is a beautiful book, a book of readings for lovers of literature, a book about literature for the media age. Mostly, however, it is a book about the foreignness in us all: an unassailable refutation of nationalist ideologies of purity."--Rosalind C. Morris, author of "In the Place of Origins: Modernity and Its Mediums in Northern Thailand"

Vicente L. Rafael is a professor of history at the University of Washington.