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In Hispano-Filipino Literate Culture and the Challenge of Modernity, eminent scholars on both sides of the Pacific examine the conundrum of the modern Philippine identity from multiple perspectives, exploring modes of modernity that are rooted in the context of our history and culture. Now in English for the first time, these groundbreaking essays cover the period from the final years of the Spanish colonial era to the first few decades of the twentieth century under a new colonial regime, the United States. It was a time of sweeping changes in society, when the use of Spanish was declining under the linguistic and cultural forces of Americanization, even as Philippine literature in Spanish was flowering into a so-called “golden age.” With analysis of Spanish-language novels, newspapers, popular magazines, political pamphlets, and other writing, this book is an unprecedented exploration of how the country’s intellectuality has been shaped under Hispano-Filipino culture in the form of the written and printed word.

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“Breaking away from the anthological and descriptive tradition of earlier studies, this volume offers in-depth, rigorous analyses that reveal how Filipino literature in Spanish both reflected and shaped social change in the Philippines from 1880 to 1945. With contributions exploring the works of canonical ilustrados, the Filipino press in Spanish, and the cultural dialogues established with other countries, this much-needed volume not only fills a significant scholarly gap, but also invites a reimagining of the landscape of Spanish Asian Studies.”

— Luis Castellví, Laukamp Faculty member—Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, University of Manchester