Ideological State Apparatus: Art & Literature

Art is said to have three functions, namely physical, socio-cultural, and personal. Arts’ physical function states that is created to perform some service. On the other hand, its socio-cultural function depicts relevant political and social conditions present in a community. Lastly, the personal function of art simply seeks for an artist’s self-expression and simulates an aesthetic experience to its audience. Literature also possesses three functions; they are socio-cultural function which aims to represent or to influence, cultural function and ideological function which can be used either as an ideological instrument or as a place where ideologies are exposed. In order for both art and literature to be considered as such, and not a simple craft, it is important for sense and sensibilities to be inherent in them.

It comes to no surprise that Jose Rizal was able to capture the reality of a colonial Philippines through his writings considering his passion for the arts & literature. Rizal was a true Renaissance man who was proficient in sculptures, paintings, sketches, writing novels, poetries, and essays. He was not only a medical physician, but he was also a talented artist. Through his extensive background in the arts, Rizal was able to paint in words, in the form of his novels and essays, the stark truth of the Spanish government’s inequity and incompetence as well as the overly influential frailocracy were eloquently portrayed in most of his written works. Rizal’s unique writing style resembled that of a realism style which was uncommon during his time since most of the literatures present and is in circulation only contained the escapism style reflected in the life and works of religious icons. Indeed, Jose Rizal showed extraordinary writing skill and, not to mention, a lot of guts in writing on the unpleasantries observed in the Philippines during the Spanish reign.

The Spanish colonizers effectively used the arts & literature to subject the Filipino people by generally the indigenous arts as only worthy of being called crafts and not as genuine art. The colonizers reasoned that these works does not measure up to the standards present inside the halls of the European Royal Academies for the Arts. Issues were raised on Rizal’s usage of the Spanish language as his medium for his written works. Critics argued that by choosing Spanish, Rizal cannot be considered a true nationalist since his fellow country, who only comprehends Tagalog, Visaya, and other local dialects, cannot possibly read and understand. In this light, it is important to consider the intended readers Rizal had in mind. Rizal wrote his novels to inform and awaken the insular Spaniards of the true state of governance existing in the Philippines during those times. More importantly, he used Spanish for his work with the knowledge that only under a common language can the Filipino unite and free itself from oppression. (01/04/2011)