Page 141 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

124 Jolyon Mitchell

as the mythic structure of narratives on television (1981: 181). My aim is to
go beyond the investigation of the apparently closed world of the story to
consider the different ways in which narratives take on a life of their own
and are shaped through four recurrent processes: repetition, amplification,
elaboration, and reverberation.
To consider these processes in greater detail in this chapter, I analyze
the many different kinds of narratives that have clustered around Rizal’s
life and death. Narratives are rarely static, constantly moving, circulating,
and adapting. They invariably take on a life of their own, reappearing in
unexpected places. The narratives connected with Rizal are a mere drop in
the never-ending “sea of stories” (Rushdie 1991). As we shall see, Rizal’s
story morphs into many different forms and is expressed through a range
of materials. There are, in the words of Roland Barthes, “numberless”
narratives appearing in “infinite forms” throughout human history (Barthes
1989a: 89). I choose this particular narrative rather than the billions of other
stories I could have selected partly because of my own recent experience.
My story briefly intersected with traces of Rizal’s far more famous narrative.
I found myself literally following in his footsteps from his small prison cell
in Fort Santiago, Manila. There are brass footprints imprinted into the
road leading out from the fort of his final incarceration toward the place
where he was shot. A small group of us followed this route, walking through
the old walled city, intramuros, passing many cars, crammed minibuses,
and horse-drawn carriages touting for tourists to the actual spot of his
execution. Being there helped bring this narrative to life in surprising ways,
but so also did engaging with the numerous accounts of his life and death
alongside reading Rizal’s own writing. Immersing myself in the stories that
have attached themselves like barnacles to his death and life has highlighted
some of the ways in which narratives can function. The fact that his death
was almost immediately framed as a martyrdom with cultural, political, and
religious significance makes this a valuable example for those reflecting on
the interactions between media, religion, and culture.

Repetition of narratives

Using the narratives connected with Rizal as a central case study, my aim is to
explore the creation, production, and reception of narratives. More precisely,
I analyze how these narratives repeat, amplify, elaborate, and reverberate in
a wide range of settings. This example will be a useful reminder of how
narratives evolve in countless ways: a process that can be accelerated by
what Michel de Certeau describes as the “interminable recitation of stories”
(de Certeau 1984: 186). Since his execution, stories about Rizal have been
regularly recited in the Philippines and beyond. As I have already suggested,