Page 152 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

Narrative 135

continuing to do something similar to the Rizal story, adding new materials
onto or between the original stories. This is a dynamic, rapid, and ever-
changing process.
The case study of Rizal provides a valuable insight into the ways in which
narrative can work. Narratives do not remain still and are never owned
by only one individual, community, or institution. They are iterated and
amplified in many different forms for numerous ends. I suggested that there
are times when amplification can both bring a narrative close to audiences
and yet distance them from the original story. Narratives are also creatively
elaborated on, becoming sites of devotion, celebration, commemoration,
persuasion, and contest. Narratives are transformed as they are adapted or
translated into a new media. The 1961 cinematic version of Noli represents
a different kind of narrative from the original text penned by Rizal and
published in 1887. Finally, the dramatic reenactment of narratives contributes
to the ways in which stories reverberate across distinct historical, cultural, and
religious settings. Nevertheless, in the midst of this sea of stories, the words
from Rizal’s account have a habit of resurfacing. However rich and thought-
provoking his surviving words and stories are, when brought together, even
these are incomplete, a collection of fragments and narrative strands that
have continued to be constructed long after his execution. Knowing some of
the many ways in which Rizal’s story is repeated, amplified, and elaborated
not only sheds light on how narratives work but facilitates some of Rizal’s
original words to reverberate across generations and cultures: “Nobody can
say how he [or she] will die. But everybody must decide how and for what
he [or she] shall live.”

Notes

1 See David Morgan’s discussion of memory and recognition in the experience of
popular religious imagery (Morgan 1998: 34–43).
2 See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjE7zEfT1N8. For another example,
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BL8oS19PDo
3 (http://www.joserizal.ph/in01.html)