Pre-Spanish Period: Philippine Literature

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Pre-Spanish Period

The Filipinos before the arrival of the Spaniards were basically hunters, fishers, and cultivators. These tribes were groups of highlanders who barely had access of seawater. And because of the presence of rice terraces, only the central mountains of Luzon had well structured livelihood that resulted to a more fixed territory. The lowlanders lived in a kinship headed by a Datu or a chief within a community called Barangay; the most stable economic and political unit of no more than a few hundred individuals. Within that unit, there were three broad classes: the datu and his family and the nobles, the freeholders and the dependents. Under dependents, there were sharecroppers, debt peons and war captives- which the last two levels were considered slaves by the Spanish. There was no consistent religious heirarchy that time, however animism constituted beliefs and ritual practices. The arrival of Islam in Mindanao infuenced the lowlanders and thus changed this pattern. It even reached the far north Datu of Manila. If, however, Spanish arrived strictly for commercial reasons and had stepped in a century later, chances of Islamism would had covered the entire country until today.

Philippine Literature
The variety and abundance of Philippine literature evolved even before the colonial periods. Folk tales, epics, poems and marathon chants existed in most ethnolinguistic groups that were passed on from generations to generations through word of mouth. Tales associated

with the Spanish conquest also took part in the countrys rich cultural heritage. Some of these pre-colonial literary pieces showcased in traditional narratives, speeches and songs are Tigmo in Cebuano, bugtong in Tagalog, patototdon is Bicol and paktakon in Ilongo.Philippine epics and folk tales are varied and filled with magical characters. They are either narratives of mostly mythical objects, persons or certain places, or epics telling supernatural events and bravery of heroes, customs and ideologies of a community.

SPANISH PERIOD (Period of Change)

According to Marias (1974) Philippine Literature in Spanish can be divided into 5 stages of development namely: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Works of Spanish Religious About the Philippines (15931800) Formative Stage (18001873) Nationalist Stage (18731903) The Golden Age (19031966) Modern Works (1966present)

The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language editors. The Spanish conquerors, governing from Mexico for the crown of Spain, establish a strict class system that imposed Roman Catholicism on the native population. Augustinian andFranciscan missionaries, accompanied by Spanish soldiers, soon spread Christianity from island to island. Their mission was implemented the forced relocation of indigenous peoples during this time, as the uprooted natives turned to the foreign, structured religion as the new center of their lives. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples astranslators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos. The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poettranslator Gaspar Aquino de Beln, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.

Period of Enlightenment (Period of awakening towards our freedom)


Historical Background After 300 years of passivity under Spanish rule, the Filipino spirit reawakened when the 3 priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were guillotined without sufficient evidence of guilt. This occurred on the 17 th of February. This was buttressed with the spirit of liberalism when the Philippines opened its doors to world trade and with the coming of a liberal leader in the person of Governor Carlos Maria de la Torre. The Spaniards were unable to suppress the tide of rebellion among the Filipinos. The once religious spirit transformed itself into one of nationalism and the Filipinos demanded changes in the government and in the church.

A. The Propaganda Movement (1872-1896) This movement was spearheaded mostly by the intellectual middle-class like Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar; Graciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Mariano Ponce, Jose Ma. Panganiban, and Pedro Paterno. The objectives of this movement were to seek reforms and changes like the following: 1. To get equal treatment for the Filipinos and the Spaniards under the law. 2. To make the Philippines a colony of Spain. 3. To restore Filipino representation in the Spanish Cortes. 4. To Filipinize the parishes. 5. To give the Filipinos freedom of speech, of the press, assembly and for redress of grievances. people who are in the Propaganda Movement o DR. JOSE P. RIZAL

Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Alonzo y Realonda was born on June 19, 1861 at Calamba, Laguna. His first teacher was his mother Teodora Alonozo. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila, started medicine at UST and finished at the Universidad Central of Madrid. He also studied at the University of Berlin, Leipzig and Heidelberg. He died by musketry in the hands of the Spaniards on December 30, 1896 on charges of sedition and rebellion against the Spaniards. His pen-name was Laong Laan and Dimasalang. His books and writings: 1. NOLI ME TANGERE. This was the novel that gave spirit to the propaganda movement and paved the way to the revolution against Spain. In this book, he courageously exposed the evils in the Spanish-run government in the Philippines. 2. EL FILIBUSTERISMO. This is a sequel to the NOLI. While the NOLI exposed the evils in society, the FILI exposed those in the government and in the church. However, the NOLI has been dubbed the novel of society while that of FILI is that of politics.

3. MI ULTIMO ADIOS (My Last Farewell). This was a poem by Rizal while he was incarcerated at Fort Santiago and is one that can compare favorably with the best in the world. It was only after his death when his name was affixed to the poem.

o MARCELO H. DEL PILAR Marcelo H. del Pilar is popularly known for his pen name of Plaridel, Pupdoh, Piping Dilat and Dolores Manapat. He was born at Cupang, San Nicolas, Bulacan on August 30, 1850.

o GRACIANO LOPEZ JAENA

o EMILIO JACINTO

AMERICAN REGIME (Period of liberasm in Terms of Language)

Philippine literature during the American rule was influenced by two factors, first of which is, education. With the Americans providing free education, many were given the chance to study and English was used as the language of instruction. Unlike the Spanish, the foreigners were willing to teach their language to the Filipinos. Free education served as the stepping stone for others to improve their social status. Early literary works in English showed styles of which is American. It can also be seen that writers who just started learning English cannot fully showcase their talent because of the lack of mastery of the language. The downfall of the Spanish colonialism freed the printing industry from religious censorship. With the printing industry in the hands of patriotic investors, the printing press was used to block the American culture from entering the Philippine lifestyle. Newspapers in our different dialects flourished all over the archipelago. With some newspapers having a space for literary pieces, writers were given the chance to show and prove the true talent of the Filipinos. Some of these newspapers were Muling Pagsilang (1903, Tagalog), Ang Kaluwasan (1902, Cebuano), Makinaugalingon (1913, Ilonggo), and Nueva Era (1908, Ilokano). The best known magazines that capitalized on short stories and poems were Liwayway (1922, Tagalog), Bisaya (1930, Cebuano), Hiligaynon (1934, Ilonggo), and Bannawag (1934, Ilokano). Writers during the American Period drew ideas from the Propaganda Movement and the Revolutionary Movement to encourage the Filipinos to continue to fight against the U.S. Colonialism. The demand for independence was supported by a campaign to make the Americans aware of the Filipino culture. Some writers who use the Spanish language began to shift to the American language for the fact that a larger population can now comprehend the said language. It is a fact that Filipinos during the Spanish period were not given the chance to learn the language, resulting in a very small population of people capable of understanding the literary works. The literary genres that flourished during the American Period were poetry, sarswela, short story, and the novel. Poetry was written in the three languages - Filipino, Spanish, English, and in the different dialects. Some of the known poets during the American period were Maximo Kalaw, Carlos P. Romulo, Maria Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Salvador P. Lopez, Jose Garcia Villa, Carlos Bulosan, and many others. There were three collection of poems

printed namely Filipino Poetry edited by Rodolfo Dato, The English German Anthology of Poets edited by Pablo Laslo, and a pre-war collection by Carlos Bulosan. The balagtasan, named after Francisco F. Balagtas, is a debate in verse, a poetical joust done almost spontaneously between protagonists who debate over the pros and the cons of a certain issue. The first ever balagtasan was held in March 1924 at the Insituto de Mujeres, with Corazon de Jesus and Florentino Collantes as rivals. Jose Corazon de Jesus, known also as Huseng Batute, became the first ever king of the Balagtasan. Short stories in English of early Filipino fictionists are marked with American style. This all changed with the founding of the U. P. Writers Club in 1926 whose aim was to enhance and propagate the "language of Shakespeare." With the publication of Paz Marquez Benitez' "Dead Stars," it was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in English. Many writers followed Benitez like Icasiano Calalang, Arturo Rotor, A. E. Litiatco, Paz Latorena, and Manuel Arguilla started publishing stories manifesting skills in the use of the foreign language and a keen Filipino sensibility. The combination of the foreign language and the culture of a Filipino enabled fictionists to produce great literary works. The public can now relate to the story because the public also experiences what the story has to say and they can now understand the language being used by the writer. Works like "His Native Soil" by Juan C. Laya, "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife" by Manuel Arguilla, and many others depicted the Filipino life in English. The other novelists of this period are Jose Garcia Villa, Francisco Arellana, Fernando Maria Guerrero, Amador Daguio, and Sinai Hamada. With the founding of the Philippine Writers League in 1936, Filipino writers began discussing the value of literature in the society they live in. This move was led by Salvador P. Lopez whose works centered on proletarian literature. It was during the early American period that the sarswela gained popularity. Most of the sarwelas if not all are directed against the American imperialists. The works of Severino Reyes ("Walang Sugat") and Patricio Mariano ("Anak ng Dagat") are equally remarkable sarwelas during the period. Here are the other noted sarswelistas: Aurelio Tolentino, Juan Abad, Juan Matapang Cruz, and Juan Crisostomo Sotto. Among the Ilokano writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena Pecson Crisologo whose Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa is considered to be the Ilokano version of Noli Me Tangere. Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones are the most prominent writers in the Visayas region. Their works depicted love, farm life, and the social life the region is having. The latter stages of the American period continued to produce great poets like Julian Cruz Blamaceda, Florentino Collantes, Pedro Gatmaitan, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Lope K. Santos, Alejandro Abadilla, Teodoro Agoncillo, and Inigo Ed. Regalado. They used a modern style of poetry that is made up of free verse. Liwayway Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute are two fictionist writers that became popular during the American rule. Their works "Uhaw ang Tigang na Lupa" and "Ako'y Isang Tinig" respectively are used as models for fine writing. Both writers use a style of storytelling that uses language through poignant rendition. Teodoro Agoncillo's "25 Pinakamahusay na Maikling Kuwento" included the foremost writers of fiction before World War II.

JAPANESE PERIOD (The darkest age)

During the Japanese occupation, when Tagalog was favored by the Japanese military authority, writing in English was consigned to limbo, since most of the English writers are forced to write in Tagalog or joined in the underground and write English stories based on the battles to serve as propaganda pieces in boosting the morale of the guerrillas. It picked up after the war, however, with a fervor and drive for excellence that continue to this day. Stevan Javellanas "Without Seeing the Dawn" (1947), the first postwar novel in English, was published in the United States. In 1946, the Barangay Writers Project was founded to help publish books in English. Against a background marked by political unrest and government battles with Hukbalahap guerrillas, writers in English in the postwar period honed their sense of craft and techniques. Among the writers who came into their own during this time were, among many others:

T. D. Agcaoili Estrella Alfon Carlos Angeles Francisco Arcellana Gregorio C. Brillantes Carlos Bulosan Linda Ty Casper Gilda Cordero-Fernando Amador Daguio jansen allen abanes Ricaredo Demetillo N. V. M. Gonzalez Sinai C. Hamada Alejandrino Hufana Dominador Ilio Nick Joaquin F. Sionil Jos Virginia Moreno Vicente Rivera Jr. Alejandro R. Roces Bienvenido Santos Abelardo and Tarrosa Subido Edilberto K. Tiempo Kerima Polotan Tuvera Manuel A. Viray Oscar de Zuiga

Fresh from studies in American universities, usually as Fulbright or Rockefeller scholars, a number of these writers introduced New Criticism to the country and applied its tenets in literature classes and writing workshops. In this way were born the Silliman National Writers Workshop.

PERIOD OF REBIRTH (The regaining of freedom)

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