approaching the world.
Two World Wars
Modernism
The Modernist Period in English
Literature occupied the years from
shortly after the beginning of the
twentieth century through roughly 1965.
In broad terms, the period was marked
by sudden and unexpected breaks with
traditional ways of viewing and
interacting with the world.
Experimentation and individualism
became virtues, where in the past they
were often heartily discouraged.
Modernism was set in motion, in one
sense, through a series of cultural
shocks. The first of these great shocks
was the Great War, which ravaged
Europe from 1914 through 1918, known
now as World War One. At the time, this
“War to End All Wars” was looked upon
with such ghastly horror that many
people simply could not imagine what
the world seemed to be plunging
towards. The first hints of that particular
way of thinking called Modernism
stretch back into the nineteenth century.
As literary periods go, Modernism
displays a relatively strong sense of
cohesion and similarity across genres
and locales. Furthermore, writers who
adopted the Modern point of view often
did so quite deliberately and self-
consciously. Indeed, a central
preoccupation of Modernism is with the
inner self and consciousness. In
contrast to the Romantic world view, the
Modernist cares rather little for Nature,
Being, or the overarching structures of
history. Instead of progress and growth,
the Modernist intelligentsia sees decay
and a growing alienation of the
individual. The machinery of modern
society is perceived as impersonal,
capitalist, and antagonistic to the artistic
impulse. War most certainly had a great
deal of influence on such ways of
in the span of a generation effectively
shell-shocked all of Western civilization.
In its genesis, the Modernist Period in
English literature was first and foremost
a visceral reaction against the Victorian
culture and aesthetic, which had
prevailed for most of the nineteenth
century. Indeed, a break with traditions
is one of the fundamental constants of
the Modernist stance. Intellectuals and
artists at the turn of the twentieth
century believed the previous
generation’s way of doing things was a
cultural dead end. They could foresee
that world events were spiraling into
unknown territory. The stability and
quietude of Victorian civilization were
rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
The assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria was essentially the
triggering event of the First World War,
a conflict which swept away all
preconceived notions about the nature
of so-called modern warfare.
In the world of art, generally speaking,
Modernism was the beginning of the
distinction between “high” art and “low”
art. The educational reforms of the
Victorian Age had led to a rapid
increase in literacy rates, and therefore
a greater demand for literature or all
sorts. A popular press quickly developed
to supply that demand. The
sophisticated literati looked upon this
new popular literature with scorn.
Writers who refused to bow to the
popular tastes found themselves in a
state of alienation from the mainstream
of society. To some extent, this
alienation fed into the stereotype of the
aloof artist, producing nothing of
commercial value for the market. It’s
worth mentioning that this alienation
worked both ways, as the reading public
by and large turned their backs on many
“elitist” artists. The academic world
became something of a refuge for
disaffected artists, as they could rub
elbows with fellow disenfranchised
intellectuals. Still, the most effective
poets and novelists did manage to make
profound statements that were absorbed
by the whole of society and not just the
writer’s inner circles. In the later years of
the Modernist period, a form of populism
returned to the literary mainstream, as
regionalism and identity politics became
significant influences on the purpose
and direction of artistic endeavor.
The nineteenth century, like the several
centuries before it, was a time of
privilege for wealthy Caucasian males.
Women, minorities, and the poor were
marginalized to the point of utter silence
and inconsequence. The twentieth
century witnessed the beginnings of a
new paradigm between first the sexes,
and later between different cultural
groups. Class distinction remains
arguably the most difficult bridge to
cross in terms of forming a truly
equitable society. Some would argue
that class has become a euphemism for
race, but that’s another discussion. The
point is that as the twentieth century
moved forward, a greater variety of
literary voices won the struggle to be
heard. What had so recently been
inconceivable was steadily becoming a
reality. African-Americans took part in
the Harlem Renaissance, with the likes
of Langston Hughes at the forefront of a
vibrant new idiom in American poetry.
Women like Hilda Doolittle and Amy
Lowell became leaders of the Imagist
movement. None of this is to suggest
that racism and sexism had been
completely left behind in the art world.
Perhaps such blemishes can never be
fully erased, but the strides that were
taken in the twentieth century were
remarkable by any measure.
In Modernist literature, it was the poets
who took fullest advantage of the new
spirit of the times, and stretched the
possibilities of their craft to lengths not
previously imagined. In general, there
was a disdain for most of the literary
production of the last century. The
exceptions to this disdain were the
French Symbolist poets like Charles
Beaudelaire, and the work of Irishman
Gerard Manley Hopkins. The French
Symbolists were admired for the
sophistication of their imagery. In
comparison to much of what was
produced in England and America, the
French were ahead of their time. They
were similarly unafraid to delve into
subject matter that had usually been
taboo for such a refined art form.
Hopkins, for his part, brought a fresh
way to look at rhythm and word usage.
He more or less invented his own poetic
rhythms, just as he coined his own
words for things which had, for him, no
suitable descriptor. Hopkins had no
formal training in poetry, and he never
published in his lifetime. This model –
the self-taught artist-hermit who has no
desire for public adulation – would
become synonymous with the poet in
the modern age. This stereotype
continues unrivaled to this day, despite
the fact that the most accomplished
poets of the Modern period were far
from recluses. Even though alienation
was a nearly universal experience for
Modernist poets, it was impossible to
escape some level of engagement with
the world at large. Even if this
engagement was mediated through the
poetry, the relationship that poets had
with their world was very real, and very
much revealing of the state of things in
the early twentieth century.
Leading up to the First World War,
Imagist poetry was dominating the
scene, and sweeping previous aesthetic
points of view under the rug. The
Imagists, among them Ezra Pound,
sought to boil language down to its
absolute essence. They wanted poetry
to concentrate entirely upon “the thing
itself,” in the words of critic-poet T. E.
Hulme. To achieve that effect required
minimalist language, a lessening of
structural rules and a kind of directness
that Victorian and Romantic poetry
seriously lacked. Dreaminess or
Pastoral poetry were utterly abandoned
in favor of this new, cold, some might
say mechanized poetics. Imagist poetry
was almost always short, unrhymed,
and noticeably sparse in terms of
adjectives and adverbs. At some points,
the line between poetry and natural
language became blurred. This was a
sharp departure from the ornamental,
verbose style of the Victorian era. Gone
also were the preoccupations with
beauty and nature. Potential subjects for
poetry were now limitless, and poets
took full advantage of this new freedom.
No Modernist poet has garnered more
praise and attention than Thomas
Stearns Eliot. Born in Missouri, T. S.
Eliot would eventually settle in England,
where he would produce some of the
greatest poetry and criticism of the last
century. Eliot picked up where the
Imagists left off, while adding some of
his own peculiar aesthetics to the mix.
His principal contribution to twentieth
century verse was a return to highly
intellectual, allusive poetry. He looked
backwards for inspiration, but he was
not nostalgic or romantic about the past.
Eliot’s productions were entirely in the
modern style, even if his blueprints were
seventeenth century metaphysical
poets. One of the distinguishing
characteristics of Eliot’s work is the
manner in which he seamlessly moves
from very high, formal verse into a more
conversational and easy style. Yet even
when his poetic voice sounds very
colloquial, there is a current underneath,
which hides secondary meanings. It is
this layering of meanings and
contrasting of styles that mark Modernist
poetry in general and T. S. Eliot in
particular. It is no overstatement to say
that Eliot was the pioneer of the ironic
mode in poetry; that is, deceptive
appearances hiding difficult truths.
In American Literature, the group of
writers and thinkers known as the Lost
Generation has become synonymous
with Modernism. In the wake of the First
World War, several American artists
chose to live abroad as they pursued
their creative impulses. These included
the intellectual Gertrude Stein, the
novelists Ernest Hemingway and F.
Scott Fitzgerald, and the painter Waldo
Pierce, among others. The term itself
refers to the spiritual and existential
hangover left by four years of
unimaginably destructive warfare. The
artists of the Lost Generation struggled
to find some meaning in the world in the
wake of chaos. As with much of
Modernist literature, this was achieved
by turning the mind’s eye inward and
attempting to record the workings of
consciousness. For Hemingway, this
meant the abandonment of all
ornamental language. His novels are
famous for their extremely spare, blunt,
simple sentences and emotions that
play out right on the surface of things.
There is an irony to this bluntness,
however, as his characters often have
hidden agendas, hidden sometimes
even from themselves, which serve to
guide their actions. The Lost Gene
ration, like other “High Modernists,”
gave up on the idea that anything was
truly knowable. All truth became relative,
conditional, and in flux. The War
demonstrated that no guiding spirit rules
the events of the world, and that
absolute destruction was kept in check
by only the tiniest of margins.
The novel was by no means immune
from the self-conscious, reflective
impulses of the new century. Modernism
introduced a new kind of narration to the
novel, one that would fundamentally
change the entire essence of novel
writing. The “unreliable” narrator
supplanted the omniscient, trustworthy
narrator of preceding centuries, and
readers were forced to question even
the most basic assumptions about how
the novel should operate. James
Joyce’s Ulysses is the prime example of
a novel whose events are really the
happenings of the mind, the goal of
which is to translate as well as possible
the strange pathways of human
consciousness. A whole new
perspective came into being known as
“stream of consciousness.” Rather than
looking out into the world, the great
novelists of the early twentieth century
surveyed the inner space of the human
mind. At the same time, the
psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund
Freud had come into mainstream
acceptance. These two forces worked
together to alter people’s basic
understanding of what constituted truth
and reality.
Experimentation with genre and form
was yet another defining characteristic
of Modernist literature. Perhaps the
most representative example of this
experimental mode is T. S. Eliot’s long
poem The Waste Land. Literary critics
often single out The Waste Land as the
definitive sample of Modernist literature.
In it, one is confronted by biblical-
sounding verse forms, quasi-
conversational interludes, dense and
frequent references which frustrate even
the most well-read readers, and
sections that resemble prose more than
poetry. At the same time, Eliot fully
displays all the conventions which one
expects in Modernist literature. There is
the occupation with self and inwardness,
the loss of traditional structures to
buttress the ego against shocking
realities, and a fluid nature to truth and
knowledge.
The cynicism and alienation of the first
flowering of Modernist literature could
not persist. By mid-century, indeed by
the Second World War, there was
already a strong reaction against the
pretentions of the Moderns. Artists of
this newer generation pursued a more
democratic, pluralistic mode for poetry
and the novel. There was optimism for
the first time in a long time.
Commercialism, publicity, and the
popular audience were finally embraced,
not shunned. Alienation became boring.
True, the influence of Modernist
literature continues to be quite
astonishing. The Modern poet-critics
changed the way people think about
artists and creative pursuits. The
Modern novelists changed the way
many people perceive truth and reality.
These changes are indeed profound,
and cannot easily be replaced by new
schemas.
This article is copyrighted © 2011 by
Jalic Inc. Do not reprint it without
permission. Written by Josh Rahn. Josh
holds a Masters degree in English
Literature from Morehead State
University, and a Masters degree in
Library Science from the University of o From Chaucer to Spenser
Kentucky. 1400-1599
o The Age of Shakespeare
Major Modernist Writers
1564-1616
o The Age of Milton 1608-
 Bishop, Elizabeth (1911-1979) 1674
 Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924)
o From the Restoration to
 Doolittle, Hilda (1886-1961)
the Death of Pope 1660-
 Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-
1744
1965)
o The Death of Pope to the
 Faulkner, William (1897-1962)
French Revolution 1744-
 Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896-1940)
1789
 Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961)
o The French Revolution to
 Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
the Death of Scott 1789-
 James, Henry (1843-1916)
1832
 Lawrence, D. H. (1885-1930)
o From the Death of Scott to
 Lowell, Amy (1874-1925)
the Present Time 1832-
 Pound, Ezra (1885-1972)
1893
 Shaw, George Bernard (1856-
o Appendix
1950)
 Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955)
 Williams, Tennessee (1882-1941)
 Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941)
 American Literature History
 Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939)
o Preface
Periods & History Home o The Colonial Period 1607-
1765
 Literary Periods o The Revolutionary Period
1765-1815
o Renaissance Literature
o The Era of National
o The Enlightenment
Expansion 1815-1837
o Romanticism
o The Concord Writers
o Transcendentalism
1837-1861
o Victorian Literature
o The Cambridge Scholars
o Realism
1837-1861
o Naturalism
o Literature in the Cities
o Modernism
1837-1861
o Bloomsbury Group
o Literature Since 1861
o Existentialism
o Appendix
o Beat Generation

 English Literature History

o From the Conquest to
Chaucer 1066-1400
 The Literary Forms in Philippine
Literature
by: Christine F. Godinez-Ortega
The diversity and richness of
Philippine literature evolved side by side
with the country's history. This can best
be appreciated in the context of the
country's pre-colonial cultural traditions
and the socio-political histories of its
colonial and contemporary
traditions.
The average Filipino's unfamiliarity
with his indigenous literature was largely
due to what has been impressed upon
him: that his country was "discovered"
and, hence, Philippine "history" started
only in 1521.
So successful were the efforts of
colonialists to blot out the memory of the
country's largely oral past that present-
day Filipino writers, artists and
journalists are trying to correct this
inequity by recognizing the country's
wealth of ethnic traditions and
disseminating them in schools and in
the mass media.
The rousings of nationalistic pride in
the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring
about this change of attitude among a
new breed of Filipinos concerned about
the "Filipino identity."
Pre-Colonial Times
Owing to the works of our own
archaeologists, ethnologists and
anthropologists, we are able to know
more and better judge information about
our pre-colonial times set against a bulk
of material about early Filipinos as
recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic
and other chroniclers of the past.
Pre-colonial inhabitants of our
islands showcase a rich past through
their folk speeches, folk songs, folk
narratives and indigenous rituals and
mimetic dances that affirm our ties with
our Southeast Asian neighbors.
The most seminal of these folk
speeches is the riddle which is tigmo in
Cebuano, bugtong in
Tagalog, paktakon in Ilongo
and patototdon in Bicol. Central to the
riddle is the talinghaga or metaphor
because it "reveals subtle resemblances
between two unlike objects" and one's
power of observation and wit are put to
the test. While some riddles are
ingenious, others verge on the obscene
or are sex-related:
Gaddang:
Gongonan nu usin y amam If you
pull your daddy's penis
Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your
mommy's vagina, too,
(Campana) screams. (Bell)
The proverbs or aphorisms express
norms or codes of behavior, community
beliefs or they instill values by offering
nuggets of wisdom in short, rhyming
verse.
The extended form, tanaga, a
mono-riming heptasyllabic quatrain
expressing insights and lessons on life
is "more emotionally charged than the
terse proverb and thus has affinities with
the folk lyric." Some examples are
the basahanon or extended didactic
sayings from Bukidnon and
the daraida and daragilon from Panay.
The folk song, a form of folk lyric
which expresses the hopes and
aspirations, the people's lifestyles as
well as their loves. These are often
repetitive and sonorous, didactic and
naive as in the children's songs or Ida-
ida (Maguindanao), tulang
pambata (Tagalog) or cansiones para
abbing (Ibanag).
A few examples are the lullabyes
or Ili-ili (Ilongo); love songs like
the panawagon and balitao (Ilongo); har
ana or serenade (Cebuano);
the bayok (Maranao); the seven-syllable
per line poem, ambahanof the
Mangyans that are about human
relationships, social entertainment and
also serve as a tool for teaching the
young; work songs that depict the
livelihood of the people often sung to go
with the movement of workers such as
the kalusan (Ivatan), soliranin (Tagalog
rowing song) or the mambayu, a Kalinga
rice-pounding song; the verbal
jousts/games like the duplo popular
during wakes.
Other folk songs are the drinking
songs sung during carousals like the
tagay (Cebuano and Waray); dirges and
lamentations extolling the deeds of the
dead like the kanogon (Cebuano) or
the Annako(Bontoc).
A type of narrative song
or kissa among the Tausug of
Mindanao, the parang sabil, uses for its
subject matter the exploits of historical
and legendary heroes. It tells of a
Muslim hero who seeks death at the
hands of non-Muslims.
The folk narratives, i.e. epics and
folk tales are varied, exotic and magical.
They explain how the world was
created, how certain animals possess
certain characteristics, why some places
have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains,
flora or fauna and, in the case of
legends, an explanation of the origins of
things. Fables are about animals and
these teach moral lessons.
Our country's epics are considered
ethno-epics because unlike, say,
Germany's Niebelunginlied, our epics
are not national for they are "histories"
of varied groups that consider
themselves "nations."
The epics come in various
names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (
Maranao); Hudhud (Ifugao);
and Ulahingan (Manobo). These epics
revolve around supernatural events or
heroic deeds and they embody or
validate the beliefs and customs and
ideals of a community. These are sung
or chanted to the accompaniment of
indigenous musical instruments and
dancing performed during harvests,
weddings or funerals by chanters. The
chanters who were taught by their
ancestors are considered "treasures"
and/or repositories of wisdom in their
communities.
Examples of these epics are
the Lam-
ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudam
an (Palawan); Darangen (Maranao); Ula
hingan (Livunganen-Arumanen
Manobo); Mangovayt Buhong na
Langit (The Maiden of the Buhong Sky
from Tuwaang--Manobo); Ag Tobig neg
Keboklagan (Subanon);
and Tudbulol (T'boli).

The Spanish Colonial Tradition
While it is true that Spain
subjugated the Philippines for more
mundane reasons, this former European
power contributed much in the shaping
and recording of our literature. Religion
and institutions that represented
European civilization enriched the
languages in the lowlands, introduced
theater which we would come to know
as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela,
the playlets and the drama. Spain also
brought to the country, though at a
much later time, liberal ideas and an
internationalism that influenced our own
Filipino intellectuals and writers for them
to understand the meanings of "liberty
and freedom."
Literature in this period may be
classified as religious prose and poetry
and secular prose and poetry.
Religious lyrics written by ladino
poets or those versed in both Spanish
and Tagalog were included in early
catechism and were used to teach
Filipinos the Spanish language.
Fernando Bagonbanta's "Salamat nang
walang hanga/gracias de sin
sempiternas" (Unending thanks) is a fine
example that is found in the Memorial
de la vida cristiana en lengua
tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life
in the Tagalog language) published in
1605.
Another form of religious lyrics are
the meditative verses like
the dalit appended to novenas and
catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor
rime scheme although a number are
written in octosyllabic quatrains and
have a solemn tone and spiritual subject
matter.
But among the religious poetry of
the day, it is the pasyon in octosyllabic
quintillas that became entrenched in the
Filipino's commemoration of Christ's
agony and resurrection at Calvary.
Gaspar Aquino de Belen's "Ang Mahal
na Passion ni Jesu Christong
Panginoon natin na tola" (Holy Passion
of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put
out in 1704 is the country's earliest
known pasyon.
Other known pasyons chanted
during the Lenten season are in Ilocano,
Pangasinan, Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol,
Ilongo and Waray.
Aside from religious poetry, there
were various kinds of prose narratives
written to prescribe proper decorum.
Like the pasyon, these prose narratives
were also used for proselitization. Some
forms are: dialogo (dialogue), Manual de
Urbanidad (conduct
book); ejemplo (exemplum)
and tratado (tratado). The most well-
known are Modesto de Castro's
"Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na
si Urbana at si Feliza" (Correspondence
between the Two Maidens Urbana and
Feliza) in 1864 and Joaquin Tuason's
"Ang Bagong Robinson" (The New
Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of
Daniel Defoe's novel.
Secular works appeared alongside
historical and economic changes, the
emergence of an opulent class and the
middle class who could avail of a
European education. This Filipino elite
could now read printed works that used
to be the exclusive domain of the
missionaries.
 The most notable of the secular
lyrics followed the conventions of a
romantic tradition: the languishing but
loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless
beloved, the rival. The leading poets
were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng
Sisiw) and Francisco Balagtas. Some
secular poets who wrote in this same
tradition were Leona Florentino, Jacinto
Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael
Gandioco.
Another popular secular poetry is
the metrical romance, the awit and
korido in Tagalog. The awit is set in
dodecasyllabic quatrains while
the korido is in octosyllabic quatrains.
These are colorful tales of chivalry from
European sources made for singing and
chanting such as Gonzalo de Cordoba
(Gonzalo of Cordoba) and Ibong
Adarna (Adarna Bird). There are
numerous metrical romances in
Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo, Pampango,
Ilocano and in Pangasinan. The awit as
a popular poetic genre reached new
heights in Balagtas' "Florante at Laura"
(ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the
country's metrical romances.
Again, the winds of change began
to blow in 19th century Philippines.
Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe
called ilustrados began to write about
the downside of colonization. This,
coupled with the simmering calls for
reforms by the masses gathered a
formidable force of writers like Jose
Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano
Ponce, Emilio Jacinto and Andres
Bonifacio.
This led to the formation of the
Propaganda Movement where prose
works such as the political essays and
Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me
Tangere and the El filibusterismo helped
usher in the Philippine revolution
resulting in the downfall of the Spanish
regime, and, at the same time planted
the seeds of a national consciousness
among Filipinos.
But if Rizal's novels are political, the
novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is
largely cultural and is considered the
first Filipino novel. Although
Paterno's Ninay gave impetus to other
novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio
M. Abad to continue writing in Spanish,
this did not flourish.
Other Filipino writers published the
essay and short fiction in Spanish in La
Vanguardia, El Debate, Renacimiento
Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more
notable essayists and fictionists were
Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw,
Epifanio de los Reyes, Vicente Sotto,
Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael
Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas or
Masks, 1925) and Balmori who
mastered the prosa romantica or
romantic prose.
But the introduction of English as
medium of instruction in the Philippines
hastened the demise of Spanish so that
by the 1930s, English writing had
overtaken Spanish writing. During the
language's death throes, however,
writing in the romantic tradition, from the
awit and korido, would continue in the
novels of Magdalena Jalandoni. But
patriotic writing continued under the new
colonialists. These appeared in the
vernacular poems and modern
adaptations of works during the Spanish
period and which further maintained the
Spanish tradition.
The American Colonial Period
A new set of colonizers brought
about new changes in Philippine
literature. New literary forms such as
free verse [in poetry], the modern short
story and the critical essay were
introduced. American influence was
deeply entrenched with the firm
establishment of English as the medium
of instruction in all schools and with
literary modernism that highlighted the
writer's individuality and cultivated
consciousness of craft, sometimes at
the expense of social consciousness.
The poet, and later, National Artist
for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used
free verse and espoused the dictum,
"Art for art's sake" to the chagrin of other
writers more concerned with the
utilitarian aspect of literature. Another
maverick in poetry who used free verse
and talked about illicit love in her poetry
was Angela Manalang Gloria, a woman
poet described as ahead of her time.
Despite the threat of censorship by the
new dispensation, more writers turned
up "seditious works" and popular writing
in the native languages bloomed
through the weekly outlets like
Liwayway and Bisaya.
The Balagtas tradition persisted
until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla
advocated modernism in poetry.
Abadilla later influenced young poets
who wrote modern verses in the 1960s
such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I.
Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.
While the early Filipino poets
grappled with the verities of the new
language, Filipinos seemed to have
taken easily to the modern short story
as published in the Philippines Free
Press, the College Folioand Philippines
Herald. Paz Marquez Benitez's "Dead
Stars" published in 1925 was the first
successful short story in English written
by a Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor
and Manuel E. Arguilla showed
exceptional skills with the short story.
Alongside this development, writers
in the vernaculars continued to write in
the provinces. Others like Lope K.
Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña and
Patricio Mariano were writing minimal
narratives similar to the early Tagalog
short fiction
called dali or pasingaw (sketch).
The romantic tradition was fused
with American pop culture or European
influences in the adaptations of Edgar
Rice Burroughs' Tarzan by F. P.
Boquecosa who also penned Ang Palad
ni Pepe after Charles Dicken's David
Copperfield even as the realist tradition
was kept alive in the novels by Lope K.
Santos and Faustino Aguilar, among
others.
It should be noted that if there was
a dearth of the Filipino novel in English,
the novel in the vernaculars continued to
be written and serialized in weekly
magazines like Liwayway, Bisaya,
Hiligaynon and Bannawag.
The essay in English became a
potent medium from the 1920's to the
present. Some leading essayists were
journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge
Bocobo, Pura Santillan Castrence, etc.
who wrote formal to humorous to
informal essays for the delectation by
Filipinos.
Among those who wrote criticism
developed during the American period
were Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo
Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was
Salvador P. Lopez's criticism that
grabbed attention when he won the
Commonwealth Literay Award for the
essay in 1940 with his "Literature and
Society." This essay posited that art
must have substance and that Villa's
adherence to "Art for Art's Sake" is
decadent.
The last throes of American
colonialism saw the flourishing of
Philippine literature in English at the
same time, with the introduction of the
New Critical aesthetics, made writers
pay close attention to craft and
"indirectly engendered a disparaging
attitude" towards vernacular writings -- a
tension that would recur in the
contemporary period.
The Contemporary Period
The flowering of Philippine literature
in the various languages continue
especially with the appearance of new
publications after the Martial Law years
and the resurgence of committed
literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.
Filipino writers continue to write
poetry, short stories, novellas, novels
and essays whether these are socially
committed, gender/ethnic related or are
personal in intention or not.
Of course the Filipino writer has
become more conscious of his art with
the proliferation of writers workshops
here and abroad and the bulk of
literature available to him via the mass
media including the internet. The
various literary awards such as the Don
Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for
Literature, the Philippines Free Press,
Philippine Graphic, Home Life and
Panorama literary awards encourage
him to compete with his peers and hope
that his creative efforts will be rewarded
in the long run.
With the new requirement by the
Commission on Higher Education of
teaching of Philippine Literature in all
tertiary schools in the country
emphasizing the teaching of the
vernacular literature or literatures of the
regions, the audience for Filipino writers
is virtually assured. And, perhaps, a
national literature finding its niche
among the literatures of the world will
not be far behind.