What is Literature?

• Is a body of written works.

• Originated from oral traditions.

• Are imaginative works.

• Deals with stories and poetry.

• The content depends on the author.

Three Points of Literature

• Literature portrays human experience.

• Authors interpret these human experiences.

• It is an art form and a style of expression.

The Three Literary Periods

BC-1564 The Pre-Colonial Period

• This existed before the Spanish occupation in the 1500s.

• It is oral in nature and is full of lessons and ideas about life, its blessings, and its consequences.
• It contains ideas from birth to the grave.

• The oral characteristic of pre-colonial literature gives the possibility for many alterations.

• In the Philippine context, no matter how it may be considered as altered, pre-colonial literature
is still revered to by many Filipinos.

• The sources are usually the local native town folk.

Forms

1. Oral Literature
a. Riddles
b. Proverbs

2. Folk Songs
 a. Lullabies

b. Drinking Songs

c. Love Songs

d. Songs of Death

e. Religious Songs

3. Folk Tales

a. Myths

b. Legends

c. Fables

d. Epics

Riddles (Mga Bugtong)

• These are statements that contain superficial words, but they function figuratively and as
metaphors, and are in the form of questions.

• These are questions that demand deeper answers.

• Deals with everyday life.

• It usually has mundane things as answers.

• This is used in the past as a form of game in small or large gatherings.

Proverbs (Mga Salawikain)

• These are statements that are considered as wise.

• These are usually given by parents or elders of the community.

• There is belief that experience is the best teacher.

Folk Songs

• These are folk lyrics that are usually chanted.

• These usually contain ideas on aspirations, hopes, everyday life and expressions of love for
loved ones.

• It is bounded by the learning of good morals.

• It is easy to undestand because it is straightforward and not figurative in nature.

Forms

• Lullabies- these is locally known as the Hele. These are sung to put to sleep babies. The
content varies, but usually, parents sing these with ideas on how hard life is and how they hope
that their child will not experience the hardships of life.

• Drinking Songs- these are locally known as Tagay and are sung during drinking sessions.

• Love Songs- to many Filipinos, these are known as the Harana. It can also be called Courtship
Songs and are used by young men to capture the heart of the girl that they love.

• Religious Songs- are songs or chants that are usually given during exorcisms and thanksgiving
during good harvest.

• Songs of Death- are lamentations that contain the roll of good deeds that the dead has usually
done to immortaliz his or her good image.

Folk Tales (Mga Kwentong Bayan)

• These are stories of native Filipinos.

• These deal with the power of nature- personified, their submission to a deity- usually Bathala-
and how this deity is responsible for the blessings and calamities.

• These also tackle about irresponsibility, lust, stupidity, deception, and fallibility that eventually
leads to the instilling of good morals.
Usual Themes:

• Ceremonies needed to appease the deities.

• Pre and Post apocalypse

• Life and Death

• Gods and Goddesses

• Heroes and Heroines

• Supernatural beings

• Animals

Forms

• Myths- these tackle the natural to strange occurences of the earth and how things were created
with an aim to give an explanation to things. -There is Bathala for the Tagalogs and the
Gueurang for the Bikolanos. - Paradise is known as Maca, while Hell is Kasanaaan

• Legends- through legends, the natives uderstood mysteries around them. These stories usually
come with a moral lesson that give credit to supernatural powers, supernatural occurences, and
other out-of- this-world native imagination.

• Fables- are short or brief stories that cater the children of the native Filipinos and are usually
bounded by good manners and right conduct. These stories use animals as characters that
represent a particular value or characteristic.

• Epics- are very lengthy narratives that are based on oral traditions. These contain encounters of
fighters, stereotypical princes or heroes that save a damsel in distress

1521-1898 The SPANISH Period

• The start of the Philippine's more colorful history took place in March 6, 1521 when Ferdinand
Magellan docked on the shores of Homonhon.

• The Filipinos were then called “Ladinos”, meaning they were latinized.
• Filipinos were called two things. One is the “Taga-Bayan”, while the other is the “Taga-bukid”
or “Taga-bundok”.

• A person who is a Taga-bayan is considered urbane and civilized and were in easy range of the
church and state. • A person who is a Taga-bundok or Taga-bukid is called a Bruto Salvage
(Savage Brute) or Indio and were the ones who lived far from the center of the Spanish power.

Forms

1. Religious Literature
• Revolves around the life and the death of Jesus Christ.
Forms of Religious Literature:
Pasyon- it is about the passion (journey and suffering) and the death of Jesus Christ.
Senakulo- it is the re-enctment of the Pasyon.
Komedya- it depicts the European society through love and fame, but can also be a
narrative about a journey, just like Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It is also considered
religous, because it usually depicts the battle between the Christians and the Saracens or
the Moros.
2. Secular or Non- Religious Literature
Revolves around tales of valiance and adventure.
Forms of Secular or Non-Religious Literature:
Awit- these are tales of chivalry where a knight saves a princess. Florante at Laura is a
good example.
Korido- is a metrical tale or a tale that follows the struture of a poem.
Prose Narratives- are easy to understand instructional materials that in a literary light
that teaches Filipinos on proper decorum. Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si
Urbana at Feliza (1864) is a good example.
3. Propaganda Literature
• These were in the forms of satires, editorials, and news articles that aimed to attack the
Spanish Rule.
• The propaganda trinity is composed of Dr. Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, and
Graciano Lopez Jaena.Examples: Graciano Lopez Jaena Ang Fray Botod- One of his
works written in Jaro, Iloilo in 1876, six years after the Cavite Revolt attacking the friars
 in the Philippines. He exposed how some of the friars were greedy, ambitious and
immoral.
4. Revolutionary Literature
• are exposes that sparked revolution and resistance in the hearts of Filipinos
1900-1942 The AMERICAN Period

• The Philippines had a great leap in Education and Culture.

• The use of English alongside Filipino was practiced.

• The Philippines Public School system was introduced.

• Free public instruction was given to the Filipinos.

• The literature during the American period was considered as imitative of American model.
Instead of asking the students to write originals, students ended up following the form of
American poets.

Forms

1. Poetry- poetry under the American rule still followed the style of the old, but had contents
that ranged from free writing to societal concerns under the Americans.

2. Drama- was usually used in the American period to degrade the Spanish rule and to
immortalize the heroism of the men who fought under the Katipunan.

3. Remake Novels- took up Dr. Jose Rizal's portrayal of social conditions by colonial repression.

1941-1945 The JAPANESE Period === 1946- 1985 The REPUBLIC

• The Philippine literature came into a halt.

• The use of the English language was forbidden, and the use of the Filipino language was
mandated under the Japanese rule.

• For some this was a problem, but to most writers, it was a blessing in disguise.

• Almost all newspapers were stopped except for some.

• Filipino literature was given a break during this period. Many wrote plays, poems, short stories,
etc. Topics and themes were often about life in the provinces.
Forms

Drama

The drama experienced a lull during the Japanese period because movie houses showing
American films were closed. The big movie houses were just made to show stage shows. Many
of the plays were reproductions of English plays to Tagalog.. Newspapers Writings that came out
during this period were journalistic in nature. Writers felt suppressed but slowly, the spirit of
nationalism started to seep into their consciousness. While some continued to write, the majority
waited for a better climate to publish their works.

Poetry

The common theme of most poems during the Japanese occupation was nationalism, country,
love, and life in the barrios, faith, religion and the arts. Fiction The field of the short story
widened during the Japanese Occupation. Many wrote short stories.

Essays

Essays were composed to gorify the Filipinos and at the same time to figuratively attack the
Japanese.

LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES TODAY

In the 21st century Philippines, there are a lot of literary innovations that are adapted and created
by Filipinos. Nowadays, even those who do not have any significant literary background make
their own way using the freedom that they have to write and to express. There are a lot of new
forms from the basic genres of literature; thus, proving how far the literature in the Philippines
has gone and how far it will go on from here.