21st Century
from Panay.
Various Dimensions of Philippine Literary History from
Pre-Colonial To Contemporary Period
Pre-Colonization
Oral and written literatures were present in our culture
even before colonizers came. We had our own alphabet
that our Malayan ancestors used. The written literary
forms did not last because of the materials used such
as:
1. leaves,
2. bamboo canes, and
3. the ground.
Such as materials did not last long because of its organic
composition. But the oral literature continued by word
of mouth like:
1. riddles,
2. proverbs,
3. folksongs and folktales,
4. myths and legends, etc.
RIDDLES - are generally poetic in form and come in
one, two, three or four lines. During the pre-colonial
period, riddles serve as a form of folk speech and are
about the battle of wits. Riddles use one or more
images to refer to an object to be guessed. The use of
obscure words has been invented for the purposes of
rhyme and meter.
Very often, obscure or vague words appear as proper
names, fictitious names of animals, also to meet the
need of rhyme. Sometimes the riddles may be in the
form of a direct question. These riddles are called is
Tigmo In Cebuano, Bugtong In Tagalog, Paktakon In
Ilongo And Patototdon In Bicol.
One prominent element in riddles is the use of a
metaphor. Riddles describe something by comparing it
to another that has no significant relation to it but has
similarities.
FOLK NARRATIVES - consist of myths, legends and
folktales.
PROVERBS or aphorisms express norms or codes of
behaviour, 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
Filipino proverbs or Tagalog proverbs or salawikain,
echo the values of the Philippines.
FOLK SONG - a form of folk lyric which expresses the
hopes and aspirations, the people’s lifestyle as well as
their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous,
didactic and naïve as in the children’s songs or Ida-Ida
(Maguindanao), Tulang Pambata (Tagalog) or
Cansiones Para Abbing (Ibanag)
Lullabyes - Ili-Ili (Ilongo)
Love Songs - Panawagon And Balitao (Ilongo)
Harana or Serenade (Cebuano) - The Bayok (Maranao)
The Seven-Syllable Per Line Poem - Ambahan Of The
Mangyans
Work Songs - Kalusan (Ivatan), Soliranan (Tagalog
Rowing Song) Or The Mambayu, A Kalinga Rice-
Pounding Song
EPICS - in the Philippines during the Pre-colonization are
considered ethno-epics because they are histories of
various ethnic groups.
The epic comes in various names:
Guman (Subanon)
Darangen (Maranao)
Hudhud (Ifugao)
Ulahingan (Manobo)
These epics revolve around supernatural events or
heroic deeds and they embody or validates the beliefs
and customs and ideals of a community.
The chanters who were taught by their ancestors are
considered “treasures” and/or repositories of wisdom
in their communities.
Examples of epics:
Lam-ang (Ilocano)
Hinilawod (Sulod)
Kudaman (Palawan)
Darangen (Maranao)
Ulahingan (Livunganen-Arumen Manobo)
Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of the Buhog
Sky fro Tuwaang—Manobo)
Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon)
Tudbulol (T’boli)
PROSE FICTION presents a story that is invented and
not literally “true”. It is written to be read rather than
acted or performed and the events depicted are told us
by a narrator, not enacted or dramatized. One example
of this is myth.
MYTHS are prose narratives explaining how the world
and people came to be in their form. These were the
first tools man used to define his world. The origin of
the surrounding world has always been the object of
interest prehistoric Filipinos.
Myth is often a story of origins, how the world and
everything in it came to be. It may explain a practice,
belief or natural occurrences.
SPANISH COLONIZATION
1521, it paved the way for the use of paper and so
written literature in the Philippines was born.
The use of Religion as the content in the works of the
early literature.
Religion introduced theater which we would come to
know as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the
playlets and the drama.
They also brought to the country ideas about
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.
LADINOS- Filipinos who know both Spanish and
Tagalog. Teaching catechisms during that period.
• PASYON- ocstosyllabic quintillas that played an
important part in the Filipinos’ way of
remebering Christ’s agony.
• “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.
• Spanish colonization also brought about the
romantic tradition that gave birth to metrical
romance specifically the awit and korido in
Tagalog.
• Florante at Laura- the most famous of the
country’s metrical romances.
Leading poets:
Jose Corazon De Jesus (Huseng Sisiw)
Francisco Balagtas
Secular poets:
Leona Florentino
Jacinto Kawili
Isabelo de los Reyes
Rafael Gandioco.
Literature written in both Spanish and Tagalog
about themes like love for one’s country and
discontent for Spanish rule.
 Mi Ultimo A Dios (My Last Farewell) by
Jose Rizal
 Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa (Love for the
Native Land) by Andres Bonifacio
AMERICAN COLONIZATION
Philippine literary production during the American
Period in the Philippines was spurred by two
significant developments in education and culture.
Free public instruction for all children of school age
and two, the use of English as medium of
instruction in all levels of education in public
schools.
In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary
writing in English is marked by imitation of the
style of storytelling and strict adherence to the way
the short story is practiced by popular American
fictionists.
The use of free verse while the traditional rhyme
and meter retained.
From the Balagtas tradition of writing poems,
modernist poetry was highlighted and influenced a
lot of young writers at that time.
Short stories in English with the infusion of Filipino
ideals about life and morality blossomed which were
shown in the works of Paz Marquez Benitez “Dead
Stars”
• “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife”
by Manuel Arguilla - the use of vivid imagery of
Nagrebcan in Ilocos.
Writers with the theme of interplay of fate, love and Various Literary Awards:
social justice:
 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for
 Inigo Ed Regalado Literature
 Roman Reyes  The Philippines Free Press
 Fausto J. Galauran  Philippine Graphic
 Susana de Guzman  Home Life and Panorama literary awards
 Rosario de Guzman-Lingat
 Lazaro Francisco
 Hilaria Labog
 Rosalia Aguinaldo
 Amado V. Hernandez

Iloko noted novelists:

Hermogenes Belen

Mena Pecson Crisologo - Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa

is considered to be the Iloko version of a Noli Me
Tangere.

Visayan writers (themes of love, courtship, life in the

farmlands, and other social upheavals of the period:

Magdalena Jalandoni

Ramon Muzones

Marcel Navarra

POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

The flowering of Philippine literature in the various

languages continue especially with the appearance of
new publications after the Martial Law. 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.

Francis C. Macasantos and Priscilla Macasantos in their

essay on Philpiine Literature in the Post War and
Contemporary Period - The Philippine novel, whether
written in English or any of the native languages, has
reminded social-realist:

Edgardo Reyes’ Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1966) - is a

critique of urban light.

Edilberto K Tiempo’s To Be Free - is a historical probe

of the western idea of freedom in the context of
indigenous Philippine culture.

Kerima Polotan Tuvera’s novel The Hand of the Enemy

(1972) - a penetrating of ruling-class psychology, is
entirely realistic, if Rizalian in its oment of high satire,
although unlike the Rizalian model, it falls short of a
moral vision.