DEFINITION OF PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

There are various Filipino writers and interpreters who define literature in their views as citizens of the
Philippines. These included Jose Arrogante, Zeus Salazar, and Patrocinio V. Villafuerte, among others.

 In 1983, for Arrogante, literature is a book of life in which a person reveals things related to his
inexplicable color of life and life in his world. It makes a person through creative methods.
 In 1995, Salazar described literature as a force that motivated society. He added that it was a
powerful tool that could free one of the rushing ideas to escape. For him, it is also a unique
human experience unique to mankind.

PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

Philippine literature is the body of works, both oral and written, that Filipinos whether native,
naturalized or foreign born have created about the experience of people living in or relating the Philippine
society.

Philippine literature is the literature associated with the Philippines and includes the legends of
prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the Philippines, written in both Indigenous, and Hispanic languages.
Most of the notable literature of the Philippines was written during the Spanish period and the first half of
the 20th century in Spanish language. Philippine literature is written in Spanish, English, Tagalog, and
other native Philippine languages.   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 rousing 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.”

THE NATIONAL ARTISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES FOR LITERATURE

Francisco Arcellana

Francisco Arcellanais a writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher, is one of the most
important progenitors of the modern Filipino short story in English. He pioneered the development of the
short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form. For Arcellana, the pride of fiction is “that it is able to render
truth that is able to present reality”. He is the fourth of 18 children of Jose Arcellana y Cabaneiro and
EpifanioQuino.

He received his first schooling in Tondo. The idea of writing occurred to him at the Tondo
Intermediate School but it was at the Manila West High School (later Torres High School) that he took up
writing actively as staff member of The Torres Torch, the school organ.

In 1932 Arcellana entered the University of the Philippines (UP) as a pre-medicine student and
graduated in 1939 with a bachelor of philosophy in degree. In his junior year, mainly because of the
publication of his “trilogy of the turtles” in the Literary Apprentice, Arcellana was invited to join the UP
Writers Club by Manuel Arguilla – who at that time was already a campus literary figure. In 1934, he
edited and published Expression, a quarterly of experimental writing. It caught the attention of Jose
Garcia Villa who started a correspondence with Arcellana. It also spawned the Veronicans, a group of 13
pre-WWII who rebelled against traditional forms and themes in Philippine literature.

Achievements

Arcellana went on to medical school after receiving his bachelor's degree while holding jobs in
Herald Midweek Magazine, where his weekly column “Art and Life” (later retitled “Life and Letters”)
appeared, and in Philcross, the publication of the Philippine Red Cross. The war stopped his schooling.
After the war, he continued working in media and publishing and began a career in the academe. He was
manager of the International News Service and the editor of This Week. He joined the UP Department of
English and Comparative Literature and served as adviser of the Philippine Collegian and director of the
UP Creative Writing Center, 1979- 1982. Under a Rockefeller Foundation grant he became a fellow in
creative writing, 1956- 1957, at the University of Iowa and Breadloaf Writers' Conference.

Famous Published Books

 In 1932 Arcellana published his first story. “The Man Who Could Be Poe” in Graphic while
still a student at Torres High School. The following year two of his short stories, “Death is a Factory”
and “Lina,” were included in Jose Garcia Villa's honor roll. During the 1930's, which he calls his most
productive period, he wrote his most significant stories including, “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal”
cited in 1938 by Villa as the year's best. He also began writing poetry at this time, many of them
appearing in Philippine Collegian, Graphic and Herald Midweek Magazine. Some of his works have been
translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Italian, German and Russian, and many have been anthologized. He
also edited the Philippine PEN Anthology of Short Stories, 1962, and Fifteen Stories: Story Masters 5,
1973. Arcellana credits Erskine Caldwell and Whit Burnett as influences. From 1928 to 1939, 14 of his
short stories were included in Jose Garcia Villa's honor roll. His short story “The Flowers of May” won
second prize in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature. Another short story, “Wing of
Madness,” placed second in the Philippines Free Press literary contest in 1953, He also received the first
award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at
Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the
GawadPambansangAlagadniBalagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mgaManunulatsa Pilipino
(UMPIL) in 1988. He was conferred a doctorate in humane letters, honoriscausa, by the UP in 1989. He
was proclaimed National Artist in Literature in 1990 – L.R. Lacuesta and R.C. Lucero

Two major collections of his works are:

Selected Stories, 1962

Content are The mats. The flowers of May. The yellow shawl. Divide by two. By F. Arcellana.--Vision
indivisible, by L. Casper, Fiction, Book, 54 pages 18 cm.]

The Francisco Arcellana Sampler, 1990.

The Mats

Meaning

The story entitled “The Mats” was written by Francisco Arcellana, one of the admirable literary
Filipino artists. The story talks about a typical Filipino family culture, that portrays the close family
relationship, respect for the elders and remembering the family members who passed away. The story
begins with the homecoming of Mr. Angeles who came from Mariveles. He wrote a letter for his family
about the real weaver artist who make a marvelous mats. Apparently, he would bring home his family
some mats from this mat weaver.

Knowing that the rest of the family members will receive their own personalized sleeping mats,
they became excited about the news. It was not just an ordinary mat that they would receive but a
personalized mat with their names and a color depending on their birthstone. I can sense here, how much
joy the kids felt when they heard the news. Giving gifts is part of our tradition when some come back
home. This shows how much Mr. Angeles love his family.

The mat plays an important role to Emelia and Mr. Angeles, for Nana Emelia received a mat by
her mother when she got married to Mr. Angeles. It shows in this story that Filipinos are naturally
sentimental. Filipinos always treasure the things we received from our special someone, family, friends,
etc. It shows how Filipinos care for that certain thing they received from others.

Finally, Mr. Angeles arrived and the kids were excited to receive their personalized sleeping
mats. Mr. Angeles distributed the mats to his children as he calls the names that’s on the mat. Now they
were all done but there are three mats left. Those mats were for their kids who passed away. This only
show that even though they’re dead they remain in the heart of their father. So, the story taught us that we
should not forget our loved ones no matter how many years had passed. The sleeping mats used as an
outlet to pay as a tribute to his three kids who were not with them anymore.

"The Flowers of May" is almost a Filipino version of "The Dead" by James Joyce. There were
no memories of snow covered countryside in the consciousness of many Filipinos in 1951 but there are
memories of the beautiful flowers of May, of May in the churches of Manila and in the old walled city.
The narrator thinks of his sister Victoria who died in May. The narrator speaks of the great depth of pain
of his father, his morher's perhaps futile attempt to comfort his father over the loss. He speaks of many
dead from his family. The story is very well set in place but the concerns are universal.

This is a beautiful heartbreaking story. There cannot be much worse a thing than for a beloved
child to pass in youth. Faith offers the consolation of an early entry into heaven and perhaps an eventual
reunion but this can be cold or even a mocking comfort.

"The Flowers of May" is about how life can be turned into a charnel house, a great city into a
dark necropolis. This is a world class short story.Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista

“The names which were with infinite slowness revealed, seemed strange and stranger still; the
colors not bright but deathly dull; the separate letters spelling out the names of the dead among them, did
not seem to glow or shine with a festive sheen as did the other living names.”

(from “The Mats”,  Philippine Contemporary Literature, 1963)

Cirilo F. Bautista is a poet, fictionist and essayist with exceptional achievements and significant
contributions to the development of the country’s literary arts. He is acknowledged by peers and critics,
and the nation at large as the foremost writer of his generation.

Throughout his career that spans more than four decades, he has established a reputation for fine
and profound artistry; his books, lectures, poetry readings and creative writing workshops continue to
influence his peers and generations of young writers.

As a way of bringing poetry and fiction closer to the people who otherwise would not have the
opportunity to develop their creative talent, Bautista has been holding regular funded and unfunded
workshops throughout the country. In his campus lecture circuits, Bautista has updated students and
student-writers on literary developments and techniques.

As a teacher of literature, Bautista has realized that the classroom is an important training ground
for Filipino writers. In De La Salle University, he was instrumental in the formation of the Bienvenido
Santos Creative Writing Center. He was also the moving spirit behind the founding of the Philippine
Literary Arts Council in 1981, the Iligan National Writers Workshop in 1993, and the Baguio Writers
Group.
 Thus, Bautista continues to contribute to the development of Philippine literature: as a writer,
through his significant body of works; as a teacher, through his discovery and encouragement of young
writers in workshops and lectures; and as a critic, through his essays that provide insights into the craft of
writing and correctives to misconceptions about art.

Early life and education

Bautista was born in Manila on July 9, 1941 and spent his childhood in Balic-Balic, Sampaloc.

He received his degrees in AB Literature from the University of Santo Tomas (magna cum laude,
1963), MA Literature from St. Louis University, Baguio (magna cum laude, 1968), and Doctor of Arts in
Language and Literature from De La Salle University-Manila (1990). Bautista taught creative writing
and literature at the following, St Louis University (1963-1968), University of Santo Thomas (1969-1970)
De la Salle University Manila (1970)

Major works of Cirilo Bautista

 Summer Suns
 Words and Battlefields
 Galaw ng Asoge
 The Trilogy of Saint lazarus
 What Rizal Told Me

The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus

Published by De La Salle University Press in 2012

Reimagines the journey of the people of the Philippines throughout its history and boldly
reinvents through the epic singer’s voice and temperament the unending quest for freedom from want,
from oppression, from the forces of society that threaten the dignity of the individual citizen, especially
the poor.

“I became a writer because I took to heart my father’s advice to “shape the past.”

“Nevertheless we laughed as best we could

Because we are helpless while we are loved.”

“... Misfortune and creativity go together.”

― Cirilo F. Bautista, The House of True Desire: Essays on Life and Literature