PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

Literature

Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through its
colonial legacies, and on to the present.

Pre-Hispanic Philippine literature was actually epics passed on from generation to generation,
originally through an oral tradition. However, wealthy families, especially in Mindanao, were
able to keep transcribed copies of these epics as family heirloom. One such was the Darangen, an
epic of the Maranaos.

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.

Characteristics of Philippine Literature

An exposition of the literature of social truths and fictional imaginations. It caresses the senses of
man: the viewer, the hearing, the sensation, the taste, and the senses. In 2000, Villafuerte
attributed this to a life but a simple word flowing into the human body. The literature has its own
existence because it has its own throbbing and hot blood flowing into the arteries and nena of
every creature and a whole society. In this case, the Filipinos and their society.