LESSON 7: THE LANDSCAPE OF PHILIPPINE FICTION

If there is one thing Filipinos love, it is a good dramatic story. Filipinos can easily find
themselves in one of the characters whom they watch on TV; the optimistic little girl who is
tormented by evil relatives; the poor rich girl who has everything but can never be as optimistic
as the poor protagonist; and even the antagonist who has a vendetta against everyone but
gets the wittiest in the TV show. Aside from this, Filipinos also relate the situations in the story
to certain parts of their lives, such as the longing for a long lost parent or child, the death of a
relative, or a dramatic love story around the world. No matter how much Filipinos see
themselves and their situations in popular TV shows, the fact remains that these are all
products of fiction.
A Fiction is a story that is entirely made up and is not true. At times, fiction may
resemble reality, but it is purely circumstantial.
Examples: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo – These novels are a long and
sustained critical story about the Spanish Rule.

A. Elements of Fiction

1. Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E. M.

Forester makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat characters
are types or caricatures defined by a single idea of quality, whereas round
characters have the three-dimensional complexity of real people.

2. Plot –- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the sequence of
major events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation.

3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is
typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view. In a narrative told
from a first-person perspective, the author tells the story through a character who
refers to himself or herself as "I." Third –person narratives come in two types:
omniscient and limited. An author taking an omniscient point of view assumes the
vantage point of an all-knowing narrator able not only to recount the action
thoroughly and reliably but also to enter the mind of any character in the work or
any time in order to reveal his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the
reader. An author using the limited point of view recounts the story through the
eyes of a single character (or occasionally more than one, but not all or the
narrator would be an omniscient narrator).

4. Setting –- That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that
provides the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The
general setting of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene
or event.

5. Style - The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of

words), and other linguistic features of a work.

6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The
term also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.

B. The Plot Structure of Fiction

1. Exposition - The exposition is the part of a story when the character(s) and
setting are introduced.

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 2. Rising Action - The events that increase the
tension. These events lead to the climax.

3. Climax – It can be one or many problems that

create the high point of the story. Usually at the
climax, you can foreshadow the story’s ending.

4. Falling Action – It is when the tension

decreases and everything begins to settle down.

5. Resolution - It is when the conflict has been solved and usually indicates the
ending…and possibly even “happily ever after”.

C. LITERARY GENRES

1. CHICKLIT
It is marketed as a “for women, by women, about women” genre. It is writing about the feelings
of women, and the “every woman type-heroine, complete with dieting woes and dating
insecurities”. It is a type of fiction, typically focusing on the social lives and relationships of
young professional women, and often aimed at readers with similar experiences (Natalie
Rende, 2008 , Bridget Jones, Prince Charming, and Happily Ever Afters: Chick Lit as an
Extension of the Fairy Tale in a Post feminist Society).

It is usually associated with young urban women’s culture: chick-lit books typically cover the
lives of modern, cosmopolitan, single women in their 20s and 30s who put great emphasis on
their dating relationships, careers and shopping. Others use the confessional style of letters
and emails, and the intimacy of first-person narrative. Almost all are written in a
self-deprecating, funny, first-person voice. Taken as a whole, these works offer the possibility
of a fruitful interrogation of the images of contemporary women and their concerns in popular
culture, while providing a source of amusement for their readers (Burcu Baykan, 2015,
Women’s Reading and Writing Practices: Chick-Lit as a Site of Struggle in Popular Culture and
Literature)

2. HYPERPOETRY
This genre, also called cyber poetry is basically a traditional work uploaded. True
hyperpoetry refers to works of verse (although not necessarily in lines and stanzas)
which could not be presented without the computer. Hyperpoetry includes verse with
links to sub-poems or footnotes, poetry “generators,” poetry with movement or
images. Hyperpoetry is usually highly steeped in the visual and sometimes involves
parts that are read in varying orders. Holopoetry refers to 3-dimensional visual art
that combines words with images using holographic techniques. Some readers
relate hyperpoetry to concrete poetry (in which meaning is conveyed partly by the
shape formed by the letters and words), prose poetry, hip-hop, performance art, and
other types of “hybrid” arts. (Sue Kuennen,
http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=27725)

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Hypertext poetry and hypertext fiction are new genres of literature that use the computer
screen as medium, rather than the printed page. The literary works rely on the qualities unique
to a digital environment, such as linked World Wide Web pages or effects such as sound and
movement. Hypertext "poetry" can consist of words, although not necessarily organized into
lines and stanzas, as well as, sounds, visual images, movement or other special effects.
Although the poem may dazzling with sounds, perhaps of a lawnmower, while the words
"mowing," "stop," "Sunday," and "morning" float across the computer screen in pseudo-three
dimensional letters, one will have be hard pressed to identify the use of any formal poetics.
(http://course1.winona.edu/geddy/Eng353/hypertext_poetry_and_fiction.htm)

3. BLOG
The blog (a contraction of web log/weblog) is a form of online publishing, communication, and
expression that has gained significant popularity since its emergence in the late 1990s. The
terms blog (n.) and blogging (v.) were first included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003,
and blog (n.) was chosen as Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in 2004 (Merriam-Webster
2004). Princeton’s WordNet database defines a blog as “a shared online journal where people
can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies, postings on a blog are
usually in chronological order”, and describes blogging as “reading, writing, or editing a shared
on-line journal”.

Blogs are used to publish a wide array of content: In addition to textual blogs, blogs are also
used to share photos, audio clips, and video clips. Although some degree of openness and
sharing is usually associated with blogging, blogs with access restrictions exist in corporate
and organizational spaces and where individuals wish for their blog to remain private.
Associated terms such as blogosphere (n.) and bloggy (adj.) have also entered the vernacular
in the course of the last decade, denoting blogs in their (implied) totality and the (implied)
characteristics they share, respectively. Blogging is a global phenomenon, reaching across
languages, communities, and organizational contexts. (Cornelius Puschmann,2013, Blogging)

4. SPECULATIVE FICTION
The term “speculative fiction” has three historically located meanings: a subgenre of science
fiction that deals with human rather than technological problems, a genre distinct from and
opposite to science fiction in its exclusive focus on possible futures, and a super category for
all genres that deliberately depart from imitating “consensus reality” of everyday experience.

In this latter sense, speculative fiction includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror, but also
their derivatives, hybrids, and cognate genres like the gothic, dystopia, weird fiction,
post-apocalyptic fiction, ghost stories, superhero tales, alternate history, steampunk,
slipstream, magic realism, fractured fairy tales, and more. Rather than seeking a rigorous
definition, a better approach is to theorize “speculative fiction” as a term whose semantic
register has continued to expand. While “speculative fiction” was initially proposed as a name
of a subgenre of science fiction, the term has recently been used in reference to a

Lesson 7: The Landscape of Philippine Fiction (21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the 3
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meta-generic fuzzy set super category—one defined not by clear boundaries but by
resemblance to prototypical examples—and a field of cultural production.

Like other cultural fields, speculative fiction is a domain of activity that exists not merely
through texts but through their production and reception in multiple contexts. The field of
speculative fiction groups together extremely diverse forms of non-mimetic fiction operating
across different media for the purpose of reflecting on their cultural role, especially as opposed
to the work performed by mimetic, or realist narratives (Oziewicz, 2017).

5. TEXT TULA
A cell phone novel, or mobile phone novel is a literary work originally
written on a cellular phone via text messaging. This type of literature
originated in Japan, where it has become a popular literary genre.
However, its popularity has also spread to other countries
internationally, especially to China, United States, Germany, and
South Africa. Chapters usually consist of about 70-100 words each
due to character limitations on cell phones. Phone novels started out
primarily read and authored by young women on the subject of
romantic fiction such as relationships, lovers, rape, love triangles,
and pregnancy. However, mobile phone novels are gaining
worldwide popularity on broader subjects. Rather than appearing in
printed form, the literature is typically sent directly to the reader via
email, SMS text message, or subscription through an online writing
and sharing website, chapter by chapter. Because of the short
chapter format consisting of around 70-100 words (usually fewer
than 200), the phenomenon has brought a new approach to literature,
allowing a new vision to potentially redefine traditional writing and the
publishing world.

Often, cell phone novels feature the use of fragments, conversational, simple and delicate
language; cliffhangers and dramatic dialogue emphasized by the unseen or omitted becomes
a vital part of the reading experience, allowing deeper meanings and interpretations to unfold.
Because of the use of poetic language, mood, emotions and internal thoughts are stimulated in
the reader easily. https://teslaliterature.wordpress .com/2017/08/17/mobile-text-tula/).

6. FLASH FICTION
Flash fiction is a hybrid or mixed genre that consists of one part poetry and one part narrative.
It is also called prose-poetry and needs to be read slowly like a poem because missing a word
can change the meaning of the story entirely. The term “Flash Fiction” was coined by James
Thomas, in 1992, to include stories of up to 750 words count. Nevertheless, due to the
continuous reconfiguration and mutation of the flash fiction genre, its word count now ranges
from 50 words to 1,000 words or from 75 words to 1,500 words. Moreover, a broad spectrum
of forms and styles are covered under the flash fiction rubric including content that is whimsical,
clever, entertaining, literary, ironic, satirical, sublime, funny, controversial, unconventional,
troubling, unsettling, and unpredictable. Flash fiction is known by various names such as
stories in miniature, short-short stories, prose poems, and various fiction based names that
include micro, sudden, postcard, furious, fast, quick, skinny, smoke-long, and minute fiction
(Laila Al-Sharqi; Irum Saeed Abbasi, 2015, Flash Fiction: A Unique Writer-Reader Partnership,
Studies in Literature and Language Vol. 11, No. 1, 2015, pp. 52-56 DOI: 10.3968/7253).

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7. GRAPHIC NOVEL
Graphic novels are books written and
illustrated in the style of a comic book. To be
considered a graphic novel, rather than a
picture book or illustrated novel, the story is
told using a combination of words and pictures
in a sequence across the page. Graphic
novels can be any genre, and tell any kind of
story, just like their prose counterparts. The
format is what makes the story a graphic novel,
and usually includes text, images, word
balloons, sound effects, and panels. Graphic
novels are a subgenre of “comics,” which is a
word you may also hear people use when
referring to this style of book.
Examples: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman Maus, Watchmen by Allan Moore.

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