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Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

Ministry of Basic, Higher & Technical Education
DIVISION OF LANAO DEL SUR 1
Module Code: ENG11/12-21STCL-Q1-W2-D3

MODULE IN 21st Century Literature from the Philippines to the World

First Quarter/ Week 2/ Day 3

Name: _________________________________Grade Level/Track/Strand: ___________________

Name of Teacher: _____________________________________ Date: _____________________

WHAT I NEED TO KNOW (Objective)

 Analyze the geographic, linguistic and ethnic dimensions of Philippine literary history from
American period.

WHAT’S NEW! (Your Lesson for Today)

Philippine artistic creation during the American Period in the

Philippines was prodded by two huge advancements in training and culture.
One is the presentation of free open guidance for all offspring of young and
two, the utilization of English as vehicle of guidance in all degrees of
training in state funded schools.

Free government funded instruction made information and data

available to a more noteworthy number of Filipinos. The individuals who
profited of this instruction through school had the option to improve their
economic well-being and joined a decent number of taught masses who
turned out to be a piece of the nation's white-collar class.

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 craft of the short story as
practiced by popular American fictionists.

Early short story writers in English were often dubbed as the Andersons or Saroyans
or the Hemingways of Philippine letters. Leopoldo Yabes in his study of the Philippine short
story in English from 1925 to 1955 points to these models of American fiction exerting
profound influence on the early writings of story writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E.
Litiatco, Paz Latorena.

       In 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead Stars” was published

and was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in English.
Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories no longer
imitative of American models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano Calalang, A.E.
Litiatco, Arturo Rotor, Lydia Villanueva, Paz Latorena, Manuel Arguilla began
publishing stories manifesting both skilled use of the language and a keen
Filipino sensibility.

        This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on Filipino customs and
traditions mark the literary output of major Filipino fictionists in English during the American
period.

Thus, the major novels of the period, such as the Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw, and His
Native Soil by Juan C. Laya, are discourses on cultural identity, nationhood and being Filipino
done in the English language. Stories such as “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a
Wife” by Manuel Arguilla scanned the scenery as well as the folkways of Ilocandia while N.V.
M. Gonzales’s novels and stories such as “Children of the Ash Covered Loam,” presented the
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panorama of Mindoro, in all its customs and traditions while configuring its characters in the
human dilemma of nostalgia and poverty.

References for further enhancement:

(If you wish to know more and view a video regarding this lesson then you may go to these following links_ Happy to learn!)
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Literature/literary_forms_in_philippine_lit.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4rDxFcS3QY

        It was during the early American period that seditious plays, using the form of the
zarsuwela, were mounted. Zarsuwelistas Juan Abad, Aurelio Tolentino, Juan Matapang Cruz.
Juan Crisostomo Sotto mounted the classics like Tanikalang Ginto, Kahapon, Ngayon at
Bukas and Hindi Ako Patay,  all directed against the American imperialists. Patricio
Mariano’s Anak ng Dagat and Severino Reyes’s Walang Sugat are equally remarkable
zarsuwelas staged during the period.

        On the eve of World War II, Wilfredo Maria Guerrero would gain dominance in theatre
through his one-act plays which he toured through his “mobile theatre”. Thus, Wanted: A
Chaperone and The Forsaken House became very popular in campuses throughout the
archipelago.

        The novels in Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon and Sugbuanon also developed during the
period aided largely by the steady publication of weekly magazines like
the Liwayway, Bannawag and Bisaya which serialized the novels.

        Among the early Tagalog novelists of the 20 th century were Ishmael Amado, Valeriano
Hernandez Peña, Faustino Aguilar, Lope K. Santos and Lazaro Francisco.

        Ishmael Amado’s Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was one of the earliest novels
that dealt with the theme of American imperialism in the Philippines. The novel, however, was
not released from the printing press until 1916, at which time, the author, by his own admission
and after having been sent as a pensionado to the U.S., had other ideas apart from those he
wrote in the novel.

        Valeriano Hernandez Peña’s Nena at Neneng narrates the story of two women who
happened to be best of friends as they cope with their relationships with the men in their lives.
Nena succeeds in her married life while Neneng suffers from a stormy marriage because of her
jealous husband.

        Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan, a love triangle set in the early years of the
century when the worker’s movement was being formed. The novel’s hero, Luis Gatbuhay, is a
worker in a printery who is imprisoned for a false accusation and loses his love, Danding, to his
rival Rojalde, son of a wealthy capitalist.

Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat has almost the same theme and motif as the
hero of the novel, Delfin, also falls in love with a rich woman, daughter of a
wealthy landlord. The love story of course is set also within the background of
development of the worker’s trade union movement and throughout the novel.
Santos engages the readers in lengthy treatises and discourses on socialism and
capitalism.

        Among the Iloko writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, who was also the region’s
poet laureate then, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena Pecson Crisologo whose Mining wenno Ayat
ti Kararwa is considered to be the Iloko version of a Noli me Tangere.
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        In the Visayas, Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones would lead most writers in
writing the novels that dwelt on the themes of love, courtship, life in the farmlands, and other
social upheavals of the period. Marcel Navarra wrote stories and novels in Sugbuhanon.

        Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of the country during the
American period. The Tagalogs, hailing Francisco F. Balagtas as the nation’s foremost poet
invented the balagtasan in his honor. The balagtasan is a debate in verse, a poetical joust done
almost spontaneously between protagonists who debate over the pros and cons of an issue.

         The balagtasan would be echoed as a poetical fiesta and would be duplicated in the Ilocos
as the bukanegan, in honor of Pedro Bukaneg, the supposed transcriber of the epic, Biag ni
Lam-ang; and the Crissottan, in Pampanga, in honor of the esteemed poet of the Pampango,
Juan Crisostomo Sotto.

        In 1932, Alejandro G. Abadilla, armed with new criticism and an orientation on modernist
poetry would taunt traditional Tagalog poetics with the publication of his poem, “Ako ang
Daigdig.” Abadilla’s poetry began the era of modernism in Tagalog poetry, a departure from
the traditional rhymed, measured and orally recited poems. Modernist poetry which utilized free
or blank verses was intended more for silent reading than oral delivery.

           Among the more popular fictionists who emerged during the period are two women
writers, Liwayway Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute, considered forerunners in the use of
“light” fiction, a kind of story telling that uses language through poignant rendition. Genoveva
Edroza Matute’s “Ako’y Isang Tinig” and Liwayway Arceo’s “Uhaw ang Tigang na
Lupa” have been used as models of fine writing in Filipino by teachers of composition
throughout the school system.

WHAT I CAN DO (Are You Ready to Practice?)

Is today’s lesson clear? If not, then you may go back to our discussion and the given
examples.

PRACTICES EXERCISE 1:
If you were to examine the growth of Philippine Literature during the American Colonization.
To what shall you compare it with and why?
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RUBRICS

10-8 7-5 4-1

Content indicates synthesis of ideas,
in depth analysis and evidences
original thought and support for the
topic.
Content indicates thinking Shows some thinking and
and reasoning applied reasoning but most ideas
with original thought on a are underdeveloped
few
ideas.

PRACTICE EXCERCISE 2:

Wanted: A Chaperon is a drama written and directed by Wilfrido

Maria Guerrero. This household comedy tells about conflicts
among rich couple and their children because of their opposing
views on behavior and on family norms. The play is about the
traditional way of courting and accompanying girls on a party and
in other occasions. The portrayal of old customs is seen visibly in
the play. Don Francisco, one of the major characters is strict with
his daughter Nena. He doesn’t want Nena go outside for any
occasions without any chaperon.

Study the excerpt from the Wanted Chaperon then write your opinion in the bubble thoughts
below about the opposing view of the characters about empowering their daughter Nena. Cite
examples to support your opinion.
PETRA. As I was saying, I think you're being very unfair to Nena. After all, she's grown up
FRANCISCO. Petra, my dear, virtue is ageless.
PETRA. I know that, Francisco, but chaperoning is rather old-fashioned.
FRANCISCO. Old-fashioned, maybe, in some other civilized countries.
PETRA. But isn't the Philippines civilized?
PETRA. Anyhow our women can take care of themselves.
FRANCISCO. Are you sure?
PETRA. Especially if they've received an education. For instance, our Nena is, in her senior year in
education at the University of Santo Tomas. She's even taking some courses in home economics.
FRANCISCO. I suppose that makes her immune from any moral falls.
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PETRA. Moral falls, Francisco! Ay, que exagerada naman tu! No, what I mean is that Nena is better
educated and more enlightened to take care of herself.

GENERALIZATION
-Learning from the fault of the Spanish colonizer, the Americans did not
deny their language to the Filipinos.
-English opened the colonial values through the passage of textbooks
originally intended for American children; books and magazine signal at
an American audience that familiarized Filipinos with the blessing of
economic wealth in a competitive country.
The utilization of English as mode of guidance acquainted Filipinos
with Anglo-American methods of thought, culture and life ways that
would be inserted in the writing created as well as in the mind of the
nation's informed class. It was this informed class that would be the
wellspring of an energetic Philippine Literature in English.
EVALUATION:
Kinikilála itong unang katha sa Filipinas na tumalakay sa
problemang Sosyalista kayâ itinuring ng isang kritiko na “Bibliya ng
mga manggagawang Filipino.” Sa salaysay, kinatawan ng
magkaibigang Delfin at Felipe ang kambal na direksiyon ng kilusang
obrero.

Umiikot ang nobelang Banaag at Sikat sa istorya ng magkaibigang

sina Delfin at Felipe, dalawang taong magkaiba ang mithiin sa pag-
angat ng kalagayan ng mahihirap na mamamayang Pilipino.

Ang isa ay sosyalistang naniniwala sa mapayapang pakikibaka, at

ang isa naman ay anarkistang pirmi sa paggamit ng dahas upang
buwagin ang mga naghaharing-uri sa lipunan.
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Parehong tapat sa adhikain, ngunit parehong hindi nakinita na magiging suliranin ang pag-ibig at
pamilya bago matupad ang kinabukasang pinapangarap nila.

Directions: Based on the given summary of Banaag at Sikat, analyze how you could make connections to
the text by competing the given graphic organizer.

Integrated the Development of the 21st Century Learning Skills:

COMMUNICATION: Learners are task to figurative language to convey their understanding of the lesson.

CRITICAL THINKING: Learners are asking to analyze and complete graphic organizer about the sample texts
from the Philippine literary period studied.

References Cited
Agoncillo T.A. (2003) History and Culture, Language and Literature. UST Publishing
House Dimalanta, O et.al. (2004) Philippine Contemporary Literature in English. UST Publishing House
ncca.gov.ph