PHILIPPINE LITERATURE
Florante at Laura
- Philippine literature is literature
associated with the Philippines from
prehistory, through its colonial legacies,
and on to the present
FILIPINO WRITERS AND WORK
1. JOSE RIZAL - . From an early age,
José showed a precocious intellect. He
learned the alphabet from his mother at
3, and could read and write at age 5.
Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal
de Manila, he dropped the last three
names that made up his full name, on
the advice of his brother, Paciano and
the Mercado family, thus rendering his
name as “José Protasio Rizal”.
Most Remarkable Pieces Rizal:
1. El Filibusterismo
2. Noli Me Tangere
2.BOB ONG - is the pseudonym of an
anonymous Filipino contemporary
author known for using conversational
Filipino to create humorous and
reflective depictions of life as a Filipino
Most Remarkable Piece:
1.Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas
2.Alamat ng Gubat
3. FRANCISCO BALAGTAS - learned
to write poetry from José de la Cruz
(Huseng Sisiw), one of the most
famous poets of Tondo, in return of
chicks. It was De la Cruz himself who
personally challenged Balagtas to
improve his writing. Balagtas swore he
would overcome Huseng Sisiw as he
would not ask anything in return as a
poet.
Most Remarkable Piece:
1.
4. F. SIONIL JOSE - José attended the
University of Santo Tomas after World
War II, but dropped out and plunged
into writing and journalism in Manila. In
subsequent years, he edited various
literary and journalistic publications,
started a publishing house, and
founded the Philippine branch of PEN,
an international organization for writers.
Most Remarkable Pieces:
1.Po-on (Source) (1984)
2.The Pretenders (1962)
3.My Brother, My Executioner (1973)
4.Mass (December 31, 1974)
5.Tree (1978)
5. LUALHATI BAUTISTA. Bautista was
born in Tondo, Manila, Philippines on
December 2,1945 to Esteban Bautista
and Gloria Torres. She graduated from
Emilio Jacinto Elementary School in
1958, and from Torres High School in
1962 being a lowest in her class. She
was a journalism student at the Lyceum
of the Philippines, but dropped out for
the reason of failed grades. She started
her writing career in the Liwayway
magazine.
Most Remarkable Pieces:
1. Bulaklak sa City Jail
2.Dekada ’70
3.Bata, Bata… Pa’no Kan Ginawa?
4.‘GAPÔ
5.Sixty in the City
6.In Sisterhood
6. NICOMEDES MÁRQUEZ JOAQUÍN
- was a Filipino writer, historian and
journalist, best known for his short
stories and novels in the English
language. He also wrote using the pen
name Quijano de Manila. Joaquín was
conferred the rank and title of National
Artist of the Philippines for Literature.
Most Remarkable Pieces:
1.May Day Eve (1947)
2.Prose and Poems (1952)
3.The Woman Who had Two Navels
(1961)
4.La Naval de Manila and Other Essays
(1964)
5.A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino
(1966)
7. GILDA OLVIDADO, from Cebu City,
Cebu, is a Filipino movie and television
writer, and melodrama novelist. Her
novels have been turned into live-action
movies by VIVA Films, and also been
remade for television through Sine
Novela.
Most Remarkable Pieces:
1.Huwag Mo Kaming Isumpa (1981,
novel)
2.Sinasamba Kita (1982, novel)
3.Kung Mahawi Man Ang Ulap (1984,
novel)
8. DR. LOUIE MAR GANGCUANGCO
is an HIV researcher, best-selling
novelist, and one of the youngest
licensed physicians from the
Philippines. He is the author of the
multi-awarded Filipino novel Orosa-
Nakpil, Malate and is currently working
as a clinical research associate for the
Hawaii Center for AIDS.
Most Remarkable Piece:
1.Orosa-Nakpil, Malate
9. MARS RAVELO was a Filipino
graphic novelist who created the
characters Darna, Dyesebel, Captain
Barbell, Lastikman, Bondying, Varga,
Wanted: Perfect Mother, Hiwaga,
Maruja, Mariposa, Roberta Rita, Buhay
Pilipino, Jack and Jill, Flash Bomba,
Tiny Tony, and Dragonna among
others.
Mars Ravelo had greatly contributed
countless literary pieces mainly in
entertainment industry. He helped mold
our imagination and even told the
Filipino youth, “Be what you want to be.
Make your imagination as the source of
your success.”
Most Remarkable Pieces
1.Darna
2.Dyesebel
3.Lastikman
10. MAGNO “CARLO” JOSE
CAPARAS, widely known as Carlo J.
Caparas, is a Filipino comic strip
creator/writer-turned director and
producer, who is best known for
creating such Filipino superheroes and
comic book characters as Panday,
Bakekang, Totoy Bato, Joaquin
Bordado, Magaong, Elias Paniki, Tasya
Fantasya, Gagambino, Pieta and Ang
Babaeing Hinugot Sa Aking Tadyang,
among others. He is also known as a
director of numerous massacres
movies such as Kuratong Baleleng, The
Cory Quirino Kidnap: NBI Files
Most Remarkable Pieces
1.Panday
2.Kamandag
3.Bakekang, and such
CHINESE LITERATURE
CHINESE LITERATURE, the body of
works written in Chinese, including lyric
poetry, historical and didactic writing,
drama, and various forms of fiction.
Chinese literature is one of the major
literary heritages of the world, with an
uninterrupted history of more than
3,000 years, dating back at least to the
14th century BCE.
CHINESE WRITERS AND WORK
1. QU YUAN (339-278 BC) was a
statesman and poet during the Warring
States period. He has been attributed to
the first seven poems of the Chu ci
(Songs of Chu). He served under King
Huai but was banished after composing
the poem “Li Sao” (Encountering
Sorrow), which attacked the court for
failing to listen to his advice. He
committed suicide by throwing himself
in a river.
2. WANG WEI (701-761) was a painter,
musician, poet, and devout Buddhist.
He composed “landscape poems” while
roaming the lands near the Wang River,
exchanging verses with his friend Pei
Di. A Zen Master taught him the
doctrine of dunwu (instantaneous
enlightenment), and Wei’s later poetry
reflects his devotion. He was referred to
as Shi fo, or the Buddha of Poetry. The
poet SuShi said of his works: “There is
painting in his poetry, and poetry in his
painting.”
3. SHI NAI’EN (1296-1372) was the
author of the first of the “four great
classical novels,” though some
historians believe his mentor Luo
Guanzhong played a role its writing.
Not much is known about Shi, but the
work attributed to him, Shuihu zhuan
(Water Margin), about a rebellious
leader of outlaws, has been equally
banned and celebrated over hundreds
of years. Water Margin was written in
popular vernacular and expanded on its
characters in contrast to the historical
writings of the time, advancing the art of
the novel.
4. LUO GUANZHONG (1330-1400)
was a prolific writer who has had many
anonymous works attributed to him
over the years. Historians agree that
the second of the “four great classical
novels,” Sanguo yani (Romance of the
Three Kingdoms), was written by Luo.
Over 750,000 Chinese characters long,
the novel told the story of three
kingdoms over the course of a century.
It was based on a historical account
and contained historical figures, but
also incorporated folk stories and plots
from popular dramas of the time.
5. WU CHENG’EN (c. 1500-1582), the
author to whom the third of the “four
great classical novels,” Xi you ji
(Journey to the West), is attributed.
Loosely based on the historical account
of the Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, the
novel humorously followed a group of
pilgrims on a journey to India and back.
The novel contained religious themes,
witty dialogue, and elegant poems, as
well as critical commentary on
contemporary Ming-era China.
6.THE LAUGHING SCHOLAR OF
LANLING was the pseudonym of the
unknown author of the controversial
novel Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the
Golden Vase). It has been frequently
banned for its pornographic nature
since its publication around 1610.
American translator David Todd Roy
suspected poet Xu Wei (1521-1593) to
be its author. Wei was famous for his
painting and calligraphy, and he was an
early proponent of women’s rights,
writing a popular play on the legend of
Mulan; however, he was also
imprisoned for the murder of his second
wife.
7.CAO XUEQIN (1715-1763/64) was
the author of the fourth of the “four
great classical novels,” Honglou meng
(Dream of the Red Chamber), which
told the story of an aristocratic family
and its downfall. The novel was written
in vernacular and published in two
editions: the 80-chapter version
reportedly based on Cao’s life, and the
120-chapter “Cheng edition,” published
posthumously in 1791 and believed to
have been enhanced by the scholar
Gao E. Cao’s novel is so important to
Chinese literature that an entire field of
study called hongxue (redology) arose
in the 1920s.
8. LU XUN (1881-1936) studied
medicine in Japan as a young man but
ultimately concluded that he was better
served as a writer. In 1918, he
published his first short story, A
Madman’s Diary, the first colloquial
story in modern Chinese literature. His
writings comprised many genres, from
fiction to zawen (satire) to a historical
account of Chinese fiction. Mao Zedong
called Lu “the standardbearer” of the
new Chinese culture that arose after
the May Fourth Movement.
9.BA JIN (1904-2005), born Li
Yaotang, began his career as a poet
but achieved fame as a novelist. His
most famous novel was Jia (The
Family); in addition to these novels, he
also translated Russian, British,
German, and Italian works. Ba Jin’s
most famous later work was Suixiang lu
(Random Thoughts), a painful reflection
on the Cultural Revolution in which he
was persecuted as a
“counterrevolutionary.”
10.ZHANG AILING (or Eileen Chang)
(1920-1995) was a student during the
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
during World War II. She returned to
her home in Shanghai and supported
herself by publishing short stories and
novels about the plight of women in
difficult romantic relationships. She
wrote the anti-communist novel Rice
Sprout Song in 1952 and moved to the
United States three years later, where
she wrote novels and screenplays. In
2007, Ang Lee directed a movie
adaptation of her novel Lust, Caution.
JAPANESE LITERATURE
JAPANESE LITERATURE, the body of
written works produced by Japanese
authors in Japanese or, in its earliest
beginnings, at a time when Japan had
no written language, in the Chinese
classical language. Both in quantity and
quality, Japanese literature ranks as
one of the major literatures of the world,
comparable in age, richness, and
volume to English literature, though its
course of development has been quite
dissimilar.
JAPANESE WRITERS AND WORK
1.YOKO OGAWA. Ogawa is not only
one of the most influential and famous
Japanese authors writing today; she’s
also one of the most diverse. Each of
her books can be comfortably slotted
into a different genre – from dystopian
to family drama to creeping gothic
horror.
YOKO OGAWA WORKS
1. The Housekeeper and the
Professor
2. The Memory Police
2. HARUKI MURAKAMI. If there’s one
famous Japanese author, classic or
contemporary, who needs
introduction, it’s Haruki Murakami.
Here’s one of those rare authors in
translation who is as much a household
name in the West as he is in Japan.
With his brand of off-kilter and surrealist
stories and his reliable themes of cats,
lost women, jazz music, and parallel
worlds, he is an author beloved the
world over.
HARUKI MURAKAMI WORKS
1. Norwegian Wood
2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
3. HIROMI KAWAKAMI. One of the
truly excellent contemporary Japanese
authors, Hiromi Kawakami stands out
as an writer who understands the
relationships between ordinary people.
These relationships may be romantic,
platonic, professional, or familial. Love
and friendship are her tools. And,
with them, she crafts some of the
greatest stories of her time.
HIROMI KAWAKAMI WORKS
1.Strange Weather in Tokyo
2.Strange Weather in Tokyo
4.YUKIO MISHIMA. Knowing where to
begin with Mishima is a trial in itself. A
largerthan-life character, Mishima was
a radical far-right political activist who
fervently believed in returning Japan to
its militaristic past. He believed this so
fiercely that he attempted a coup
against the government, which failed
spectacularly and led to him committing
no
seppuku. In his lifetime, Mishima
penned dozens of stories, almost all of
which were, at least, very transparent
metaphors for his own views on post-
war Japan and, at most, manifestoes
for change and how the modern
Japanese women and men should live
and change
YUKIO MISHIMA WORKS
1. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace
With The Sea
5.YOKO TAWADA. Tawada is a
fiercely original and unique Japanese
author who, today, bases herself in
Germany. She has written books in
both Japanese and German to great
success. Tawada has the uncanny
ability to write abstract novels that are
at once strangely distant and entirely
relatable in the modern world.
YOKO TAWADA WORKS
1. Memoirs of a Polar Bear
2. The Last Children of Tokyo.
6.YASUNARI KAWABAT. There are
few authors more respected and
revered than Yasunari Kawabata.
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature,
Kawabata arguably bridges the gap
between classical Japanese authors
and contemporary writers. He had
the heart and mind of a poet and wrote
with a romanticism and delicacy rarely
seen since.
YASUNARI KAWABAT WORKS
1. Snow Country
2. Thousand Cranes
7.SAYAKA MURATA. Given that
Murata currently has only one novel out
in English, for her to appear on this list
of famous Japanese writers she must
be very special indeed. And that, she is.
Sayaka Murata has spent much of her
adult life writing fiction, all the while
working part-time at a Tokyo
convenience store. Her breakout hit
novel of 2018, Convenience Store
Woman, brought her such enormous
global success that it skyrocketed her
into the upper echelons of modern
Japanese writers.
SAKAYA MURATA WORKS
1. Convenience Store Woman,
8.JUNJI ITO. The only male writer on
this list to be a graphic artist rather
than a novelist, Junji Ito is a very
special kind of writer. His horror stories,
both written and drawn with the most
abstract and unsettling venom, will chill
you to your core. In many readers’
minds, Ito is a greater storyteller of
unsettling horror and real terror than
even writers like Stephen King. His
ability to weave a tale of frightening
dread, and to depict each of these tales
visually with gruesome skill is
unparalleled
9. NATSUO KIRINO. Kirino is, without
question, Japan’s most powerful, and
respected feminist author. Her books
are sometimes savage, sometimes
cleverly subversive takedowns of the
patriarchal norms of Japanese society.
She has done so much for the rise of
feminist voices in modern Japan and
she should be lauded forever for this.
NATSUO KIRINO WORKS
1.OUT
2. The Goddess Chronicle
10.KENZABURO OE. Oe is another of 2. FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH
Japan’s treasured and lauded Nobel DOSTOEVSKY
Prize winners. His books about the
3. ALEXANDER PUSHKIN
changing landscape of Japanese
society and intense, troubled family 4. VLADIMIR NABOKOV
drama are unforgettable. What is 5. MAXIM GORKY
perhaps most remarkable is how well
they’ve aged. There’s an agency and JAPANESE WRITERS
tone to Oe’s books that has kept them 1. YOKO OGAWA
feeling fresh through the decades
2. HARUKI MURAKAMI
KENZABURO OE WORKS
3. HIROMI KAWAKAMI
1. The Silent Cry 4. YUKIO MISHIMA

2. Death by Water 5. YOKO TAWADA

6. YASUNARI KAWABAT
EAST AFRICAN WRITERS
7. SAYAKA MURATA
1.NURUDDIN FARAH.
8. JUNJI ITO
2. JOMO KENYATTA 9. NATSUO KIRINO
10. KENZABURO OE
3. MOHAMED DIRIYE ABDULLAHI
FILIPINO WRITERS
4. BRIAN CHIKWAVA
1. JOSE RIZAL
WEST AFRICAN WRITERS 2. .BOB ONG
3. . FRANCISCO BALAGTAS
1. CHINUA ACHEBE
4. F. SIONIL JOSE
2. KWAME NKRUMAH
5. LUALHATI BAUTISTA

3. TEJU COLE 6. NICOMEDES MÁRQUEZ JOAQUÍN

7. GILDA OLVIDADO
4. CHINELO OKPARANTA.
8. . DR. LOUIE MAR GANGCUANGCO
5. CHIKA UNIGWE 9. . MARS RAVELO

RUSSIAN WRITERS 10. MAGNO “CARLO” JOSE

CAPARAS
1. LEO TOLSTOY
NIGERIAL LITERATURE
- In the beginning was oral literature,
the root of African literature. Nigerian
literature, in particular, began with the
oral tradition, pioneered by the unsung
heroes of her literary past, like royal
bards, warriors, story tellers, priests
and many others. Literary elements like
folklore and proverbs were originated
by these unknown literary soldiers.
- According to Bade Ajuwon in his
article, ‘Oral and Written Literature in
Nigeria’, in Nigerian History and
Culture, pre-literate Nigeria once
enjoyed a verbal art civilization which,
at its high point, was warmly patronised
by traditional rulers and the general
public. “At a period when writing was
unknown, the oral medium served the
people as a bank for the preservation of
their ancient experiences and beliefs.
SENEGALESE LITERATURE
- The introduction of French into
Senegal goes back to the 1800s and
the few books written in French by
Senegalese authors in the 19th century
signal the modest beginnings of a
written tradition that complemented a
flourishing oral tradition. In fact,
Senegalese writing goes back to the
18th century and Phillis Wheatley's
poetry (175384). This young
Senegalese woman, snatched from her
native land and sold as a slave in
America, is considered to be the first
black woman to have published a
literary work (in English).
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
- Ancient Egyptian literature
comprises a wide array of narrative
and poetic forms including
inscriptions on tombs, stele,
obelisks, and temples; myths,
stories, and legends; religious
writings; philosophical works;
autobiographies; biographies;
histories; poetry; hymns; personal
essays; letters and court records.
Although many of these forms are
not usually defined as "literature"
they are given that designation in
Egyptian studies because so many
of them, especially from the Middle
Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE), are of
such high literary merit.
HAIKU
The best known form of Japanese
poetry, haiku is also one of the greatest
forms of poetry, alongside the sonnet
and the ode. It's flexible, it's easy to
read, and it's still going strong hundreds
of years after its birth.
A traditional haiku in Japanese has 17
on (roughly translated as "syllables") in
three phrases (5-7-5) of on
respectively. As with any art form,
however, different poets have bent the
rules, so many haiku these days simply
have three short lines.
TANKA
While not quite as popular in the 21st
century as haiku, tanka is an equally
interesting form of poetry. It’s like a
longer version of haiku, with a syllable
pattern of 5-7-5-7-7, and is just as
versatile.

SEDOKA

Join two katuata and you have a

sedoka! A rarer poem, it's composed of
two stanzas, each of three lines. Each
stanza has a syllable pattern of 5-7-7,
and the poem as a whole may address
a subject from two different
perspectives.

KATUATA

With a syllable pattern of 5-7-7 (and

sometimes 5-7-5), katuata is essentially
a slightly longer version of haiku.
However, katuata are often more
emotional than haiku, showing the
writer’s feelings as well as an external
image.

CHOKA

This is a versatile form, composed of

alternating lines of five and seven
syllables, with the last two lines having
seven syllables each. The total number
of lines is indefinite the shortest chōka
are nine lines long, the longest are up
to 150 lines. While it lacks the simplicity
of haiku and tanka, chōka does allow
the development of themes too long to
express in shorter forms.