Philippine Literature

American Colonial Period

 American
Free
verse Colonial
Period

New Literary Modern

short
Forms story

Critical
essay
 American influence

• medium of instruction Philippine

English • Anglo-American Literature in
English

Literary • writer’s individuality

Modernism • consciousness of craft Social
consciousness
Poetry in free verse

Jose Garcia Villa

“Art for art’s sake”
Angela Manlang-Gloria
Illicit love
a woman poet described as ahead of
her time
“Seditious works”

encouraged people to disobey the

government
Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Bannawag
– weekly outlets
Modernism in poetry

Alejandro G. Abadilla (AGA)

“Ako ang Daigdig”
departure from the traditional rhymed,
measured and orally recited poems
 “Ako ang Daigdig”
Alejandro G. Abadilla
I II
ako ako
ang daigdig ang daigdig ng tula
ako
ako ang tula ng daigdig
ang tula
ako ang malayang ako
ako matapat sa sarili
ang daigdig sa aking daigdig
ng tula ng tula
ang tula
ng daigdig ako
ang tula
ako sa daigdig
ang walang maliw na ako
ang walang kamatayang ako ako
ang tula ng daigdig ang daigdig
ng tula
ako
 “Ako ang Daigdig”
Alejandro G. Abadilla (2)

III damdamin daigdig

ako larawan tula
ang damdaming buhay ako…
malaya tula
ako
ako
ang larawang IV
buhay ako
ang daigdig
ako sa tula
ang buhay
na walang hanggan ako
ang tula
ako ang damdamin sa daigdig
ang larawan
ang buhay ako
ang tula
Writing Criticism

Salvador P. Lopez
Commonwealth Literary Award in 1940
“Literature and Society” – art must have substance
Period of Apprenticeship

 imitation of the style of storytelling and strict adherence

to the craft of the story as practiced by popular
American fictionists
 short story writers – Andersons or Saroyans or
Hemingways of Philippine letters
 University of the Philippines (1908)
U.P. Writer’s Club – enhance and propagate the
“language of Shakespeare”
Dead Stars – short story of Paz Marquez Benitez
maturity of the Filipino writer
first successful short story in Philippine English
combination of borrowed tongue while dwelling
on Filipino customs and traditions
discourses on cultural identity, nationhood and being
a Filipino done in English language
Balagtasan

debate in verse, a poetical joust

invented by the Tagalogs, in honor of Francisco
F. Balagtas
Jose Corazon de Jesus – “Huseng batute”
first king of Balagtasan
What’s lacking?

Imagination of writers?

Nope.

The coming together of writers in the various

languages, share experiences and come to
a conclusion on the elements that constitute
good writing in the Philippines.
Which of the two pictures best
describes a farm?
Luis G. Dato

Isarog
authority on the Bicol language and
culture
journalist and writer of Bicol
graduated political science in
University of the Philippines
 Day on the Farm
(Luis G. Dato)
ANSWERS ONLY
1. Who is the persona in the poem? Describe
him/her.
2. Who is the addressee of the poetry? Describe
him/her.
3. What is the conflict of the story presented in the
poem?
4. What is/are the strength/strengths of the poetry?
5. What does this poem tell us about the literary texts
during American colonial period?
 Day on the Farm
Luis G. Dato

I’ve found you fruits of sweetest taste and found you

Bunches of duhat growing by the hill,
I’ve bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you
With rare wildflowers but you are crying still.
 Day on the Farm (2)
Luis G. Dato

I’ve brought you all the forest ferns and brought you
Wrapped in green leaves cicadas singing sweet,
I’ve caught you in my arms an hour and taught you
Love’s secret where the mountain spirits meet.
 Day on the Farm (3)
Luis G. Dato

Your smiles have died and there is no replying

To all endearment and my gifts are vain;
Come with me, love, you are too old for crying,
The church bells ring and I hear drops of rain.
Connecting Ideas

Upon knowing Philippine literary

development during American period,
what then is Dato’s Day on the Farm
trying to depict, as a representation of
literature in the era?
A.W. Tozer

“Be sure that human feelings can never be

completely stifled. If they are forbidden their
normal course, like a river they will cut
another channel through life and flow out
to choose, and ruin, and destroy.”