PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

DURING
APPRENTICESHIP PERIOD
• With the establishment of public
schools in the country in 1901,
Filipinos have started to  engage
themselves in various forms of arts.
Literature most specially flourished in
this era. The apprenticeship period is
said to be a stage of ‘imitation’ of the
works of American writers because 
some of the works produced during
the period religiously followed poetic
structures without putting much
emphasis on creativity and the
message to be conveyed. However, it
was in the year 1925 when a major
shift in the period happened.
• In 1900 English came the sanctioned medium of instruction in
Philippine seminaries. The first preceptors were army men and
their women. In 1901 the Philippine Normal
School was innovated to train the
Filipino preceptors to take charge of abecedarian education.

• The period from 1910 to 1935 is commonly referred to as the

apprenticeship or imitation period. Virginia R. Moreno describes the
years 1910-1925 in her book "A Critical Study of the Shorty Story in
English Written by Filipinos" as "a period of novices with their
exercises in fiction-making and the rise of the new language."

• APPRENTICESHIP PERIOD (1900-1930)
• Filipino authors imitated American and English authors. This is not
surprising given that the early writers were mostly college students or
recent graduates whose literary education had been limited to American
and English authors.

• In 1908, the University of the Philippines was established. It became the

focal point of the literary effort. The first issue of the UP Folio was
published in September 1910. This publication was recognized as an
example of Filipinos' early attempts at self-expression in English
• The Philippine Collegian took over for the UP Folio. Philippine Review, Independent,
Rising Philippines, and Citizens were among the other publications that introduced the
public to Philippine literature in English.
• The Philippine Herald, the first Filipino daily in English, was established in 1920. It paid for
the literary work it published, providing a financial reward to English writers, particularly
those who write short stories.
• Two significant events marked the start of the apprenticeship period. In the year 925 A.D. V.
H. Jartendorp was appointed as editor-publisher of the Philippine Education Magazine. This
quickly evolved into the Philippine Magazine, the most influential literary publication of its
time. In the same year, the Manila Tribune was founded. It began publishing a Sunday
supplement with original English-language short stories and poems. Other journals followed,
and there was a market for Filipino literary output in English, albeit a small one.
• In 1927, the UP writers club was established, and the Literary Apprentice, the
country's most prestigious college literary publication, was launched. The Bureau of
Education also published Philippine Prose and Poetry in the same year, which was
used as a high school textbook. Furthermore, with the publication of Walt Whitman's
unconventional "Man Songs," Jose Garcia Villa introduced Walt Whitman to the
Philippines, ushering in a wave of experimentation and rapid development. Literary
contests boosted literary output even more. The first of these was provided by the
Philippine Free Press in the field of short stories. The short story has become the
most popular form among Filipino writers. The first anthology of Philippine short
stories written in English was published by the Free Press in 1927. During this time,
short stories were either romantic tales of the past with legendary characters or
imitations of plots and themes from American and other foreign sources.
• Paz Marquez-"Dead Benitez's Stars" was the most significant short story produced
during this time period. On September 20, 1925, it was published in the Philippines
Herald. Her colleagues immediately recognized the story as far superior to any other
Filipino short story published up to that point. The first English novels were
sentimental. The cultural foundation of literature was too shaky to support the
sustained, complex tradition required for a novel. The first Filipino novel in English,
"Child of Sorrow," by Zolio M. Galang, was published in 1924.
 ASSIGNMENT #1

GIVE YOUR OWN FURTHER EXPLANATION

ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO PHILIPPINE
LITERATURE DURING THE
APPRENTICESHIP.
 REFEREFERENCES
• https://jobmartin.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/ph
ilippine-literature-during-the-apprenticeship-per
iod-1900-1930/
• http://linglithumanities.blogspot.com/2011/10/n
otes-on-apprentice-ship-period-1910.html