Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Philippine Literature
Philippine Literature
Traditions
1. Ethnic Tradition
4. Contemporary Period
Ethnic Tradition
• Comprises oral lore identifiably precolonial in provenance and works that circulate within
contemporary communities of tribal Filipinos, or among lowland Filipinos that have maintained
their links with the culture of their non-Islamic or non-Christian ancestors
• Consists of works that how Spanish derivation or influence in the themes and forms employed,
and these may include literary works that are translations of original Spanish writings or
adaptations of the same
• Comprises works showing the impact of American colonial control, which facilitated through the
educational system the entry into Philippine literature of forms and themes from the literature
of England and the United States
Contemporary Period
• May show a merging of these three traditions as these are employed by creative artists in giving
literary expression to their response to historical and sociocultural forces that have shaped
Philippine society since the Pacific War
Ethnic Tradition
Philippine ethnic literature is a rich repository of ideas, ideals, and sentiments, preserved through
centuries of oral transmission. From the samples that exist, ethnic literature may be classified into three
groups:
1. folk speech
2. folk songs
3. folk narratives.
Folk Speech
1. Riddles
– Because it reveals subtle resemblances between two unlike objects, the riddle whets
one’s wits and sensitizes one’s perceptions of things often taken for granted.
– short sayings which encapsulate and preserve a community’s beliefs, norms, and codes
of behavior.
– Example: Gaano man ang tibay ng piling abaka ay wala ring lakas kapag nag-iisa.
3. Tanaga
Ex. Ang sugat ay kung tinanggap Di daramdamin ang antak Ang aayaw at di mayag Galos
lamang magnanaknak.
Folk Songs
• Lullabyes
– sung to put children to sleep; called oyayi by the Tagalog; often repetitive and
sonorous.
- Many lullabyes are didactic; some are plaintive, expressing the hardships of life, a
few express hope in the future
• Love Songs
• Drinking Songs
• Religious Songs
• Death Songs
Folk Narratives
• Folk Tales – generally called kuwentong bayan among the Tagalog, are of different types: myths,
legends, fables, and trickster tales.
• Epics
• Revolve around supernatural events or heroic deeds, and they embody or validate the
beliefs, customs, and ideals of a community.
• Either sung or chanted during communal affairs such as harvest, weddings, or funerals,
by bards chosen for their wisdom or age.
Folk Tales
Myths– often regarded as sacred, explain the origin and the goal of the cosmos; usually involve
divinities and spirits who interact with humans.
Legends (alamat) – about more recent events; used to teach lessons in life.
Fables – short tales, usually involving animals, which teach a moral lesson.
Trickster Tales – recount the adventures of clever heroes who outwit authority figures, usually
coming from the upper classes.
Spanish Colonial Tradition
• Written literature following the examples introduced by the colonial rulers was to set the forms
and the content of mainstream Philippine literature beginning in the 17 th century.
Categories of Literature
– Lyrics – include complimentary verses, or verses that praise the book in which they
appear to attract readers.
– Many complimentary verses were written by the so-called ladino, poets versed in both
Spanish and Tagalog.
– Romantics lyrics, metrical romance (awit and korido), propagandist and nationalistic
prose and poems
Religious Lyric
• Example: Dalit
– Being rather generic, the dalit has no fixed meter nor rime scheme-although a number
are written in octosyllabic quatrains-and ar eidentifiable only by their solem tone and
spiritual subject matter.
PASYON
• Recounts the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in octosyllabic quintillas
– Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Cristong Panginoon Natin na Tola (Gaspar Aquino de
Belen, 1704)
• Includes such forms as the dialogo (dialogue), the manual de urbanidad (conduct book), the
ejemplo (exemplum) and the tratado (tratado)
Examples
• Ejemplo: Ang Bagong Robinson (1879) by Joaquin Tuason/Barlaan at Josaphat (1712) by Antonio
de Borja
• Metrical Romance
• 229 Tagalog romances have been recovered, several of which have versions in
other loca languages; 69 romances in Bicol have been recovered, 66 in Ilongo,
65 in Pampango, 48 in Ilocano, and 5 in Pangasinan.
• Jose de la Cruz penned numerous romances, although only a handful, and none
of them complete, survive.
Trilogy
• Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Baba sa Kalupitan nang Fraile (Marcelo H. del
Pilar, ca. 1885)
1. Bajo los cocoteros (Under the Coconut Tree, Claro M. Recto, 1911)
2. Benigno del Rio – had the collection Prejicio de raza (Racial Prejudice)
3. Jesus Balmori – mastered the art of prosa romantica or romantic prose, writing in mellifluous
prose and employing images intricate and sensuous
2. Se deshoso la flor (The Flower Was Stripped of Its Petals, Jesus Balmori, 1915)
4. La vida secreta de Daniel Espena (The Secret Life of Daniel Espena, Antonio M. Abad, 1960) –
probably the last novel in Spanish
1. Didacticism
2. Romanticism
3. Social realism