PHILIPPPINE LITERATURE HISTORY

• Philippine Literary History (Bienvenido Lumbera)

  • Oral Lore from Pre-colonial Times (
• Pre-colonial Period


  • Considered to be the longest period of Philippine literature
  • Use of native syllabary (baybayin)
  • Literature was mostly oral in tradition
  • Literature bore the mark of the community
• Characteristics of Oral Literature


  • Spontaneous and instinctive
  • Uses the language of daily life
  • Crude in ideology and phraseology
• Conventions of Oral Literature

  • Formulaic repetitions
  • Stereotyping of characters
  • Regular rhythmic and musical devices
• Common Literary Forms in Pre-colonial Period

  • Riddles (Bugtong)
  • Proverbs (Salawikain)
  • Short Poems
  • Chants (Bulong)
  • Folksongs (Awiting Bayan)
  • Prose Narratives (Myths, Legends, Folktales, Fables)
  • Rituals and Dance (Drama)
  • Epics
• Riddles (Bugtong)


  A traditional verbal expression containing one or two descriptive elements, a pair of which may be in opposition to each other, the referent of the elements is to be guessed
• Riddles


  • Bumbong kung liwanag, kung gabi ay dagat (answer: mat or banig)
  • Kinain na't naubos, nabubuo pang lubos (answer: moon or buwan)
• Proverbs (Salawikain)


  Customarily used and served as laws or rules on good behavior and as practical guides in living life by our ancestors. These are like allegories or parables that impart lessons for the young
• Proverbs


  • Mayaman ka man sa sabi, Dukha ka rin sa sarili (In words you may be rich; in fact, you remain poor)
  • Kaya ipinakataas-taas nang dumagundong ang lagpak (It was raised to such a height that it might have a resounding fall)
• Short Poems


  Mostly quatrains (4 lines) with monorhyming heptasyllabic (7 syllable) lines. The Hanunoo-Mangyans of Mindoro call these poems ambahan. In Sanlucar and Noceda's Vocabulario de la lengua tagala (1854), these short poems were given the name tanaga
• Short Poems


  • Ang aba ko, kapatid, nag-iisa ang sinulid, kung sa gayon mapatid, sa papan malilibid (Alas for me, my friend, Solitary is the piece of thread; once it snaps at the bobbin, it ends up tangled in the heddle-rod)
• Chants (Bulong)


  Commonly used in witchcraft and enchantment
• Chants


  • Dagang Malaki, dagang maliit, Ito ang ngipin kong sira na't pangit, Sana ay bigyan mo ng bagong kapalit
• Types of Folksongs (Awiting Bayan)

  • Kundiman (songs of love)
  • Kumintang o Tagumpay (songs of war)
  • Ang Dalit o Imno (songs for Visayan gods)
  • Ang Oyayi o Hele (lullaby)
  • Diona (songs for wedding)
  • Soliranin (songs for laborers)
  • Talindaw (songs for fishing)
  • Panambitan or Tagulaylay (song for the dead)
• Prose Narratives


  • Myths (Mito)
  • Legends (Alamat)
  • Folktales (Kuwentong Bayan)
  • Fables (Pabula)
• Myths (Mito)


  Deal mainly with the creation of the universe, the origin of man, the gods and supernatural beings, and native culture heroes
• Legends (Alamat)


  Are prose narratives like myths that are regarded true by the narrator and audience but are set in a period more remote, when the world was much as it is today
• Folktales (Kuwentong Bayan)


  Are made up of stories about life, adventure, love, horror and humor where one can derive lessons about life. These are useful to us because they help us appreciate our environment, evaluate our personalities and improve our perspectives in life
• Fables (Pabula)


  Are stories that use animals as characters and are meant to impart lessons
• Rituals and Dance (Drama)


  Drama has not yet evolved during the pre-colonial period and its simplest form are mostly mimetic dances imitating natural cycles and work activities
• Epics


  Long heroic narratives which recount the adventures of tribal heroes. Characteristics: narratives of sustained length, based on oral tradition, revolves around supernatural events and heroic deeds, in the form of verse, either chanted or sung, and has a certain seriousness of purpose, embodying or validating the beliefs, customs, ideals, or life-values of the people
• Epics


  • Bidasari-Moro epic
  • Biag ni Lam-ang-Ilokano epic
  • Maragtas-Visayan epic
  • Parang Sabir-Moro epic
  • Indarapatra at Sulayman
• Spain imposed to the Filipinos the Spanish monarchy and Roman Catholic religion during the Spanish Colonial Period (1565-1897)
• Parish priests had direct contact to the Filipinos during the Spanish Colonial Period
• Printing press was brought by Spanish missionaries during the Spanish Colonial Period
• Spanish priests, through the printing press, ensured that literatures centered on Catholic religion during the Spanish Colonial Period
• Common Literary Forms during Spanish Colonialism

  • Religious Literature
  • Secular Literature (Komedya, Awit, Korido)
  • Other Secular Literature (Carillo, Tibag, Duplo or Karagatan, Zarzuelas)
  • Prose (Urbana at Feliza, Ninay)
  • Literature and the Propaganda Movement and the Revolution (Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, Ang Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab ng Taong Baba sa Kalupitan ng Fraile, Liwanag at Dilim, Katapusang Hibik ng Pilipinas)
• Religious Literature


  Literature centered on Catholic religion
• Religious Literature


  • May Bagyo Ma't May Rilim (1605)
  • Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon Natin (1704)
  • Sinakulo
• Secular Literature


  Native poetic theater, narrative poems
• Secular Literature


  • Komedya
  • Awit (Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar)
  • Korido (by Jose de la Cruz)
• Other Secular Literature


  Carillo, Tibag, Duplo or Karagatan, Zarzuelas
• Prose


  Novels and books of manners
• Prose


  • Urbana at Feliza (1864)
  • Ninay (1885)
• Literature and the Propaganda Movement and the Revolution


  Novels, poems, and short essays that were critical of Spanish rule and aimed to establish Philippine independence
• Literature and the Propaganda Movement and the Revolution

  • Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891) by Jose Rizol
  • Ang Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab ng Taong Baba sa Kalupitan ng Fraile by Marcelo H. Del Pilar
  • Liwanag at Dilim by Emilio Jacinto
  • Katapusang Hibik ng Pilipinas by Andres Bonifacio
• Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the United States for $20 million in the Treaty of Paris in 1898
• The institutionalization of the public education system in the Philippines occurred in 1901 under American colonial rule
• English became the medium of instruction in the Philippines during the American colonial period
• Three Time Frames of Philippine Literature under U.S. Colonialism (1898-1945)

  • The Period of Re-orientation (1898-1910)
  • The Period of Imitation (1910-1925)
  • The Period of Self-Discovery (1925-1941)