21ST CENTURY 401

• Characteristics of oral literature in the precolonial period

  • Common experiences of the community as subject matter
  • Communal authorship
  • Formulaic repetitions
  • Stereotyping of characters
  • Regular rhythmic and musical devices
• Mythological Age


  Period when ancestors told stories about the creation of human beings and the world, natural phenomena, and deities and spirits
• Heroic Age


  Ordinary mortals and cultural heroes became the chief subject matter, Epics became a popular genre, Chanted during important events to inspire people and remind the community of their ideals and values
• Folktales


  Traditional stories that had humans, animals, and even plants as characters, Fictional tales modified through successive retellings before being recorded and written down
• Baybayin writing system


  Derived from Kavi, a Javanese (Indonesian) script, Early Filipinos wrote on palm leaves or bamboo using knives as pens and sap from plants and trees as ink, Had seventeen basic syllables composed of three vowels and fourteen consonants
• The date that the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippine soil

  March 16, 1521
• Homonhon was an island in Eastern Samar where Magellan landed
• Limasawa was where the first Catholic mass in the country was celebrated
• Date that Fr. Pedro Valderrama baptized more than 500 natives along with Rajah Humabon


  April 14, 1521
• Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Prince Philip of Austrias
• The year King Philip II of Spain officially colonized the country and the new expedition to the first Governor – General Miguel López de Legazpi


  1565
• Six years later, he established his capital in Manila
• Spain's motives in colonizing the Philippines

  • Spice Trade
  • Converting Filipinos to Christianity
• Spice Trade


  More valuable than gold, spices were the leading component of ancient commerce even before the 15th century
• Reduccion


  A means of relocation of scattered settlements to a large town, which allowed Spanish friars to convert natives into Christianity
• Spanish priests believed that stories about mythical creatures, spirits, deities, and rituals contained works of the devil
• The parish priest was practically the only Spaniard who had direct contact with Filipinos, and became the embodiment of Spanish power and culture among the colonized populace
• The 333-year Spanish colonization ended with outbreaks of revolution and the rise of independence
• Members of the Reform Movement

  • Jose Rizal (Dimasalang / Laong Laan)
  • Marcelo H. Del Pilar (Plaridel)
  • Mariano Ponce (Tikbalang / Kalipulako)
• Revolutionaries


  • Andres Bonifacio (May Pag-Asa)
  • Emilio Jacinto (Dimasilaw)
• General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines from the Spanish colonial rule in his home in Kawit, Cavite


  June 12, 1898
• This freedom was short-lived because of the arrival of the Americans in the land
• Spanish influences on Philippine literature

  • The first Filipino alphabet called Alibata was replaced by the Roman Alphabet
  • Religious practices became based on the teachings of Christian doctrine
  • The Spanish language, which became the literary language during this time, lent many of its words to our language
  • European legends and traditions brought here became assimilated in our songs, corridos, and moro-moros
  • Ancient literature was collected and translated to Tagalog and other dialects
  • Our periodicals during the Spanish colonization gained a religious tone