21ST CENTURY 401

• Most literary works during the precolonial period were transmitted through oral tradition
• Early literary written forms of pre-colonial filipino were destroyed by the spanish friars
• Surviving text were restored because of resistance and geographical isolation
• Conventions of oral literature


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


  A literary scholar notable for his studies on Philippine folk literature
• Divisions of Philippine precolonial literature

  • Mythological Age
  • Heroic Age
  • Folktales from all ages
• 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 were 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


  An island in Eastern Samar where Magellan landed
• Limasawa


  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
• Spain's motives in colonizing the Philippines

  • Spice Trade
  • Converting Filipinos to Christianity
• Spice Trade


  Spices were more valuable than gold and the leading component of ancient commerce even before the 15th century
• Reduccion


  A means of relocation of scattered settlements to a large town, allowing 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, becoming 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
• Propaganda Movement


  Led by the Ilustrados, elite Filipinos who went to Europe to study, along with Andrew Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo, demanded independence from Spain
• 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
• 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
• Precolonial Philippine poetry


  Highlighted epics, riddles, folk songs, and proverbs that depicted the spiritual beliefs and everyday lives of natives
• Spanish colonial Philippine poetry


  Focused on religion and values, which became instruments in spreading Christianity and Spanish oriented culture
• Ladino


  Bilingual poem with religious themes, characterized by alternating lines or verses in Tagalog and Spanish, also refers to Filipinos who were fluent in both Spanish and Filipino
• Types of poems during the Spanish colonial period

  • Pasyon
  • Awit
  • Korido
  • Dalit
• Pasyon


  A narrative poem about the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, replaced the precolonial oral tradition, consists of five-line stanzas with eight syllables per line, the earliest known is Ang Mahal na Pasion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon natin na Tala in 1704
• Awit


  A narrative poem that consists of 12 syllables per line and four lines per stanza, has a slow rhythm and is usually accompanied by the use of a guitar or bandurya, expresses adoration of the blessed virgin mary as well as platonic and courtly love, a famous example is Francisco Balagtas's Florante at Laura
• Korido


  Another narrative poem that consists of eight syllables per line and four lines per stanza, has a faster rhythm compared to an awit, an example is Ibong Adarna
• Dalit


  A religious poem in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Francisco Balagtas


  One of the famous poets of the Spanish colonial period, wrote the awit "Florante at Laura", a metaphor for the tyranny of the Spanish colonizers, considered the master of traditional Tagalog poetry
• John Hay, the US Secretary of State, signed an agreement wherein Spain surrendered the remaining colonies of the Spanish empire, including the Philippines, to the United States for 20 million dollars


  April 11, 1899
• Education was first headed by American soldiers, and then teachers called the Thomasites, public education was made free, and the medium of instruction used was English, creating a new educated middle class in the country
• Alongside the use of English in education, Filipinos learned American models of thought, culture, and ways of life
• Impact of the American Colonial Period on literature

  • An initial boom in literature in Spanish before English became more widespread through promotion and schooling
  • Comics and satirical editorial cartoons began appearing in publications
  • Tagalog drama went from merely a form of entertainment to an expression of revolt
  • English sarsuwela (stage musicals) began to emerge
  • Filipino writers became apprentices to American writers, first learning to emulate their styles before creating their own
  • Essays and short stories became popular literary mediums