21st CENTURY LITERATURE

Litera - Latin word which literally means an “acquaintance with letters”.

Literature
- Webster defines literature as anything that is printed.
- Body of work, either written, oral, or visual, containing imaginative language.
- Product of a particular culture that concretizes man’s array of values, emotions, actions and
ideas.
- “Literature raises life to a new level of meaning and understanding, and in the process restores
sanity and justice in an insane and unjust world.” By Cirilo F. Bautista

PRE SPANISH LITERATURE - Characterized by Folk tales, The Epic age, and Folk songs

FOLK TALES - Made up of stories about life, adventure, love, horror, and humor where one can DERIVE
LESSON.

Example: THE MOON AND THE SUN

THE EPIC AGE - LONG narrative poems, a series of heroic achievement or event, usually a hero, are dealt
with at length.

FOLK SONGS - One of the oldest forms in the Philippine literature

- Mirrored the only forms of culture

- 12 syllables

- Manifest the artistic feeling of Filipinos

- Shows their inmate appreciation for and love of beauty.

Example: Kundiman, Kumintang o Tagumpay, Ang dalit o imno, Ang ayayi o Hele, Diana, Soliraning,
Talindaw

PRE-SPANISH LITERATURE - Period may be classified as RELIGIOUS prose and poetry and secular prose
and poetry.

SPANISH INFLUENCES ON PHILIPPINE LITERATURE - First Filipino alphabet ALIBATA

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE - Basis of religious practices in Spanish Influence on Philippines literary

RECREATIONAL PLAYS - Poetric form such Cenaculo, Panunuluyan, Salubong, and Zarzuela

PERIOD OF ENLIGHTENMENT (1972-1898) - Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe called ILUSTRADOS

began to write about the HITCH OF COLONIZATION.

THE PROPAGANDA MOVEMENT (1872-1896) - Spearhead mostly by intellectual middle class like Jose
Rizal, Marcelo Del Pilar, and so on.

THE AMERICAN REGIME (1898-1944) - American influence Filipino writers using English language
 - Language used in writing were Spanish and Tagalog

- Lamentations on the conditions of the country

- Attempts to arouse love for one native tongue.

JOSE GARCIA VILLA - Became famous for his FREE VERSE in period American Regime (1898-1944)

THE JAPANESE PERIOD (1941-1945) - Philippine literature was interrupted in its development.

- Philippine literature in English cane to HALT

- Led all newspaper not to be circulated in the community except TRIBUNE and PHILIPPINE
REVIEW

HAIKU - Free verse poem that japanese like

- Made up of 17 syllables divided into 3 lines

TANAGA - Short but had measured and rhyme.

KARANIWANG ANYO (Usual form)

PHILIPPINE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH (1941-1945) - Strict prohibition imposed by japanese in writing and
publishing works in English.

- Experienced a dark period

- Philippine Tagalog was revived during this period.

THE PERIOD OF ACTIVISM (1970-1972) - According to PACIANO PINEDA youth activism on 1970-1972
was due DOMESTIC AND WORLDWIDE CAUSES.

PERIOD OF NEW SOCIETY (1972-1980) - Carlos Palanca awards continued to give annual awards. Poems
dealt with patience, regard for native culture, customs, and beauties of nature and surroundings.

PERIOD OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC (1981-1985) - Military rule and some changes in the life of Filipinos,
which started under the new society

- Martial law was at last lifted

POST EDSA 1 REVOLUTION (1986-1995) -Filipino people regained their independence, which lost 20yrs
ago.

-Four days before Feb 21-25,1986, so called People Power (Lakas ng bayan) prevailed.

21ST CENTURY

- Technologies

- Modern
OVERVIEW OF THE PHILIPPINE LITERARY HISTORY

PRE-COLONIAL TIMES

• Showcase a rich past through their folk speeches, folk songs, folk narratives, and indigenous
rituals and mimetic dances.

Folk speeches:

- Riddle or tigmo in Cebuano

- Bugtong in Tagalog
- Paktakon in Ilongo
- Patototdon in Bicol

PROVERBS or APHORISM – Express norms or codes of behavior, community belief by offering bits of
wisdom, rhyming verse.

TANAGA – Mono-riming heptasyllabic (7), quatrain (4 line-stanza) expressing insights and lessons on life.

Example: SALAWIKAIN

FOLK SONGS – Folk lyric which expresses people’s hope, aspiration, and lifestyles

- Traditional songs and melodies

- Inspired by reaction of people to their environment
- Often repetitive and sonorous

Example:

• UYAYI – lullaby
• KOMINTANG – war song
• KUNDIMAN – melancholic love song
• HARANA – serenade
• TAGAY (cebuano/waray) – drinking song
• MAMBAYU – kalinga rice-pounding song
• SUBLI – dance-ritual song of courtship/marriage
• KONOGAN (Cebuano) – song of lamentations

NARRATIVE SONGS – uses for subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes.

AMBAHAN

- Traditional Poetry of Hanunoo Mangyans of Oriental mindoro

- Inscribed on bamboo using pre-colonial syllabic writing system called SURAT MANGYAN
- Usually chanted
- Teaches lesson about life
- Recited by parents to educate their children.
- Occasion like burial rites, used for entertainment
MYTHS AND LEGENDS – explain how world was created, how animals possess certain characteristics

• STORY OF BATHALA
• LEGEND OF MARIA MAKILING

ANCIENT METRICAL TALE

• Ifugao – hudhud ni aliguyon

• Ilocos – biag ni lam-ang
• Bicol – ibalon
• Mindanao – darangan
• Panay - hinilawod
• Bagobo – tuwaang
• Kalinga – ulaliim
• Manobo – agyu or olahing
• Subanon – sandayo

ALIGUYON – he battles his arch-enemy pambukhayon

BIAG NI LAM-ANG – adventures of lam-ang who exhibits extraordinary Power

IBALON – story of three bicol heroes: baltog, handiong, bantong.

HINILAWOD – oldest and longest epic poem of panay. Exploits of three sulodnon demigod brothers

THE SPANISH COLONIAL TRADITION

- Array of religious prose and poetry.

- Religious lyrics versed in both Spanish and Tagalog were included in early catechism and used to
teach Filipinos the Spanish language.
- PASYON – Filipino’s commemoration of Christ agony and resurrection at Calvary.
- PROSE NARRATIVE – Written to prescribe proper decorum; used for proselytizing.
- Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes.
- Convention of romantic tradition
- Secular Poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in Tagalog (e.g florante at laura,
ibong adarna)
- PROPAGANDA POSE
Noli me tangere and el filibusterismo helped usher in Philippines revolution resulting in the
downfall of Spanish regime.

THE AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD

- New set of colonizers

- brought about new changes in Philippine literature.
 Free versed in poetry

• Jose Garcia Villa –“art for arts sake”

• Angela Manalang Gloria – woman poet used free verse and talked about illicit love in
her poetry
- Alejandro G. Abadilla promoted modernism in poetry. Influence young poets who wrote
modern verses in the 1960s.

Modern short story

- Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead stars”- the first successful short story in English written by Filipino
- Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional skills with short story.
- Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña, and Patricio Mariano were writing minimal
narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction called dali or pasingaw (sketch).

Novels
- Adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who also penned Ang Palad ni
Pepe after Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield
- Realist tradition was kept alive in the novel by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar.
- Vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines like liwayway, bisaya,
hiligaynon, and bannawag.

Essay
- Essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present.
- Salvador P. Lopez’s criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literary
Award for the essay in 1940 with his “Literature and Society.”

THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

- Flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially with the
appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence of committed
literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.
- Requirement by the Commission on Higher Education to teach Philippine Literature in all tertiary
schools in the country.

STUDY AND APPRECIATION OF LITERARY TEXTS

LITERATURE

- Written form of expression

- Reflects his view or opinion on life and living.

Two main divisions of literature

POETRY - Rhythmical language

- Written according to patterns of lines

PROSE – Written in sentences and paragraphs.

POETRY

A. NARRATIVE POETRY – Describes important events in life either real or imaginary.

• EPIC - Extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control.
Ex: THE HARVEST SONG OF ALIGUYON translated in English by Amador T. Danguio
• METRICAL TALE - Written in verse and can be classified as a ballads or metrical
romance.
Ex: BAYANI NG BUKID (HERO OF THE FIELDS) by Al Perez
• BALLADS - Considered as simplest and shortest.
- Tells single incident
- Referred to a song accompanying a dance.

B. LYRIC POETRY - Poetry meant to be sung to the accompaniment of lyre.

- Applies to any type of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet.
- Usually short, simple, and easy to understand.
• FOLKSONGS (AWITING BAYAN) - Short poems intended to be sung.
- Common theme love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope and sorrow.
Ex: CHIT-CHIRIT-CHIT
• SONNETS - Lyric poem of 14 lines
- Two types: Italian and Shakespearean
Ex: SANTANG BUDS by Alfonso P. Santos
• ELEGY - Lyric poem expresses grief and melancholy and theme of death.
Ex: THE LOVE’S DEATH by Ricaredo Demetillo
• ODE - Poem of noble feeling, express with dignity - No definite number of syllables or
line in stanza.
• PSALMS (DALIT) - Song praising God or virgin mary - Containing philosophy of life.

PROSE

• SHORT STORY – Prose fiction that can be read in single sitting

- Produces single effect
- Few characters & one setting
- SINGLE CHARACTER
• NOVEL - Long work of fiction
- Contains more characters, settings, complicated plots, and subplots
 - UNFOLDING PLOT
PLAYS- Presented on stage
- Divided into acts
- Each act has many scenes
- STRUGGLE OR CONFLICT
Ex: THIRTEEN PLAYS by Wilfredo M. Guerrero
• LEGENDS- Fictitious narrative about origins
Ex: THE BIKOL LEGEND by Pio Duran
• FABLES - Fictitious and deal with animals and inanimate things who speak and act like people.
- Purpose to enlighten the minds of children
Ex: THE MONKEY AND THE TURTLE
• ANECDOTES - Merely product of writers imagination - Main aim to bring out lesson to readers
Ex: THE MOTH AND THE LAMP

A.NON-FICTION - Literature that's true

• BIOGRAPHY - Story about person written by someone else.

- PERSONAL GROWTH
• AUTOBIOGRAPHY - Story about person written by the person
• ESSAY - Short prose composition about particular subject.
• NEWS WRITING – Prose writing about recent events.

POEM - Imagination, emotions, rhythm

A. PLOT - Events (action) of the story

• EXPOSITION - Opening situation
- Conflict or problems
- Beginning events.
- Introducing characters, settings, etc.
• RISING ACTION - Events in central part of story where various problems arise
- Leads to climax
• CLIMAX - Event that changes main character
-Turning point
• FALLING ACTION - Event that follow climax
- Action or dialogue lead to resolution
- Helps reader solve the conflict
• RESOLUTION (DENOUEMENT)- Event happens at the end to help solve the conflict.
B. CONFLICT- Struggle between opposing forces
– Problems and complications in story
• INTERNAL CONFLICT (MAN VS HIMSELF) - Conflict within the character
• EXTERNAL CONFLICT - Struggle with an outside force or problem.
▪ MAN VS MAN - One against one
▪ MAN VS NATURE - One against an element or animals
▪ MAN VS SUPERNATURAL - One against ghost, fantasies, etc.
C. CHARACTERIZATION - Description of people in story
• STATIC CHARACTER - Remains the same
• DYNAMIC CHARACTER - Changes during story; grows and develop
 • STEREOTYPE (CONSISTENT) - Acts like you would expect him/her to act.
• PROTAGONIST - Hero, main character, good guy
• ANTAGONIST - Person against the protagonist.
D. FLASHBACK - Info about past
E. FORESHADOWING - Clues of what to come
F. POINT OF VIEW - Who is telling the story.
• FIRST PERSON – One of characters in Story is telling the story.
• THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT – Narrators knows feeling and thoughts of all characters.
• THIRD PERSON LIMITED OMNISCIENT – Narrator knows the feeling and thoughts of
ONE characters.
• THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE (CAMERAS VIEW) - We know what characters are doing, not
what they're thinking or feeling.
G. SETTING – Time and place of events.
TIME- When events take place
PLACE- Where events take place
H. THEME - Central message about life or human nature; Universal truth.
I. SYMBOL – Object that stands for idea or belief.
J. IRONY - Statement, action, or situation that opposite of what normally means or what is
expected.
• VERBAL IRONY - Opposite of what is meant.
• SITUATIONAL IRONY – Something happens that is opposite of what is expected.
• DRAMATIC IRONY - Reader knows something a character doesn't know.
K. MOOD - Readers feeling gets from reading an authors words (overall feeling of work).
L. MORAL – Lesson taught by a lesson.
M. STYLE - How the author writes
- Choice and arrangements of words
- Use of language
N. DIALECT - Non-standard - Sub-group of a language that often reveals region, economic, or social
class
O. SUSPENSE – Anxious feeling uncertainty about outcome of events.
P. REALISM - Actual or possible experience in story.
Q. TONE - Writers attitude toward sub, character, or audience (the way feelings expressed).
R. DICTION - Writers choice of words
S. SYNTAX- Arrangements of words in sentence
– How writers construct sentences
T. IMAGERY - Descriptive words
- Phrases that appeal to senses.
U. DENOTATION - Dictionary definition of words.
V. CONNOTATION - Not original definition of word.
- Cultural meaning
W. IDIOM – word or expression peculiar to certain language.
• BLANK VERSE – Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter.
• FREE VERSE – Poetry that has no regular pattern of rhythm or rhyme
- Generally arrange in lines.

AFFIX - Prefix or suffix

PREFIX - Addiction to beginning of a word

SUFFIX - Addiction to end of a word

ROOT - Base of the word

- Essential part

SIMILE - Comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as.

HYPERBOLE - Outrageous exaggeration.

ALLITERATION – Repetition of consonant sounds.

ASSONANCE - Repetition of vowel sounds at the beginning of the word.

PERSONIFICATION – When animal or object given human qualities.

ONOMATOPOEIA - Words that mimic the sounds they describe

ALLUSION - Reference from arts, history, literature, mythology, politics, religion, sports, or science.

INFERENCE - Educated guess

ANALOGY – Comparison using something that is familiar to explain something that is unfamiliar.

CONVENTIONAL AND 21ST CENTURY GENRES

POETRY – Imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound and rhythmic
language choices to evoke qn emotional response.

DRAMA – Composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict
more contrast of character.

FICTION – Created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on true story or
situation.

NON-FICTION – Based on facts and the author’s opinion about a subject.

21ST CENTURY LITERATURE GENRES

ILLUSTRATED NOVEL – 50% of narrative is presented without words.

- Textual portions are presented in traditional form

- Illustrated novels may contain no text at all
- Illustrated novels span all genres.
Ex: The invention of hugo – Brian Selznick and The arrival – Shaun Tan
DIGI-FICTION – literary experience that combines three media; book, movie, and internet websites.

- Triple media literature

Ex: Skeleton Creek – Patrick Carman’s and Level 26 – Anthony Zucker’s

GRAPHIC NOVELS – Narrative work in which story is conveyed to the reader using comic form.

- Term is employed in a broad manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked
short stories as well as fictional stories across a number of genres.
Ex: Archie Comics – John Goldwater and illustrator Bob Montana

MANGA – Japanese word for comics

- Used in English speaking world as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels
originally published in japan
- Considered as artistic and storytelling style.
- Ameri-manga used to refer to comics created by American artists in manga style.
• Shonen – Boy’s manga (Naruto, bleach, one piece)
• Shojo – Girls Manga (sailormoon)
• Seinen – Men’s Manga (akira)
• Josei – Women’s Manga (loveless, paradise kiss)
• Kofomo – Children’s Manga (doreamon, hello kitty)

DOODLE FICTION – Literary presentation where author incorporates doodle writing, drawing, and
handwritten graphics in place of traditional font.

Ex: The diary of wimpy kid by Jeff Kinney and Timmy failure by Stephan Pastis

TEXT-TALK NOVELS – Blogs, email, and IM (Instant Messaging) format narratives

- Stories told almost entirely in dialogue simulating social network exchanges.

CHICK LIT or CHICK LITERATURE – Addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and
lightheartedly.

- Features a female protagonist whose femininity is heavily thermalizing in the plot.

Ex: The night before Christmas by Scarlet Bailey’s and it started with a kiss by Miranda
Dickson’s

FLASH FICTION – Style of fictional literature of extreme brevity

- No widely accepted definition of the length and category. It could range from word to a
thousand.

SIX-WORD FLASH FICTION

- Earnest Hemingway: for sale: baby socks, never worn.

- Margaret Atwood: longed for him. Got him, shit
CREATIVE NON-FICTION – Known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction

- Writing that uses Literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.
- Still relatively young and is only Beginning to be scrutinized with same critical analysis given to
fiction and poetry.
Ex: 1000 gifts by Ann Voscamp and wind, sand, and stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

SCIENCE FICTION – Speculative fiction dealing with Imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and
technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universe and extra-terrestrial life.

- Explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations and called “literature of
ideas”.
Ex: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and kingdom of ash by Sarah Maas

BLOG – Weblog, website containing short articles called Posts that are changed regularly.

- Written by one person containing his/her own opinions, interests, and experiences, while others
are written by different people.

HYPER POETRY – Digital Poetry that uses links and hypertext mark-up

- Either involved set words, phrases, lines, etc. that presented in variable order but sit on the
page much as traditional Poetry does or can contain parts of the poem that move and
transform.
- Found online, through CD-ROM and diskette versions exist.
- Earliest example date to no later than mid-1980s.

LITERARY CONTEXT OF 21ST CENTURY PHILIPPINE NATIONAL

LITERATURE

BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT or AUTHORIAL CONTEXT – Places a particular Literary work within the context
of an author’s life.

- Circumstances under which the Literary work was written.

Under my invisible umbrella by Laurel Fantauzzo

- essay talks about Filipino-italian who was born in United States.

- Encountered problems with people treating her as “extra special” in the Philippines.

Catch a falling star by Cristina pantoja Hidalgo

- Collection of realistic short stories that revolve around child character named trissy or
“patriciang payatot”.

SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT – Literary works respond in some way to the society, which they were
written and most often these responses take the form of criticism.

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE

CRITICAL APPROACHES – different perspectives we consider when looking at a piece of literature.

BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM – Argues that we must take an author’s life and background into account
when we study a text.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM – Views a text as a revelation of it’s author’s mind and personality.

SOCIOLOGICAL CRITICISM – Argues that social context (social environment) must be considered when
analyzing text.

MARXIST CRITICISM – Emphasizes economic and social conditions. Literary shows class struggle and
materialism.

- Social classes portrayed in the work. - Text serve as propaganda material.

- Based on political theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
- Concerned with understanding the role of power, politics, and money in literary text.

FEMINIST CRITICISM – Concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in literary text.

NEW HISTORICIST CRITICISM – Argued that every literary work is product of it’s time and world.

FORMALIST CRITICISM – Emphasizes form (style, structure, tone, imagery) of literary work to determine
its meaning

- Focusing on literary elements and how they work to create meaning.

READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM – Asserts that a great deal of meaning in a text lies with how the reader
responds to it.

QRUEER THEORY – Concerned with the queer or the third. Perspective itself was named in 1991.

HISTORICISM – Traditional historical criticism is a perspective dealing with the history that influenced
the writing of literature.

POSTCOLONIALISM – Looks into the changes in the attitude of the post colonies after the colonial
period. Dependence or independence of decolonized countries or people are being examined.

LINGUISTICS CONTEXT – Discourse that surrounds language unit and helps determine its interpretation.

STRUCTURALISM – Relays texts being examined to a larger structure.

FORMALISM (NEW CRITICISM) – School of literary theory that focuses on the structure of particular
text.

POST-STRUCTURALISM – Reaction to structuralism. Underlying structures that may have different

interpretations based on how the words or phrases were used in the text.