Literature of the Philippines

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The literature of the Philippines started with fables and legends of pre-colonial Philippines down to the Mexican (New Spain) and Spanish influences, but there was a pre-hispanical writing system.

1 Archaic Writing System
2 Colonial Literature (16th-18th Century)
3 Classical Literature (XIX Century)
4 Modern Literature (XX Century)
5 Literature by languages
6 Notable People
7 Notable Works

[edit] Archaic Writing System

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines has very few artifacts that show evidence of writing. However literacy, with a script called Baybayin or Alibata, was widespread in Luzon when the Spaniards came in 1571.

The Spaniards recorded that people in Manila and other places wrote on bamboo and specially prepared palm leaves, using knives and styli. They were using the ancient Tagalog script which had 17 basic symbols, three of which were the vowels a/e, i, and o/u. Each basic consonantal symbol had the inherent a sound: ka, ga, nga, ta, da, na, pa, ba, ma, ya, la, wa, sa, and ha.

A diacritical mark, called "kudlit", modified the sound of the symbol. The kudlit could be a dot, a short line, or even an arrowhead. When placed above the symbol, it changed the inherent sound of the symbol from a/e to i; placed below, the sound became o/u. Thus a ba/be with a kudlit placed above became a bi; if the kudlit was placed below, the symbol became a bo/bu.

[edit] Colonial Literature (16th-18th Century)

The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language. The Spanish conquerors, governing from Mexico for the crown of Spain, established a strict class system that was based on race and soon imposed Roman Catholicism on the native population. Augustinian and Franciscan missionaries, accompanied by Spanish soldiers soon spread Christianity from island to island. Their mission was made easier by the forced relocation of indigenous peoples during this time, as the uprooted natives turned to the foreign, structured religion as the new center of their lives. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos.

The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.

In the early seventeenth century a Tagalog printer, Tomas Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized phonetic script, which would teach Tagalogs the principles of learning Castilian. His book, published by the Dominican press where he worked, appeared in 1610. Unlike the missionary's grammar (which Pinpin had set in type), the Tagalog native's book dealt with the language of the dominant rather than the subordinate other. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and published by a Philippine native. As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period. Pinpin construed translation in ways that tended less to oppose than to elude the totalizing claims of Spanish signifying convention

[edit] Classical Literature (XIX Century)

Classical literature (José Rizal, Pedro Paterno, Jesús Balmori, Huerta, Farolán, Licsi, Lumba, Castillo, etc.) and historical documents (the national anthem, Constitución Política de Malolos, etc.) were written in Spanish, which is no longer an official language. Nationalism was first propagated in the Spanish language, especially in the writings of Marcelo H. Del Pilar or "Plaridel" in the La Solidaridad publications. In Cebu, the first Spanish newspaper, El Boletin de Cebu, was published in 1886.

[edit] Modern Literature (XX Century)

See also: Spanish language in the Philippines

Ironically, the greatest portion of Spanish literature by native Filipinos was written during the American commonwealth period, because the Spanish language was still predominant among the Filipino intellectuals. One of the country's major writers, Claro Mayo Recto, continued writing in Spanish until 1946. Other well-known Spanish-language writers, especially during the American period were Isidro Marfori, Cecilio Apostol (Pentelicas, 1941), Fernando Ma. Guerrero (Crisalidas, 1914), Gaspar Aquino de Belen, Flavio Zaragoza Cano (Cantos a Espana and De Mactan a Tirad) and others.

Among the newspapers published in Spanish were El Renacimiento, La Democracia, La Vanguardia, El Pueblo de Iloilo, El Tiempo and others. Three magazines, The Independent, Philippine Free Press and Philippine Review were published in English and Spanish.

In 1915, the local newspapers began publishing sections in English. Cebu had its share of writers in Spanish, most of whom flourished during the early decades of the century. Although their output would diminish in later years, Jose del Mar won a Zobel Prize (Premio Zobel) for his work Perfiles in 1965.

In Asian literature, Filipinos especially excel in short stories. Leon Comber, the former British publisher of the Heinemann Writing in Asia Series and the head judge for the Asiaweek Short Story Competition commended the Filipino writers in his introduction to the book Prize Winning Asian Fiction, published in 1991 by Times Book International. He wrote: "Many of the best short stories came from the Philippines... because Filipino writers felt at ease using English as a medium of expression. In fact, their country is the third-largest English-speaking nation in the world and they take to writing in the language as a form of 'artistic expression' and show just as much zest and natural talent for it as they do for painting, music and the other arts."

[edit] Literature by languages

[edit] Notable People

Carlos P. Romulo - He was the first Asian to win America's coveted Pulitzer Prize in Journalism(English).
Jose Rizal
Marcelo H. Del Pilar
Francisco Balagtas
Amado V. Hernandez
Carlos Bulosan
Teodoro M. Locsin
Claro M. Recto

[edit] Notable Works

Biag ni Lam-ang - Ilocano epic.
Ibong Adarna
Florante at Laura
Doctrina Christiana
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo - both written by Jose Rizal in Spanish - created controversy among the Spanish authority in the Philippines. They were instrumental in creating a Filipino sense of identity during the Spanish colonial period by caricaturing and exposing the abuses of the Spanish colonial government and religious authority.
Ipaghiganti Mo Ako 1914 novel written by Precioso Palma available at Filipiniana.net
Bakit Siya Lumuluha 1907 novel written by Maximino M. Garcia, an online novel published by Filipiniana.net
Puso ng Isang Kolehiala 1923 novel written by Jesus Olega, an online novel published by Filipiniana.net
Manuvu's Tuwaang
Sulod's Hinilawod
Maranaw's Bantugan
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de Morga
Maragtas - A collection of legends of ten chiefs(datus) who escaped from the tyranny of Datu Makatunaw of Borneo to the island of Panay. The chiefs and followers are believed to be ancestors of the Visayans. The arrival is celebrated in the festival of the Ati-atihan ni Kalibo, Aklan.While they are legends, they are also based on actual facts and events. The legends were compiled into a book by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro in 1907.
The Good Fight - Manuel L. Quezon
Herbarium aliarumque stirpium in insula Luzone Philippinarum by Georg Joseph Kamel