Literary Period

Pre-Colonial
Introduction
philippine literature
Early Times - to
1564
Filipinos often lose sight of the fact that the first period of the Philippine literary
history is the longest. Certain events from the nation's history had forced lowland
Filipinos to begin counting the years of history from 1521, the first time written records
by Westerners referred to the archipelago later to be called "Las islas Filipinas".
However, the discovery of the "Tabon Man" in a cave in Palawan in 1962, has allowed us
to stretch our prehistory as far as 50,000 years back. The stages of that prehistory show
how the early Filipinos grew in control over their environment. Through the researches
and writings about Philippine history, much can be reliably inferred about precolonial
Philippine literature from an analysis of collected oral lore of Filipinos whose ancestors
were able to preserve their indigenous culture by living beyond the reach of Spanish
colonial administrators.
The oral literature of the precolonial Filipinos bore the marks of the community. The
subject was invariably the common experience of the people constituting the villagefood-gathering, creature and objects of nature, work in the home, field, forest or sea,
caring for children, etc. This is evident in the most common forms of oral literature like
the riddle, the proverbs and the song, which always seem to assume that the audience
is familiar with the situations, activities and objects mentioned in the course of
expressing a thought or emotion. The language of oral literature, unless the piece was
part of the cultural heritage of the community like the epic, was the language of daily
life. At this phase of literary development, any member of the community was a potential
poet, singer or storyteller as long as he knew the language and had been attentive to the
conventions f the forms.
In settlements along or near the seacoast, a native syllabary was in use before the
Spaniards brought over the Roman alphabet. The syllabary had three vowels (a, i-e, u-o)
and 14 consonants (b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, r, s, t, w, and y) but, curiously enough, had
no way of indicating the consonantal ending words. This lends credence to the belief
that the syllabary could not have been used to produce original creative works which
would all but be undecipherable when read by one who had had no previous contact
with the text. When the syllabary fell into disuse among the Christianized Filipinos,
much valuable information about precolonial culture that could had been handed down
to us was lost. Fewer and fewer Filipinos kept records of their oral lore, and fewer and
fewer could decipher what had been recorded in earlier times. The perishable materials
on which the Filipinos wrote were disintegrate and the missionaries who believed that
indigenous pagan culture was the handicraft of the devil himself destroyed those that
remained.
There are two ways by which the uniqueness of indigenous culture survived
colonization. First, by resistance to colonial rule. This was how the Maranaws, the
Maguindanaws, and the Tausogs of Mindanao and Igorots, Ifugao, Bontocs and Kalingas
of the Mountain Province were able to preserve the integrity of their ethnic heritage. The
Tagbanwas, Tagabilis, Mangyans, Bagobos, Manuvus, Bilaan, Bukidnons, and Isneg
could cling on the traditional way of life because of the inaccessibility of settlements. It
is to these descendants of ancient Filipinos who did not come under the cultural sway
of Western colonizers that we turn when we look for examples of oral lore. Oral lore they
have been preserve like epics, tales, songs, riddles, and proverbs that are now windows
to a past with no written records which can be studied.
Ancient Filipinos possessed great wealth of lyric poetry. There were many songs of
great variety in lyrics and music as well as meter. Each mountain tribe and each group
of lowland Filipinos had its own. Most of the may be called folksongs in that there can
be traced in them various aspects of the life and customs of the people.
Precolonial poetry were composed of poems composed of different dialects of the
islands. The first Spanish settlers themselves found such poetry, reproduced them, and
recorded in their reports and letters to Spain. Although precolonial poems are distinct
from the lyrics of the folksongs the said poems were usually chanted when recited, as is
still the custom of all Asiatic peoples and Pacific Ocean tribes. It is true that many of the
precolonial poetry is crude in ideology and phraseology as we look at it with our present
advanced knowledge of what poetry should be. Considering the fact that early Filipinos
never studied literature and never had a chance to study poetry and poetic technique, it

Introduction to philippine literature

Literary Period
After EDSA
1986 - Present

The year 1986 marks a new beginning of a new scene for Filipino writers and artists. It saw
the downfall of late President Ferdinand Marcos when he placed the Philippines under martial
rule last September 21,1972. This action does not only oppress the writers' right to free
expression but also created conditions that made collaboration and cooperation convenient
choices for artists' struggling for recognition and survival. Furthermore, the growth of
underground writing was created both in urban and in the countryside.
The popular "Edsa Revolution" (EDSA, a highway in Metro Manila that runs north to south
from Caloocan to Baclaran) has paved the way for the flight of the dictator and his family to
Hawaii, USA on February 24,1986. The revolt established the presidency of Corazon Aquino,
which marked the "restoration" of a pre-Martial Law society. However, the Philippines did not
recover that easily. The years that followed "Edsa" was a wild "roller-coaster" ride for many
Filipinos. The unease times was caused by natural disasters that left the economic plans in
shambles.
Militancy and belligerence best describes writing under the Martial Law regime. With the
overthrow of the enemy in 1986, however, the literary activity showed certain disorientation
manifesting itself in a proliferation of concerns taken up by individual writers and groups.
Creative writing centers after Edsa maybe grouped into two. Academic institutions where
Creative Writing is part of the curricular offerings, and students majoring in Literature are able to
come in contact with elder creative writers/critics/professors belonged to the first group. Such
academic institutions includes the Silliman University; the University of the Philippines; the
Ateneo de Manila University; De la Salle University; and last but not the least, San Carlos
University in Cebu.

Introduction to philippine literature

The second group is composed of writers' organizations that periodically sponsor symposia
on writing and/or set up workshops for its members and other interested parties. UMPIL (Unyon
ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipino), PANULAT (Pambansang Unyon ng mga Manunulat), Panday-Lipi,
GAT (Galian sa Arte at Tula), KATHA, LIRA (Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo), GUMIL
(Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano), LUDABI (Lubas sa Dagang Binisaya) and P.E.N.
Writers get to hear about new developments in writing and derive enthusiasm for their craft
through these twin centers. The two "unyon" function as umbrellas under which writers
belonging to a diversity of organizations socialize with fellow writers.
Award giving bodies, annual competitions and publications provide the incentives for writers
to keep producing. These actions perform the important service of keeping the writers in the
public consciousness, making it possible for commentators and audiences to identify significant
established writers and give attention to emerging new talents.
The National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), a post-EDSA state sponsored
institution, was created by the law in 1992, superseding the Presidential Commission on Culture
and the Arts which was established in 1987. The said institution has a Committee on Literary Arts
which funds workshops, conferences, publications and a variety of projects geared towards the
production of a "national literature". The committee has the aim of developing writing that is
multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and truly national.
Non-governmental organizations have helped hand in hand with some institutions in giving
recognition to writers from specific sectors in the society. These NGO's includes the Amado V.
Hernandez Foundation; the GAPAS foundation, and the KAIBIGAN.
Campus publications are another group of outlet that is of importance as a source of nontraditional, experimental writing. These campus publications could either be a weekly student
newspapers, quarterly magazines, or annual literary journals. The University of the Philippines
has the Collegian; The Diliman Review; and The Literary Apprentice. Silliman University has
Sands and Coral; Ateneo de Manila University issues Heights and Philippine Studies; De la Salle
University has Malate, Likha, and Malay to offer; University of Santo Tomas publishes The
Varsitarian.
Overall, the character of the Philippine literary scene after "EDSA" maybe pinpointed be
referring to the theories that inform literary production, to the products issuing from the
publishers, to the dominant concerns demonstrated by the writers' output, and to the direction
towards which literary studies are tending.
1. There is in the academe an emerging critical orientation that draws its concerns and
insights from literary theorizing current in England and the United States.
2. Post-EDSA publishing has been marked by adventurousness, a willingness to gamble on
"non-traditional" projects.
3. The declining prestige of the New Criticism, whose rigorous aesthetic norms has
previously functioned as a Procrustean bed on which Filipino authors and their works were
measured, has opened a gap in the critical evaluation of literary works.
4. The fourth and final characteristic of post-EDSA writing is the development thrust towards
the retrieval and the recuperation of writing in Philippine languages other than Tagalog.

Introduction to philippine literature