Philippine Literatures Reviewer

Unit 1: Imaging the Filipino Man

Patriarchy has institutionalized masculinity as the bedrock structure that defin
es power, language, and perception
Feminists claim that
o Patriarchy acts as the mode of culture which dominates and denigrates wo
men
Basing from psychology’s definition
o Patriarchy creates caricatures which are damaging to both men (perennial
conquerors) and women (perpetually conquered)
“Mill of the Gods” – EstrellaAfon
Radical depiction of the Filipino man as an ignoble father and husband
Foregrounds the plenitude of literature in exploring how culture and politics em
blematize the patriarchal figure
Patriarchy
o Pio as the antagonistic husband, father and womanizer
o The man who left Martha for another woman
o The doctor who had a wife and secretly had an affair with Martha
Images/Symbols
o Pigtails: youth
o Knife/Gun: power, violence, bloodshed
o Window: freedom or lack thereof
o Flowers: beauty, gentleness, admiration or death
o Darkness: evil, ignorance, danger
o Saliva: disgust, hatred
o Mill of the gods: retribution or punishment (slow but certain)
o Crucifix: justice
Figurative Speech
o Simile: “…life must seem like a road given us to travel…”
o Hyperbole: “…both of them struggled and panted and had almost no breath left
for words.”
o Irony: “Even in play, there was some part of her that never managed to tak
e too great a part—she was so content if they always made her “it” in a game of tag, i
f only they would let her play… if only they would only include her in the fascina
ting games she could not play alone.”
Point of views
o Omniscent point of view if the story is all-knowing
o Dramatic like a play; dialogues
Biblical allusion, Muthological allusion, Legendary allusion
Characters
o Engracia flat character
o Martha dramatic/round character
Fates
o Clotho – weaver
o Lachesis – measure
o Atropos – cut
Espleta community
Twelve years old received a first scar from the gods
Literary pieces that bolster the myriad possibilities of interpreting the Filipi
no man as text and as a decentered object of desire: To the Man I Married & The
Spouse
“To the Man I Married” – Angela Manalang-Gloria
Romantic poem which delineates the man as the beloved
Presents a specific value judgment for a woman’s man – lover, protector, provider, e
lemental
Angela Manalang-Gloria
o Is versatile; lyric poet, pianist and editor
o “Poems” first and only pre-war anthology of poetry in English by a Filipino
Woman
o Rival of Jose Garcia Villa
o An idealist turned pragmatist
Metaphor: “You are my earth and all that earth implies”
“…the land that stills my cries…” you are my provider
“The Spouse” – Luis Dato
Explication of the young wife as the lover
Love abstract in the view of the human
“Her hair disheveled in the night of passion” manifestation of love
Oedipus the only one who was able to answer the mystery
Sender To the Man I Married The Spouse
Addresser wife observer
Addressee husband (earth) reader
Characteristics of man provider hardworking
Characteristics of woman realistic dissatisfied

Male Myth in Mass Media: masculinizing the Majority Model

Binary are oppositions
Gender myths generally influence lives as they stem from the difference b/w the
biological basis of sex and the cultural category of gender
o Sex an individual’s birthright
o Gender an individual’s construct in performing appropriate roles in societ
y
Men gaze (terrestrial beholders) and women are gazed upon (enchanting exemplars)
The Nature of Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics the study and the act of discovering meaning and interpretation
Interests are affixed as opinions and the values of individuals who espouse them
, determine their own perceptions or “world-view”
Value systems determine our “world-view”
Nature of interpretation is measured by the nature of the interpreter himself, d
etermined by the culture he is part of
People construct their own social realities because they are a product of these
realities
Our projection of meaning is inflected by our own truths, prejudices, and value
judgments
Unit 2: Imaging the Filipino Woman
“Vanity, thy name is woman”
significantOne or the inessential Other
Venus and MariangMakiling muse of love, nature, and inspiration
Medusa and Mangkukulam demonic entity casting evil spells and inflicting plagues
on otherwise orderly society
o Trademarks: mystery and ambiguity
Luna (the moon) deliberately feminized as a result of her variegated phases
Typhoons & hurricanes predominantly carry female names, evidenced by their errat
iv shifting fluxions
Nature characterized as an entity which can be preserved, cultivated, or destroy
ed, bears a “mother” label
Mater Dolorosa the silent, grieving mother whose agony and tears foreground her
equally agonizing Child
Femme fatale whose sly and proactive schemes lure her men of prey to their doom
“TungkungLangit and Alunsina” – adapted by F. LandaJocano
Panay-Visayan Folktale
 One of the most stiking depictions of how early Filipino folk conjure hypothetic
al answers to their seemingle problematic questions about the origin of sky, rai
n, and thunder
Glosses over the dichotomy of gender politics, as represented by the two gods: T
ungkungLangit(active male) and Alunsina(passive female)
TungkungLangit “Pillar of the Sky”
Alunsina “The Unmarried One”
Earth and sea trees and flowers necklace to star; comb to moon; crown to sun
TungkungLangit’s tears = rain; his sobbing = thunder
“BabaeAkongNamumuhaynangMagisa” – Joi Barrios
Deflects the tension afforded by the male gaze in constituting the woman, thereb
y rescuing her from the commodification and stereotyping brought about by patria
rchal idioms
Reader encounters a different kind of woman beset with a different kind of oppre
ssion
A woman not only denouncing the subjectivity ascribed to her by her biological n
ature, but the multiple binds of being a Third World woman marginalized in terms
of her gender, race, and class
Chandra TalpadeMohanty renowned third world feminist; critiqued the politics of l
ocation that arbitrarily positions women of color in relation to Western women i
n her essay “Cartographies of Struggle”
Myth as Metaphor, Symbol, and Archetype
Myths have always been regarded as significant prototypes in endorsing concrete
perspectives guided by customs and traditions
Carl Jung’s archetype
o Pictured as n image, symbol, or metaphor bearing a universal understandi
ng from people regardless of time, place, and backgrounds
o Are inherently universal
o Bear effects on the “collective unconscious”
o Evoke a representation of our existing culture, no matter how invariably
diverse they are in scope and essence, from the affixed symbol
o Northrop Frye – “Mythic Archetypes” “as realism is an act of implicit simile, myt
h is an act of metaphorical identity”
o Classical West: Pygmalion & Galatea and Samson & Delilah
o Our own folk literature: Malakas&Maganda and Makusog and DaragangMagayon
o Myths are frequently retold and revised in modern cultures and societies
– a living proof is their permanence and relevance
o Myths variantly showcase super and supra-realities determined in such a
way as to highlight, appropriate or event distort universally-construed ideas an
d narratives
Unit 3: Representing the Filipino Family
Family – universal social group that is significant in an individual’s social life;
fundamental social unit in Philippine society; serves as microcosm of Philippine
society; macro-social organization of Philippine society
Claudia and Her Mother By: Rolando Tinio – story that proves the uncanny but tragi
c relationship between an obedient daughter and her domineering mother
Nora Henderson– about 30, a sophisticated career woman
The mother – 62 years old, a woman of the previous generation; studied in Italy an
d sang all over Europe, Milan and Budapest; got married in 1939 to Celso
Ed Pasion – a journalist and man-about town
Time: The early sixties
First note (Talk to Mama) – found on top of the piano
Second note (gold chiffon dress, yellow shoes, yellow gloves, emerald necklace) –
on the table
Third note (Hello. Be around) – bed
Screwdriver – found in the freezer; Beer – in the piano
IU Bloomington –Claudia, Nora and Ed went in college together at _______
America in 1962 – Claudia went to ____ in ____
Columbia in New York – Nora went there for her Ph.D
Claudia’s grandfather – conducted symphony orchestra in Manila during the 30s
Conservatory – Claud left ___ after first semester
Ed’s father – valedictorian
Frank Henderson– Nora’s ex-husband
Motherhood – The Loneliest vocation is _____
Kenneth – Trombone player; ruining Claudia; has a wife in San Francisco
Mrs. Carney – married a grocer

The Sadness Collector By: MerlindaBobis- tale of Big Lady who feasts on scraps a
nd mounds of sadness to save a troubled child
Rica- 6 years old
Big Lady – only comes when you’re asleep to eat your sadness
3 years old- Rica was ____ when her father told her about big lady and just afte
r her mother left for Paris
Employer of Rica’s mom – will help Rica’s mom become legal

Breaking Through By Pena Reyes – foregrounds the reminiscences of a daughter about

her distant father while opening a gift
Box- require little labor
Belt- slapped sharply against my skin
10, 000 miles of ocean

Unit 4
Philippines – more than 1,000 islands
Traditions – we are bound by ____
Historiographicmetafiction framework – using this we can gather, assess, and imagi
ne how the past is lived through texts, traces, and traditions
The Wedding Dance By Amador Daguio – questions the value of a tribal tradition tha
t favors the blind perpetuation of its existence even at the expense of true lov
e and happiness
Awiyao and Lumnay – lovers; husband and wife
Child – a man must have a ____
Kabunyan– Lumnay was praying to
Chickens – Lumnay was sacrificing _____ in her prayers
Madulimay– Awiyao is about to marry _____
Gangsas– playing
Beads – only thing what Lumnay was asking for
Unit 5: Discovering Love and the Filipino
“Love will never obey our expectations for its mysteries are pure and absolute.”
“love” has taken varied connotations in accordance with the histories of time past
According to Ann Swindler, a historiographer, love was:
o in ancient Greece: adoration of a man for a beautiful young boy who serv
ed as the beloved to a lover, who functioned as mentor
o in 13th century England: pure allegiance of a knight toward another man’s
wife
o in Puritan New England: love between husband and wife
o in the Victorian era: the unconditional devotion of a mother to her
definition of love in the Philippine setting: family, Christianity, and other id
eological state apparatuses have set in place
o specific criterion: enduring love (bet. committed lovers, husband and wi
fe, parents and children, an individual to God, country and fellow human beings)
o relationships combine affection, assistance, and commitment, hierarchizi
ng love on physical, emotional, spiritual levels
some Filipinos are breaking free from the preconditioned norms
o living together w/o the sanctity of marriage
o remaining single or childless
o growing no. atheists and agnostics believing in personal spirituality, n
ot in communal religion
love is discoursed about from various and competing perspectives
o the romantics of love
how this abstraction is viewed as an ideal, aesthetic, romantic concept
o the imaging of love
how love is projected in advertising, film, and other forms of media
o the politics of love
how the lover and the beloved interrogate existing roles in terms of power relat
ions
o the commodification of love
how love is translated as goods, a form of production, investment, and capital
love is discoursed about from various and competing perspectives
love, though branded as a universal concept, can be concretized as distinctly Fi
lipino
“Bonsai” – Edith Tiempo
love in its simplest and most tangible form
bonsai – it is small but with complete components
2 things done to what the writer loves:
o (1)fold and (2)keep
“All that I love?”
o rhetorical question
o italics – to stand out
“Why, yes, but for the moment-
And for all time, both.”
o fig. of speech: paradoxical/oxymoron
o in mechanics: use of dash-
sudden break in thought
LOVE
Conscious choice
God
Man/woman Sublimated
Scaled down
Concretized Son’s note
Dad’s tie
Daughter’s picture
Shawl
Bill
sublimation – solid to gas
1. In Chemistry: it is the process to purify a substance
2. In Psychology: it is the conversion of biological attraction to emotions
what we keep: memories, love
seashells – representation of God’s creations
“From God’s own bright teeth,” – metaphor
child – represents the product of love

“Patalim” – Cirilo Bautista

accords with the metaphor of dagger the postulate of love
Themes
o Filipinos believe in the sacredness of marriage therefore a Filipino cou
ple tries to keep their family and relationship intact.
o How Filipino love conquers trials and conflicts.
o Misunderstandings lead to a better relationship when resolved.
Criticisms
o Sadistic type of love
o Irony- use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning
o The author expresses love as sadistic type of love then uses irony to gi
ve meaning to the poem
“sasaksakin ko siya sa likod”
“habang duguang pagsususuhin niya ang bunso”
“Hindi niya ako titigilan ng saksak sa batok”
“magbibilang kami ng sugat at tila mga gulanit na kaluluwa”
“at magtatawanan at magsusuntukan pa”
Conclusion
o The poem is actually about a Filipino couple making it through the simpl
e day to day family life.
o Married life is not perfect as it is. All marriages will go through tria
ls and hardships.
o To make a marriage work, both should be committed.
“Ang pagaasawa ay hindi parang kanin na basta basta na lang iluluwa kapag napaso k
a.”
“Laji 97” – translated by FlorentinoHornedo
Laji - oldest traditional music of the Ivatans in the islands of Batanes
o ancient lyrical songs that are supposed to be sung when they are merry o
r just finished work
Ivatans
o lived in Batanes before Spaniards arrived in the 16th century
o In 1686, Ivatans were "forced" to settle in the lowlands of Batanes
o they plant crops that are able to cope w/ the environment such as: yam,
sweet potato, taro, garlic, ginger and onion
o the sea is vital to the Ivatan s way of life
o delicacies: uvod and palek
o houses: made of cogon grass and designed to protect against strong winds
, made of limestone
o clothing: vakul (a headgear designed to protect against sun and rain, ma
de from abaca fiber)
o 3 different folk songs: laji, kanta, and kalusan
laji - ancient lyrical songs that are supposed to be sung when they are merry or
just finished work
kalusan - sung during work
o legend: “kabbata”
o rawod - chants that chronicle the adventures of the Ivatan s forefathers
as they escape a disaster
1st line: a rhetorical question
o “Whose face do I behold”
love is something that does not die
love – intellect or heart?
water – an element that reflects and an element that is consumed
Telling Love, Loving Tales: The tragedy of sublime romantic love
Romanticism flourished in the 18th century
Wirdsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats advocated “the spontaneous overflow of p
owerful emotions recollected in tranquility” and “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”
great Western literature has produced timeless tales of ill-fated characters
o Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
o Joseph Bedier’s “The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (Isolde)”
o John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
surge of “wrong love,” or “fatal love,” or “unconsummated love” struck a reverbative
n Western literature among its readers and writers
happy and consummated love has little history in literature
 true love becomes evident only when it becomes fatal and doomed by life itself
o what is moving in these stories is the realization that the character’s’ pas
sion for each other will never materialize and won’t perish either
passion in love requires suffering

Mill of the Gods

(3)Fates
1. Clotho-weave/spin
2. Lachesis- measure or make our destiny
3. Atropos- cut thread of our life
(4)Allusions
1. mythological
2. biblical
3. historical
4. legendary
Mill of the Gods
Circle=endless; cycle
Round/binamic character- character that changes
Items sa Pair Work:
1. Binary
2. Hermeneutics
3. Differentiation
4. Biological
5. Gender
Mga Pause sapagbasang poem?
1. End-stopped reading
2. Enjambment
3. Caesura
To The Man I Married
- Gumamitngmetaphor
- Earth=everything
- Gravity
- Land
- Food and shelter=protector
- Sets my north and south=direction
- Final elemental clay=death
- Dying holds crest to crest; blue of everlasting skies= immortality;memor
ies
The Spouse
Fashion=create
Clay of wrath and sorrow- Biblical allusion
Enigma= mystery
Sphinx- Mythological allusion fr.Oedypus
Breaking Through
Synaesthesia -combination of sight and heasing sound
Bonsai
-“Big things come from small packages”
-Edith Tiempo= only female National Artist
Rhetorical question- All that I love?
Ideas=oxymoron
Mechanics=e.g. punctuation mark
In Bonsai the dash represent continuation but sudden stop/break
Indian shawl= last winter in Iowa
Money bill= prize she won in contest
Sublimation= solid to gas
Cupped hand’s size= container of every manifestations of love
Seashells broken pieces= God’s creation; passage of time
“LOVE is a CONSCIOUS CHOICE”
Merest child=product of love; baby
Laji 97
Interrogative sentence =Rhetorical question is the start of the poem