The Trail We Blaze: On Philippine Literary History and Its Beginnings

Coming as I am from the provinces, the resounding advice that was given to us
in workshops and other colloquiums would be that literary production is of the utmost
importance. It was drilled into us that there was a dearth of materials in the local
languages and that as aspiring writers, this could and should be our niche: to contribute
to a growing local literature so that the future generations would be better off than we
were when we began. And this has been my focus mainly, especially with all the genre
courses that we have taken in this master’s program. I thought I could leave all the
criticism and literary studies to the critics themselves, of which we have a few. However,
my readings tell me that the critics that we have, especially in the local scene, are too
few, and that however much we produce quality literary outputs, it would be in vain if
there are no people to study them, evaluate, and validate their place in the country’s
literary history, if not the canon.
“Pero sa likhang-isip, at sa likhang-isip lamang, ay pantay noon ang babae sa
lalaki” (Cruz 210). I don’t know why that still came across as a shock when I read it but it
did. (I think it also didn’t help that it was a guy who said that so the tone came across as
condescending). However, some paragraphs later, it is heartening to read that
“Naunang binatikos ng ating mga manunulat ang isyu ng jender, o ang gahum ng mga
lalaki sa mga babae” (210). Because of its dominant place in the structure of society,
patriarchy was one of the first issues that our writers took up arms against, something
that continues to this day, with the inclusion of LGBTQ+ issues. “Patuloy at walang
pagod na binabatikos ng ating mga manunulat at ng ating mga likha ang apat na
halimaw ng panitikan…” (216). This was a very encouraging statement, if there ever
was one, on the state of our literature. The fact that our literature has always been
‘laban-gahum’, so subversive and counterhegemonic, speaks so much of the range and
diversity that our literature has, because there are a lot of things to subvert. However,
Cruz also noted that, “…hindi nagbabago ang tema at estilo ng ating literatura, dahil
wala naman talagang pinagkaiba sa lipunang ginagalawan at sinasalamin nito” (242).
This is perhaps one of the biggest issues that we have because it is one that involves
development. Although the problem of existence and identity will always be around
since it is above all a question of philosophy, perhaps what moors us still to this
fundamental issue is the fact that we haven’t really, definitively developed our own. For
the most part, what I read from our local literature are still modernist concerns, because
we haven’t moved on from the issue of who we are – we are still a little disillusioned
about it. Added to this is the notion of what’s national, an issue that will remain as
complicated and multi-faceted as the several thousand islands that we have. Gonzales
in Gruenberg says that, “…nationalism as the dynamic and unifying motive in the search
for a national language (also becomes, as in the case of the Philippines), a motive often
in conflict with an equally dynamic but divisive force arising from the wellspring of ethnic
loyalties and regional alliances” (3). What is national is difficult to think about if the
literary identity of the local has not been figured out yet.
Notwithstanding all these issues, I think it is still an exciting time to be alive at this
stage of Philippine literature. I used to think that there was nothing new to be done
anymore because Waray literature has an already established poetic tradition, and
although we lack in the fiction department, I was never that gifted in that aspect so it

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was a stalemate. Now, however, more avenues open up, more ways to contribute to the
existing collection of materials that we have. There is still creative nonfiction, a genre
that I believe is not fully explored yet in Waray. And of course, there are all those
materials that haven’t been studied yet, materials that I believe are there but are waiting
for capable eyes to look into them and preserve them by studying them. I hope to train
my eyes enough to be able to study them capably. That is one trail I would like to blaze.

Works Cited:

Cruz, Isagani R. “Ang kasaysayan ng literaturang Filipino, part 1”, in The Alfredo E.
Litiatco Lectures of Isagani R. Cruz: 1996. p. 231-242.
_____________. “Kasaysayan ng literaturang Filipino”, in Bukod na bukod: mga piling
sanaysay: 2003. p. 208-216.
Gruenberg, Estrellita V. “The changing canon of Philippine literature: a historical
perspective”, in Likha 16 (1): 1995-1996. p. 1-10.

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