21st Literature – PRELIMS

1st CHAPTER

Literature
- Came from the Latin word, Litteratura, which means writing formed with letters.

Things that makes up literature:

- Ingredients
- Forms
- Categories
- Genres

INGREDIENTS
- Subject
• Any work of literature is about something, and for this reason, it has a
subject.
- Form
• The manner in which the writer communicates the subject
- Point of View
• The angle of vision of the narrator.
▪ 1st Person POV – “I,” “You” “Me,” “We…”
▪ Third person omniscient POV
▪ Limited omniscient POV

FORMS
- Prose
• Most everyday writing is in prose form.
• Ideas are contained in sentences that are arranged into paragraphs.
- Poetry
• Language incorporate rhyme and rhythm that contribute to a different
sound and feel.
• Ideas are contained in lines. Lines are arranged in stanzas.

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

CATEGORIES
- Fiction
• Not real
• Derived from imagination
• Novels, Novelettes, Novellas, Short story, flash fiction

- Non – Fiction
• Real life
• Journalistic writing, technical writing, academic writing
• Memoirs, autobiographies, biographies

GENRES
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Drama
• A story that’s meant to be enacted whether on stage, on TV, or even on
radio.
• Categorized into two:
▪ Tragedy
▪ Comedy
- Creative Non – Fiction
• The telling of stories—real and factual—that uses literary techniques in
crafting the story. Meaning they feel like they’re fictional books, except that
they aren’t.

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

2nd CHAPTER - Approaches in Appreciating Literature

Literary Theory
- The process of understanding what the nature of literature is, what functions it
has, what the relation of text is to author, to reader, to language, to society, to
history.
- It is not judgment but understanding of the frames of judgment.
Literary Criticism
- The study, evaluation, and interpretation of a literary text, and finding out what
makes it outstanding.

LITERARY THEORY
- Author-dependent approach
- Text-dependent Approach
- Reader-dependent Approach

AUTHOR DEPENDENT APPROACH

- Historical- Biographical Approach
• Assumes that a text is a reflection of the author’s life and times.
• “What does the work reveal about the author or the history?”

- Moral- Philosophical Approach

• An approach as old as classical Greek and Roman critics
• The larger function of literature is to teach morality
• Judges the value of literature on its moral or ethical teaching:
▪ Literature that is ethically sound and encourages virtue is praised;
▪ Literature that misguides and/or corrupts is condemned.

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

TEXT DEPENDENT APPROACH

- A style of inquiry that focuses on the features of the literary text itself.
- Emphasis on the FORM.
- Evaluates inherent features of a text.

- Structuralism
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Identifies textual feature (grammatical rather than rhetorical) of a literary
text
• Semiotics– study of signs
▪ Sign= Signifier/Signified

READER DEPENDENT APPROACH

- The “meaning” is an interpretation created or constructed or produced by the
reader (informed readers or competent readers).
- Reader response theorists like to ask questions like:
• How do we feel when we read a certain poem or a passage from a novel?
• Why do we feel that way?

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

OTHER SCHOOLS OF CRITICISM

Feminism
- Analyzes how sexual identity influences the reader of the text.
- Examines how the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or
reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving
equality.
Gender Criticism
- Examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary
works.
- Originally an offshoot of Feminism.
Marxism
- Focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often emphasizing the
ideological content of literature.
- Illuminate political and economic dimensions of literature other approaches
overlook.
Psychological Criticism
- Notable figure of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud who introduced the idea of
“wish fulfillment, sexuality, unconscious, and repression” and the idea of “id, ego,
and superego.”

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

3rd CHAPTER - Philippine Folk Literature

Early Forms of Literature

- Folklore
• Myths
• Folktales
• Legends
• Fables

Folklore
- Collection of fictional stories about animals and people, of cultural myths, jokes,
songs, tales, and even quotes.
- Traditions, customs, and stories that are passed along by word of mouth in a
culture—Oral Literature/ Orature
- Collected and written down only after they have been told for many years.

Myth
- Stories that answer and explain basic questions about the world, gods, and
natural occurrences.
- Deal with gods and goddesses who have human emotions.
Legend
- A story about a person, event, or place, that may have some basis in historical
facts.
- Characters are usually larger in life.
Fable
- A tale that illustrates a clear, often direct moral.
- Characters are often animals with human characteristics.
- Moral follows the story, usually in one sentence or simple summary.
Folktale
- Characters are ordinary humans.
- Some have magical features (fairytale as a subcategory)
- Themes and issues are relevant for all ages.

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

Philippine Folk Literature

- Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through their folk
speeches, folk songs, folk narratives, and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances.

University of the Philippines Professor, Damiana Eugenio, classified Philippines Folk

Literature into three major groups:
- Folk narratives
- Folk speech
- Folk songs

Classification of Philippine Folk Literature

Folk Narrative
- Either be in prose:
• myth
• alamat (legend)
• kuwentong bayan (folktale)

- Or verse
• folk epic.

Folk speech
- Bugtong (riddles)
- Salawikain (proverbs)

Folk songs
- folk ballads

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

4th CHAPTER - Philippine Literature during the Spanish Colonization

Timeline of Spanish Colonization

- The Spanish first viewed the Philippines as a stepping stone to the riches of the
East Indies (spice island).
- Ferdinand Magellan headed the first Spanish foray to the Philippines and he
reached Cebu on March 1521.
- King Philip II sent Miguel Lopez de Legazpi who established the first permanent
Spanish settlement in Cebu on 1565.
- By the end of the 16th Century, most of the coastal and lowland areas from
Luzon to Northern Mindanao are under Spanish control. In 1595, Manila was
decreed to be the capital of the Philippines.

Life of the Filipinos during the Spanish Colonization

- Government of the Friars
- Racial Discrimination
- Socio – Economic Classes

Religious Prose and Poetry

- Written by Ladino poets (those versed in both Spanish and Tagalog).
- Used in catechism
• Pasyon
- Prose narratives were written to prescribe proper decorum.
• Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza

Secular Prose and Poetry

- Followed the conventions of a romantic tradition.
- Leading poets: Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw) and Francisco Balagtas.
• Awit and Korido (Metrical Romance) like Ibong Adarna and Florante at
Laura

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

The Propaganda Movement

- Aimed to seek reforms and inform the Spain of the abuses of its colonial
government.
- Members of the Propaganda Movement were called Propagandists or
Reformists.
- They worked inside and outside of the Philippines.

Goals of the Propaganda Movement

- Recognition of the Filipinos as a province of Spain.
- Equal status for both Filipinos and Spaniards.
- Philippine representation in the Spanish cortes.
- Secularization of Philippine parishes.
- Recognition of Human Rights.

La Solidaridad
- La Solidaridad (The Solidarity) was an organization created in Spain. The
organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of its colony, the
Philippines, and to propagate a closer relationship between the colony and
Spain.
- The official newspaper of the Propaganda Movement.

Members of La Solidaridad (with pen names)

- Dr. José Rizal (Laong Laan at Dimasalang)
- Marcelo H. del Pilar (Plaridel)
- Graciano Lopez Jaena (Fray Botod/Diego Laura)
- Antonio Luna (Taga-Ilog)
- Mariano Ponce (Tikbalang, Kalipulako, Naning)
- Jose Maria Panganiban (Jomapa)

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

Graciano Lopez – Jaena

- Born on December 18, 1856, from Jaro, Iloilo
- At the age of 18, he wrote Fray Botod
- Leading literary and oratorical spokesman
- Genesis of the Propaganda Movement
- Founded La Solidaridad

Marcelo H. Del – Pilar

- Born on August 30, 1856, from Kupang, Bulacan
- Propagandist & Satirist
- 1882: founded the newspaper Diariong Tagalog
- 1889: succeeded GLJ as Editor of La Solidaridad

Jose Rizal
- José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
- Considered as the National Hero of the Philippines
- Penned the political novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

5th CHAPTER - Philippine Literature during the American Colonization

Life of the Filipinos during the American Colonization

Language
- English was proposed by President McKinley to be the language used at
schools.

Education
- Thomasites
- Public Schools
- Filipino Scholars

Literature
- Common Themes:
• Desire for love and freedom
• Love for the country
• Fight against colonialism and imperialism

- Changes of Philippine Literature

• Literary forms (free verse, modern short story, critical essays)
• Literary modernism highlighted writer’s individuality, cultivated
consciousness, expense of social consciousness

Group of Writers
- English
- Filipino
- Spanish

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

Three-time frames of Philippine Literature in English

- Period of re-orientation
- Period of imitation
- Period of self-discovery

Period of Re-orientation
- Writers were still adjusting to the new found freedom different from the Spanish
regime.

Period of Imitation
- Writers imitated the styles of British and American writers which resulted to
unnatural and rigid styles of writing.

Period of Self-discovery
- Writers had acquired the mastery of English writing.

Prominent Filipino Writers During The American Period:

Jose Garcia- Villa
- Penname: Doveglion
- A powerful literary influence in the Philippines
- Espoused the dictum “art for art’s sake”
- Introduced comma poems and reversed consonance
- Named as a National Artist for Literature on 12th of June 1973

John Kenneth C. Famero

21st Literature – PRELIMS

Angela Manalang- Gloria

- Was among the first-generation female students at University of the Philippines
- Literary rival of Jose Garcia Villa
- Literary editor of the Philippine Collegian
- She was the author of Revolt from Hymen.

Paz Marquez-Benitez
- Trained in the American education system and earned a Bachelor’s degree at the
University of the Philippines
- Became a teacher at UP teaching short story writing (1916-1951)
- Wrote Dead Stars and A Night in the Hills
- Compiled the 1st anthology of Philippine stories in English, “Filipino Love Stories”
in 1928
- Founded Philippine Woman’s College
-

John Kenneth C. Famero