The document discusses two major developments introduced during the American period in the Philippines that influenced Philippine literature: 1) free public education for all children, and 2) the use of English as the medium of instruction in public schools. This opened up access to knowledge and information for many more Filipinos and improved their social status. Literature produced during this period was influenced by western modes of thought and embraced English.
The document discusses two major developments introduced during the American period in the Philippines that influenced Philippine literature: 1) free public education for all children, and 2) the use of English as the medium of instruction in public schools. This opened up access to knowledge and information for many more Filipinos and improved their social status. Literature produced during this period was influenced by western modes of thought and embraced English.
The document discusses two major developments introduced during the American period in the Philippines that influenced Philippine literature: 1) free public education for all children, and 2) the use of English as the medium of instruction in public schools. This opened up access to knowledge and information for many more Filipinos and improved their social status. Literature produced during this period was influenced by western modes of thought and embraced English.
American Period in the Philippines was spurred by two significant developments in education and culture. One is the introduction of free public instruction for all children of school age and two, the use of English as medium of instruction in all levels of education in public schools Free public education made knowledge and information accessible to a greater number of Filipinos.
Those who availed of this education
through college were able to improve their social status and joined a good number of educated masses who became part of the country’s middle class. ESSAY If we look back at our history, we know that Spaniards colonized Philippines first before the Americans. It is also to be noted that even before Spaniards came to the country, the Philippines has already had its own literature traditions. Every group of people based on their languages already have their own epics which were recited on different occasion. Several of these epics, however, were already lost because they were just passed on through oral traditions.
History also showed that when Spaniards went foot in
the country, the people whom they knew as indios, already have their own legends or alamat, riddles or bugtong, proverbs or sayings, love poetries and love songs.
These show how creative the minds of early Filipinos
are. But of course, due to the power of colonization, these artistic products and way of literature were influenced, and some traditions and way of thinking were added. Philippine Literatures during the time of Spaniards were mostly religious since they inculcated Catholicism in the nation’s culture. These became the trend before Americans came. ESSAY The thing about colonization is that they come, they see, and if they don’t understand what they saw, they conquer. When Americans set foot in our country, they spurred two major developments which influenced Philippine Literature. These are developments in education and culture. Americans introduced the free educational instruction for all children of school age. Since English is the first language of Americans, it became the medium of instruction in all levels of public schools. This open new opportunities for Filipino children since they have gained more knowledge and information.
Those who have experienced and availed of this kind
of education have improved their social status which made them became part of the middle class. This influenced the type of literature tradition of Filipinos. Since the stories and theme shifted from being religious to the idea of hope through education. ESSAY The other advancement brought by Americans is the development in culture. The use of English language introduced Filipinos to western’s mode of thoughts and way of living that were embedded not only in the literatures produced but also in the perception of the educated middle class. To sum it all up, American’s development in education and culture made the Philippine Literatures vibrant in English MODERN SHORT STORY DR. LILIA QUINDOZA-SANTIAGO Philippine literary production during the American Period in the Philippines was spurred by two significant developments in education and culture. One is the introduction of free public instruction for all children of school age and two, the use of English as medium of instruction in all levels of education in public schools.
Free public education made knowledge
and information accessible to a greater number of Filipinos. Those who availed of this education through college were able to improve their social status and joined a good number of educated masses who became part of the country’s middle class. MODERN SHORT STORY The use of English as medium of instruction introduced Filipinos to Anglo-American modes of thought, culture and life ways that would be embedded not only in the literature produced but also in the psyche of the country’s educated class. It was this educated class that would be the wellspring of a vibrant Philippine Literature in English.
Philippine literature in English, as a direct
result of American colonization of the country, could not escape being imitative of American models of writing especially during its period of apprenticeship. The poetry written by early poets manifested studied attempts at versification as in the following poem which is proof of the poet’s rather elementary exercise in the English language: FREE VERSE POEM Vacation days at last are here, And we have time for fun so dear, All boys and girls do gladly cheer, This welcomed season of the year. In early June in school we’ll meet; A harder task shall we complete And if we fail we must repeat That self same task without retreat. We simply rest to come again To school where boys and girls obtain The Creator’s gift to men Whose sanguine hopes in us remain. Vacation means a time for play For young and old in night and day My wish for all is to be gay, And evil none lead you astray
The poem was anthologized in the first
collection of poetry in English, Filipino Poetry, edited by Rodolfo Dato (1909 – 1924). Among the poets featured in this anthology were Proceso Sebastian Maximo Kalaw, Fernando Maramag, Leopoldo Uichanco, Jose Ledesma, Vicente Callao, Santiago Sevilla, Bernardo Garcia, Francisco Africa, Pablo Anzures, Carlos P. Romulo, Francisco Tonogbanua, Juan Pastrana, Maria Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Luis Dato and many others. Another anthology, The English German Anthology of Poetsedited by Pablo Laslo was published and covered poets published from 1924-1934 among whom were Teofilo D. Agcaoili, Aurelio Alvero, Horacio de la Costa, Amador T. Daguio, Salvador P. Lopez, Angela Manalang Gloria, Trinidad Tarrosa, Abelardo Subido and Jose Garcia Villa, among others. A third pre-war collection of poetry was edited by Carlos Bulosan, Chorus for America: Six Philippine Poets. The six poets in this collection were Jose Garcia Villa, Rafael Zulueta da Costa, Rodrigo T. Feria, C.B. Rigor, Cecilio Baroga and Carlos Bulosan NOVEL This essay recovers a once celebrated but now forgotten Filipino novel in English, Juan Cabreros Laya’s His Native Soil (1941), which marked the emergence of realism during the Philippine Commonwealth’s slow, decade- long transition to independence from the United States. Whereas the novel was originally praised as a landmark text in Philippine literature in English, His Native Soil was later dismissed by postwar critics as an imitative, formally flawed, and stylistically inferior work. Taking up Roberto Schwarz’s challenge to advance a reading practice that takes into account the difference between literature and social structure in the colonial periphery, I argue that rather than viewing His Native Soil’s improbabilities of plot and tonal dissonances as artistic flaws, they are more meaningfully read as the author’s attempt to adapt the realist protocols of the bildungsroman to capture the double- edged nature of independence: the adoption of a trade policy that would economically bind together the Philippines and the United States and that would render political freedom impossible for Filipinos unless relations of colonial dependency were to be continued after independence.