The Language of Literature

(The Love of Magdalena Jalondoni)

Lesson (6)

Introduction
This lesson explains the concept of literary meaning and how inference can help in the
appreciation of literary text. As you go along, be abreast that the activities prepared urges u to
know more about literature. In this lesson, it’s a literary text originated from Ilo-Ilo City,
Philippines. How amazing, isn’t it? Let’s go!

Objectives

You are expected to the following at the end of this lesson:

a. infer literary meaning from literal language based on language;

b. describe how literary meaning is created in the essay by way of characterization and

structure; and

c. respond critically to the essay and articulate this response through a presentation of a

short biography of a local woman writer from your area or region.

Try this!

Read the essay: THE LOVE OF MAGDALENA JALANDONI by Winon Lou G. Ynion (Iloilo),
after which, do the following tasks:

How did the essay go beyond the biographical details of the Hiligaynon writer?
Plot the development of the character or Jalandoni between the period of her birth and her death.
______________________________________________________________________________

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 Think ahead!

(See answer sheet)

Read and Ponder

The English Language is used to put together a poetic line that creates a rhythm out of
stressed and unstressed syllables. Prose also engages us by telling a story. A story makes us
believe in the plot and events even if they are fictional. The selection for this lesson is an essay
recreating the colorful and mysterious life of Magdalena Jalandoni, a writer from Western
Visayas. It reads like history, since it mentions biographical details about the person.

The Love of Magdalena Jalandoni was written by Winton Lou G. Ynion. Magdalena
Gonzaga Jalandoni was a Filipino feminist writer. She is now remembered as one of the most
prolific Filipino writers in the Hiligaynon language. Hailing from Western Visayas, her works
are said to have left permanent and significant milestones in Philippine literature. She was born
on May 27, 1891 and died on September 14, 1978. Her parents are Gregorio Jalandoni and
Francisca Gonzaga. Magdalena’s father died when she was two. At ten, she wrote her first
corridor, Padre Juan kag Beata Maria (Father Juan and Mother Maria) . At sixteen she wrote her
first novel Mga tunoc sang isa ca Bulac (Thorns of flower). When she was 18, her mother
wanted her to get married, but she had one unjust precondition, that he should write a novel
within the year. So, Magdalena remained single, wrote 37 novels, five autobiographies, eight
narrative poems, six corridos, ten plays, 213 lyric poems, 132 short stories, nine essays, and ten
melodramas. She is often considered as binukot (literally means “isolated”). At 75 she wrote
about this leitmotif of losses and finds in Juanita Cruz. Magdalena died at the age of 87. She
remains the reina of Hiligaynon literature.

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