English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3

Teacher Education Department

La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

Module 3: Overview of Local and International Literature

JOSE RIZAL

His nickname was Pepe

According to many, Jose Rizal is the greatest genius and hero of the Philippines. He
wrote two novels that energized the nationalism movement and the revolution during
the time of the Spaniards: Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) and El
Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed). Like the works of Shakespeare, his writings are
interpreted to have various meanings. Among the most ardent of his admirers are the
Kababaihang Rizalista and The Knights of Rizal. His “Last Farewell” was written at
Fort Santiago (and is said to have been smuggled out inside an oil lamp). His writing
is appreciated not only by Filipinos but also by other countries that use the Spanish
language. He was born in Calamba, Laguna, on June 19, 1861. He was killed on
December 30, 1896.

VIRGILIO ALMARIO

This great Filipino poet is known by his pen name “Rio Alma.” He is a National
Artist for Literature.

JOSE CORAZON DE JESUS

Known as the King of the Balagtasan and as Makata ng Puso, José Corazón de Jesús
was born in Manila on November 22, 1896. He wrote Tagalog poetry during the
American occupation of the Philippines (1901-1946).

His most famous work is the Tagalog poem Bayan Ko (My Country, 1929), which
was used as lyrics for a patriotic song that became popular during the dictatorship of
Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s. His pen name was Huseng Batute. He died on May
26, 1932, and is buried in Manila’s North Cemetery.

NICK JOAQUIN

Winning the National Artist award for Literature, Nick Joaquín is probably the most
esteemed writer the Philippines has produced. Joaquin came from a well-educated
family and was published at the early age of 17. After winning a scholarship in a
nationwide essay contest, he left the Philippines to study in Hong Kong. On his return
to Manila he worked for many years as a journalist, and his highly intellectual writing
raised the standards of journalism in the country. Joaquin’s book, The Woman With
Two Navels is essential reading in Philippine literature. However many of his short
stories, such as “May Day Eve,” are extremely accessible and enjoyable for those new
to the Philippines.
 English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3
Teacher Education Department
La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

JOSE DALISAY JR.

Jose Dalisay Jr. writes a popular online column where he’s more commonly known by
his pen name, Butch Dalisay. Dalisay was imprisoned during Martial Law, and his
experiences from this portion of Philippine history are brought to life in his first
novel, Killing Time in a Warm Place. His second novel, Soledad’s Sister tackles the
plight of overseas Filipino workers, and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary
Prize in 2007. Within the Philippines, Dalisay has won 16 Palanca Awards, the
country’s highest prize for literature.

Killing Time in a Warm Place – Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr.

There were about eight of them; my father woke me up as gently as he could,

and I found myself staring into the barrel of a carbine.  I was being arrested,
they said, for violation of the anti-subversion law.  I thought they were
exaggerating; I wrote manifestos and such, and I was 18; I was a flea.

A few days later we were trucked off to a new “detention” site — the Ipil-
Rehabilitation Center in Fort Bonifacio… We sat on benches in the evening
and watched the Marlboro sign in the Guadalupe skyline.  Sometimes, it
almost seemed serene.  There was terror roaming about the country, and it
would reach us with every new incoming batch, and now and then someone
would get picked on by the guards and beaten up…

Most of us would eventually be released under one amnesty or other.  My

own deliverance walked straight out of Kafka:  one day in August, an officer
arrived with a sheaf of papers, among which were mine.  I was taking a
shower when I heard my name being called over the PA system:  “Dalisay, to
the guardhouse!”  The news, at the guardhouse, was always either very good
or very bad.  The officer looked at me and said:  “Dalisay, are you still here?
We have nothing on you.  Pack your bags and go home.”  I had been in
prison for most of 1973 — seven months and four days — not bad, by
martial-law standards.
Plot

The novel tells the story of every man, woman and child who lived during the time of
martial law under Marcos’ orders.  The internal conflict of every Filipino during these
times, whose blood boils at being under the martial rule:  voices suppressed, souls
enchained and spirits crushed; and the human desire to stay alive, thus; silencing the
inner cries that long to be heard and simply learning to survive.

Overview

The story starts with the protagonist, Noel Bulaong, reminiscing about his childhood
days in his native land in Kangleong, somewhere in the Visayas region.  He is on a
flight going home from the US to bury his father.  He reminisces about how he and
 English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3
Teacher Education Department
La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

his friends would pick up coconuts that fell from the tree and take these to a neighbor
who would turn these into coconut candies:  bucayo.

Fast-forward to college life in Manila where Noel decided to study.  By his 2nd year
in school, Noel was already among the students staging protests against the Marcos
government and his martial law.  This was introduced in the book via a protest being
dispersed by the military,

In my second year of college, I ran across that field in a blind panic, hurried
along by gunfire.  The university was under siege by the military; we had set
up barricades of commandeered tables, benches and chairs near the spot
from where I had admired the study horses.  We camped behind this
makeshift wall, students and professors alike, listening to speeches and
singing revolutionary songs.  Our bones were cold, but our breath was warm.
People talked of France and China and Vietnam.  On the other side of the
barricades stood Marcos’ assembled legions:  truncheon-wielding riot police
in khakis and cobalt-blue helmets, the army in fatigues, riding armored jeeps.
All through the morning emissaries had crossed over from one side to the
other.

Having survived this attack, Noel and his comrades settled in an apartment where they
talked about the movement while in hiding.  Noel by this time has decided to quit
school.  Talk of childhood days in their respective homes, family anecdotes and
planning for counter-attacks took up most of Noel’s days, hidden in this apartment.

Fast-forward again to the future where Noel now serves as assistant to the Deputy
Minister and writes his speeches, among other things.  He has decided to leave the
movement after being released from prison.  He has lost contact with his other
comrades.

Laurie, a former comrade in their apartment-hidden days ran into Noel one day and
she has likewise decided to leave the movement.  Perhaps both feeling misplaced, and
disoriented, wanting to connect with each other in a way that would touch the persons
that they used to be, Noel and Laurie made love.

But nothing came of this.  They both decided it was too much too handle… too
overwhelming an emotion that they wouldn’t be able to cope.  They once again lost
touch and last Noel heard, Laurie had gone back to the movement and is hiding in the
mountains.

Their leader during their student-activist days, Benny, was also imprisoned and after
pulling some strings, Noel managed to have Benny released.  A few days later, Benny
was found dead, floating in the river, eyes gouged out and signs of torture were
evident.  He was killed for being a traitor.

As the novel nears its end, Noel is depicted as a somewhat still misplaced soul, crying
to be free from the restraints that society has enchained him with; and yet torn inside
because he wants to remain alive.  Alone, orphaned with the death of his father,
orphaned with the burial of his beliefs and true self in order to survive, Noel ends his
story on this note:
 English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3
Teacher Education Department
La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

Additional Readings

Egyptian Story

Bata served his elder brother Anubis like a son. Bata had prodigious strength and the
power to understand
animals. One day as they were plowing, Anubis sent Bata back to the house for more
seed.
The wife was smitten with mighty Bata and tried to seduce him, only to be rejected:
"You are like a mother to me and your husband like a father...".
Virtuous to a fault, he promised not to tell her shame.

But she faked a beating (swallowing rancid fat to induce vomiting) and when Anubis
returned she told him
that Bata had raped her.

So Anubis waits in ambush in the stable. But the lead cow warns Bata and he flees.

Re-Harakhti intervenes and draws a river full of crocodiles between Bata and his
pursuer.
From the far side of the river Bata protests his innocence. And to prove his claim he
calls Re to witness and
castrates himself (penis and all) casting the genitals into the river.
Anubis is thus convinced of his innocence.

Thereupon Bata weakens and seems to depart this life, journeying to the Valley of the
Pine (?),
 English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3
Teacher Education Department
La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

telling his brother that he must come to resurrect him when a sign appears. When
Anubis finds that beer
ferments in his cup, he will know that Bata has perished and he must go to save him.

For Bata will take out his heart and lodge it in the pine flower (?) at the top of the
tree.
When the sign comes to him, Anubis must go and find the heart and restore it to life in
a basin of water.

Anubis returns home, kills his wife and gives her carcase to the dogs.

Bata in the Valley of the Pine is blessed by the Ennead. On order of Re, Khnum
fashions for Bata a
wife of supreme beauty, "the ichor of every god is in her."

But it is not a happy match, for "she sat in the house while he spent the days hunting
desert game."
He warned her not to go outside, "lest the sea snatch you. I cannot rescue you ...
because I am a woman like you...?"

Nonetheless she ventures out, the tide surges around her and captures a tress of her
hair
(that snagged on the pine); and the sea then carries the tress back to Egypt. There the
fragrance
of the tress so permeates the waters that the clothing of pharoah becomes scented
from washing in it.

Pharoah learns from his scribes that this tress belongs to "a daughter of Re-Harakhti
in whom is the ichor
of every god." So he sends out envoys to search for her; she is found in the valley of
the pine and brought
back to Egypt. There she delights the king and demands that he send soldier to cut
down the great pine
(wherein is the heart of Bata)

The next day when Anubis takes his barley beer, it ferments in his cup; he takes wine
and it sours.
So, recognizing the sign, he sets out for the Valley of the Pine. There he finds Bata's
body and searches
3 years for the heart. When he has nearly given up he finds it, puts in a basin of water.

And as the heart soaks the water, the body of Bata takes life and twitches. Anubis
gives him the basin
to drink, and his heart is restored. The two brothers are reunited.

Then by Bata's plan, they journey to Egypt, Bata himself disguised as a great Bull,
Anubis riding on
his back. Pharoah is impressed and honors Anubis.
 English 36/56 Teaching & Assessment of Literature Studies 3
Teacher Education Department
La Carlota City College
La Carlota City

But Bata the Bull reveals himself to the Wife (now wife of Pharoah) and she contrives
to have him
slaughtered by tricking pharoah into a promise; she demands, "let me eat the liver of
this bull."
At his slaughter two drops of the blood soak into the earth at the doorposts of the
palace, and
there two great Persea trees spring up, one on either side.

Again Bata, now in the Persea tree, reveals himself to the treacherous Wife. And
again she tricks pharoah
into promising, now to cut down the trees and make furniture for her. But when the
trees are felled,
a splinter of the wood flies off and lodges in her mouth, and she becomes pregnant
from it.

Pharoah dotes upon the child as his son; he (Bata incarnate) rises to be Crown
Prince.

When Pharoah dies, the new Pharoah--Bata triumphant-- condemns the treacherous
wife--and mother!
He elevates Anubis to Crown Prince. And after his reign of 30 years, at Bata's death,
Anubis succeeds him.

Take-away 3:
1. Give at least two realizations for each story presented. Cite the line from the
literature presented where you based your realizations. .

Relevance to the topic: 2 points

Grammar and language use: 2 points
Organization to the topic: 2 points
Impact: 4 points
Total: 10 points

References:

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/filipino/dalisayj1.htm#:~:text=Killing
%20Time%20in%20a%20Warm%20Place%20is%20narrated%20by%20Noel,when
%20they%20were%20college%2Dage.

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/the-filipino-authors-you-should-
know/

https://filipinobookshelf.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/killing-time-in-a-warm-place-
jose-y-dalisay-jr/#:~:text=The%20novel%20tells%20the%20story,martial%20law
%20under%20Marcos'%20orders.