21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

Introduction to 21st Century Literature

Literature

- Is a written record of man’s best thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

- Is the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion, philosophy or the study of such
written work which may appear in poetry or in prose. (ancient.eu)
- written works, especially those considered or superior or lasting artistic merit. (oxford
dictionary)

Philippine Literary Background

From the book, Hoard of Thunder of Dr. Geronimo Abad (2012). He makes clear that Philippine literature
has evolved overtime; “thus, at the turn of the last century, American English having been established as
the medium of instruction in our public school system, we began to write in English, but sooner than
later, we wrought from it…”

Abad also added that it is the making that is very crucial, words from a given historical language of an
artifact which should have powers to move its readers.

Abad (2012) also writes that, “ during the;

1st Phase – it is the struggle with language that engrossed our writers, during the

2nd Phase – from the 1950’s to the 60’s, the issue of alienation and social commitment, which took root
at the time of the Commonwealth Literary Awards in 1940’s; during the

3rd phase from 70’s to the 80’s, a period of political activism that began as early as the 1950’s, the issue
of nationalism and national identity; and during the

4th phase- from the 90’s to the very present, the issue of universal human rights, globalization, ecology,
and changing moral order.”

A Filipino Literary Sojourn: From the Regions to the World

The only way to begin looking at the world through literature – is to begin looking from within ourselves,
as Filipinos. This course contains gathered works of Filipino authors representing contemporary regional
and world experiences.

The genres covered are poetry, fiction, essay, drama, and the novel from the 21 st Century.

From the idea of Saguinsin (2018), literature takes us back. To where people begun from learning
carving their ideas to writing their arguments. Also, through literature, people understands the needs
for explanations of every matters in the world for future advancement of people’s lives.

Valuing

There is the hope that in reading today’s Philippine literature in English, the reader will find a reflection
of oneself and a reflection of Philippine society. It is composed of novels, excerpts, short stories, essays,
and poems that are organized in a thematic matter.
LESSON 2: LITERARY CRITICISM

Formalist Criticism- emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its meaning, focusing on
literary elements and how they work to create meaning.

- Examines a text as independent from its time period, social setting, and author’s
background. A text is an independent entity.
- Focuses on close readings of texts and analysis of the effects of literary elements and
techniques on the text.

Two Major Principles of Formalism

1. A literary text exists independent of any particular reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning.
2. The greatest literary texts are “timeless” and “universal.”

Reader-Response Criticism- asserts that a great deal of meaning in a text lies with how the reader
responds to it.

- Focuses on the act of reading and how it affects our perception of meaning in a text (how
we feel at the beginning vs. the end)
- Deals more with the process of creating meaning and experiencing a text as we read a text is
an experience, not an object.
- The text is a living thing that lives in the reader’s imagination.

READER + READING SITUATION + TEXT = MEANING

2 Important Ideas in Reader-Response

1. An individual reader’s interpretation usually changes over time.

2. Readers from different generations and different time periods interpret texts differently.

Ultimately… How do YOU feel about what you have read? What do YOU think it means?

Psychological Criticism- views a text as a revelation of its author’s mind and personality. It is based on
the work of Sigmund Freud.

- Also focuses on the hidden motivations of literary characters.

- Looks at literary characters as a reflection of the writer.

Sociological Criticism-argues that social contexts (the social environment) must be considered when
analyzing a text.

- Focuses on the values of a society and how those views are reflected in a text.
- Emphasizes the economic, political, and cultural issues within literary texts.
- Core Belief: Literature is a reflection of its society.
- It has two branches: Marxism and Feminism.

Marxist Criticism- emphasizes economic and social conditions. It is based on the political theory of Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels.

- Concerned with understanding the role of power, politics, and money in literary texts.
 - It reflects the way in which dominant groups (typically, the majority) exploit the subordinate
groups (typically, the minority), and the way in which people become alienated from one
another through power, money, and politics.

Feminist Criticism- is concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in a literary text.

- Asserts that most “literature” throughout time has been written by men, for men.
- Examines the way that the female consciousness is depicted by both male and female
writers.

4 Basic Principles of Feminist Criticism

1. Western civilization is patriarchal.

2. The concepts of gender are mainly cultural ideas created by patriarchal societies.
3. Patriarchal ideals pervade “literature.”
4. Most “literature” through time has been gender-biased.

Biographical Criticism- argues that we must take an author’s life and background into account when we
study a text.

Three Benefits of Biographical Criticism:

1. Facts about an author’s experience can help a reader decide how to interpret a text.
2. A reader can better appreciate a text by knowing a writer’s struggles or difficulties in creating
that text.
3. A reader can understand a writer’s preoccupation by studying the way they apply and modify
their own life experiences in their works.

Post-Colonial Criticism- Post-colonial criticism is similar to cultural studies, but it assumes a unique
perspective on literature and politics that warrants a separate discussion. Specifically, post-colonial
critics are concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who
were/are colonized. Post-colonial theory looks at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and
culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony (Western colonizers controlling
the colonized).

Post-Colonial Criticism- Post-colonial criticism also questions the role of the Western literary canon and
Western history as dominant forms of knowledge making. The terms “First World,” “Second World,”
“Third World” and “Fourth World” nations are critiqued by post-colonial critics because they reinforce
the dominant positions of Western cultures populating First World status.

GUIDELINES IN WRITING THE CRITIQUE OR REVIEW

The critique or review is a rigorous critical reading of a passage. As such, it picks up where the objective
summary leaves off. In fact, it often includes a brief summary so that its readers will be able to quickly
grasp the main ideas and proofs of the passage under examination. Critiques or reviews come in all
shapes and sizes, but a good way to get used to writing critically is to plan your earliest critiques along
the following lines. The following are the guidelines in writing your critique or review.
Lesson 3: Identity, Revolution, and the Regions

A History of Poetry

 Poetry as part of the Filipino Culture ever since pre-Hispanic times.

 The Awit, or song, existed in many forms and were used for varied purposes.
 Aside from songs, there are two major pre-Hispanic forms: Riddles and the Proverb.
 The major pre-Hispanic poetic form, however, was the Epic.

Identity

 The arrival of Spanish dramatically altered what was an already. Established Philippine
literary tradition.
 The most notable poet* during this time was Francisco Baltazar. Emerging “middle class”
among the dwellers in the Philippine lands.
 Jose Rizal and his fellows were called “illustrados”

National Identity

 Despite the efforts of the Spanish clergy, traditional Philippine poetry never truly went away.
Instead, these traditions evolved.
 By the end of the Philippine revolution, Philippine poetry gained some of the influences and
styles of their colonizers.

New Medium

 American’s introduction of a new educational system, set off series of changes to Philippine
literature (e.g. poetry)
 Free Verse and New Criticism became the buzzwords of poets.
 Angela Garcia Manalang. Jose Garcia Villa, and Salvador P. Lopez were some of the influential
names during these times.
 Poetry has continued to evolve in the face of the changes it has faced in history.

Regions

 The Philippines as unique cultural landscapes, one shaped by a myriad of languages and
traditions determined by their geographical and linguistic regions.
 Regional cultures, however, do all come together to create the colorful tapestry that we call
Filipino culture.

Bikol Literature

• There are very few Pre-Hispanic Bikol works that have been collected and published.
What has been left behind, however, are some forms which still exist today.
• Bikol writers have adopted forms of literature for their own enjoyment.
• 1800s-1900s: there are works in Bikol during this time, as there were Bikol-based
publications, and the production of poems and fiction grew and continued only until
1960s.
Mayon (Poem) Kristian Sendon Cordero

What’s is a poem?
 As per the dictionary, meter, is the defining characteristic of poetry that need to be
present in a work before it can be properly called a poem.
 A poem requires that there be an image presented to the reader.
 The presence of figurative language.
 Finally poems possess a theme, a general idea often about human experiences.

Kristian Sendon Cordero (A Volcanic Poet)

 Widely described as the “enfant terrible” of Bikol Writing.

 Has multiple Palanca awards in poetry, fiction, and essays among many other awards he
received.
 A well-anthologized poet, and has published collections of his own.
 A filmmaker, an educator, a column writer, and an active advocate for the growth of Bikol
literature.

Death of a Hero

 The NCCA states, “Even Jose Rizal, considered as the greatest among the Filipino heroes, was
not explicitly proclaimed as a national hero.”
 The poem of Danton Remoto’s Padre Faura Witnesses the Execution of Rizal

Writing in the Regions

How does the tone and style affect an essay?

TONE

 Is the attrude being conveyed by the language umed by the writer.

 Helps the writer convey meaning to the reader.
 How the writer feats in his essay can reveal how the writer thinks about these as well.

STYLE

 Turns stones into unique and interesting pieces among writers

 Unique way of expressing oneself.
 In an essay, creating an individual style will mean that the writer would have to use his skills
with writing and language to produce a unique effect in the reader.

Lesson 4: A Chronicle of the Canonical

Oppression and Authoritarianism

 This lesson recognizes the contributions of representative, or canonical, texts to the

development of Philippine Literature.
 Appreciate the use of poetic devices such as dramatic situation in the development of meaning
in a poem.
  Respond critically to the poem and consequently articulate this response through a creative
visualization of the poem.

Filipinos and the Philippine Literature

Notice the following literary works;

 Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

 Herminigildo Flores’ Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espanya
 Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s Sagot ng Espanya sa Hibik ng Pilipinas
 Aurelio Tolentino’s Kahapon, Ngayon, at Bukas
 Jose Corazon de Jesus’ Sa Dakong Silangan

Oppression

 Oppression is a familiar word in the Filipino vocabulary as seen as a topic that would rise again and
again in Philippine Literature.
 It has been seen in many instances in our history, and it is natural that our literature reflects our
engagement with this reality.
 After independence, the specter of oppression remained, and found a clear subject once more in
the form of then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Dramatic Situation and the Persona

 Poets (in the Phils.) have used the subject of oppression as a beginning, creating dramatic
situations.
 Poems present this situations via a speaker in the poem, or a persona.
 The persona can be a character in the poem who is involved in the dramatic situation, or the
persona can be an observer who is watching the situation unfold.

The Marcos Dictatorship

 The Marcos era was seen to be one of the most oppressive periods in the Philippine history, and
yet, a quick glance at the internet reveals a number of claims that the era was supposedly the
best time in Philippine history.
 Martial law began in September 21,1972 under Proclamation no. 1081. When the law began,
there was not much resistance to it, as people believed that it would curb up the insurgency of
various rebel groups at that time.

Martial Law

According to Philippine-History.org, 30,000 politicians, students, and journalists were “detained by

military compounds under the President’s command.” And many news publications and television news
broadcasts were closed or controlled by the Marcos government. Numerous human rights violations
were made during this year.

Canon and Representative Writers

 Marcos’ arrest of writers and intellectuals during Martial Law was a recognition of the
importance these people have in shaping how a country thinks.
  The works of writers such as Bautista are recognized as important, and are seen as canonical, or
belonging to a collection of works considered to be valuable to Philippine society.
 Deciding on canonical value, however, is not something that is dictated by government alone.
Society, in the end, determines what is canonical.

Markers

 Dramatic Situation- is the combination of setting, characters, and action in a poem which is
supposed to engage the reader.
 Persona – is the speaker, or teller, of the poem; rarely the poet himself.
 Allegorical/ Allegory – refers to symbolic representations of truths or generalizations about
human existence.
 Canon-refers to the collection of works determined by a society to have significant value and
importance.
 Personification- is a figure of speech where a non-human object is given human qualities.

Emerging Trends

 The essay in the Philippine writing has a particular history and trajectory.
 The essay found its home in Philippine writing during the later years of Spanish rule, particularly
during the rise of the reformist movement.
 The essay’s development continued after the revolution, with the arrival of the American
education system and American literary choices.
 The style also began to change, becoming less formal.

Creative Non-Fiction

Genres are not static; they can change over time to reflect the changes in a society.

 Essays have allowed Filipino writers to explore a broad spectrum of topics and concerns.
 Creative Non-Fiction is seen more as a category, or a method of classification, to differentiate it
from other types of essay.
 It is seen as a contentious term, because while it seems to be referring to a brand new genre of
writing, it is often used interchangeably with the term literary essay, and some still question
whether it is in fact a legitimate genre.

Insights are a product of reflection

Apart from description, he also uses

 Narration – or elements of story telling in the essay.

 Anecdotes – or personal stories, which add more texture to the discussion of the home.
 Characters and Dialogue – the author’s parents are not just part of the story, they become
characters, complete with spoken dialogue. We are not only being told about them, but we
actually hear them speak.
Lesson 5: The Metaphor of Filipino Life

Storm as the Formidable Force

 Throughout history, the storm has figured in the imagination of filipino writers.
 As seen on some examples of Salawikain. Storm has animated our legends and sometimes
represent aspects of our daily lives.
 We have also imagined the storm as the formidable force that defines our geographic condition,
at the disaster-prone fringes of the Pacific.

Turns and Tropes

 In the age of climate change, the storm has become a wake-up call of sorts, showing humanity
the violent consequences of taking our environment for granted for generations.
 Amidst the havoc, people collectively share their pain and grief.

Trope

 A trope is the creative use of language mostly found in literature. True to its etymology, tropes
change, turn, or alter language, making it new, refreshing, and thus literary.
 Figurative language uses tropes and Figure od speech to alter our experience by turning our
attention to similarities, representations, and contradictions.
 An image turned into trope, in principleis not simply itself, but something else as well, as seen in
the image of storm in our example.

The Haiyan Dead

The Haiyan dead, in the memorializing of the persona, seems unable to have peace as they “do not
sleep” and keep on “looking” for certain people, objects, or places in the town.

The Poem’s Literal and Metaphorical Levels

 The literal level is something that relates to the dramatic situation or what is happening in the
poem. In Alunan’s poem, there is a persona who seems to see the dead doing and looking for
things. We are reading a poem, and a poem “means something else.”
 The metaphorical level is where we see the literal dramatic situation unfolding into a figurative
articulation of what is taking place. (e.g. the poem describes the Haiyan dead as not sleeping,
and walking “among us/ endlessly sleepless.”)

Lesson 6: The Language of Literature

What Surrounds the Literary Text

The School of Russian Formalism in Literature posits that literature utilizes language that is basically not
the predictable, default language of everyday life.

It is precisely its language that makes it literary, and different on the language of media, or the language
of streets.

One does not speak in rhyme and meter when paying passenger fare in a jeepney, or inquiring about the
latest gadget in a shopping mall.
The type of literary language and creative tools usually associated with poetry can also be found in
prose.

Through language, the disjointed or chaotic events of real life can be connected or rearranged into a
coherent narrative.

According to Silber (2009), this is what makes fiction different from reality – in fiction, “life can be seen
as intelligible.”

- The Love of Magdalena Jalandoni

- Binukot
- The Language

Locating Women in the Philippine Culture

Culture is the collective practices and worldview of a particular society, and the way the society treats
women is especially embedded in various cultural practices.

Structure and Story

Two terms to distinguish narratives – Fabula and Syuzhet.

Fabula is the basic run-down of events in chronological order.

Syuzhet is the organization or orchestration of narrative, and is related to plot – the putting together of
certain situations that lead to a particular unfolding

Narrative structure – is the movement of a particular literary discourse. Classically, a narrative fictional
or otherwise is composed of a three part movement: beginning, middle, end.

Philippine Law

In our country, there is one set of laws for women, and another set for men, which shows that laws in
the Philippines are patriarchal in nature, and seem to favor men over women.

Mindanao

Mindanao is a place that holds many associations, owing to its complex history up to the present day. •

 The use of “Moro” has been politically incorrect, as it harks back to the colonial malaise against
the Islamic people who were historically abhorred by Christian Spain.
 The recent adoption of the “Bangsamoro” entity to replace the current autonomous
government of Muslim Mindanao.

The Different Contexts and the Novel

Literary Context – pertains to the nature of the genre being discussed.

Biographical Context- points to the relation between the writer’s life and work.

Linguistic Context-relates to the languages present in the novel as the author orchestrates a particular
artistic effect.
Sociocultural Context – suggests the intimate relationship between the work and what surrounds it
social conditions, culture, - worldview, (and) history.

Encountering Bangsamoro

• “Bangsamoro” has been a very contentious term as it signifies many things for people from Mindanao,
and for people from outside it.

• The vastness of Mindanao compels for a more nuanced appreciation of the term Bangsamoro, which
also refers nowadays to the area currently under the administration of the Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao, an economic and politically entity provided by the Philippine government for the
Mindanao provinces with significant Islamic populations and cultures.

Antonio Enriquez (Novelist of Mindanao)

 A fictionist born in 1936 and raised in Zamboanga. Initially studied medicine in Manila, only to
return to his hometown many years later. Landed a position with a surveying firm in Cotabato.
 A fellowship to the highly esteemed National Writers Workshop (hosted by Siliman University in
Dumaguete, Negros Occ.) brought him back to school and later earned him a degree in creative
writing, and a teaching position with the university. Has written several books including novels
and short story collections. (Most of which received accolades for their honest but piercing
articulation of Mindanao’s complex experiences).

Lesson 7: Philippine Diaspora

Kababayan

 In terms of movement, regionality compels some of our kababayans to move from one locality
to another – usually, the city.
 A nation is a sum total of all its parts, and it does not perform well if its regions are left out.
 Literature participates in making sense of this peculiar Filipino experience by dramatizing how
this nation- region dynamic is imagined and internalized.

Diaspora

 The movement from one region to another (usually a more urbanized, progressive region) is
very much part of our nation’s story.
 “Internal Diaspora” and “External Diaspora”
 Today, diasporic movement may not only be from the rural to the urban; it can also include
movement within the urban environment, as well as movement from the city to the
countryside.

“Privilege” and the “Center”

Context of the Region and the Nation

 These two terms are culled from various critical discourses that consider the problems of
colonized or conquered country like the Philippines.
 - Post colonialism, as an umbrella term, takes up the issue of the internalized marginality of
native peoples of former colonies even after their period of subjugation at the hands of the
foreigners.

Terms like “center” and “periphery” describe a binary, with one occupying a position or a privilege and
the other a position of marginality.

“Privilege” and the “Marginality”

Philippine literature is steadily transforming into a more inclusive institutions, as literatures from the
regions, as in Asenjo’s tradition, are being welcomed to participate in redefining the long-centralized
literary production. Coming to terms with our history of domination and subjugation foregrounds
relationship with each other.