Literary Genres
Early Philippine Literary Genres
1.Oral Literature
a. Riddles (Bugtong) – puzzling,
witty questions to be solved or
guessed.
b. Proverbs (Salawikain) – wise
sayings in general use, stating a
general truth or piece of advice.
c. Tanaga – a mono-rhyming
heptasyllabic quatrain with
insights and lessons about life,
with affinities with folk lyric.
2. Folk Songs
a. Hele/Uyayi – Lullaby
b. Ambahan – 7-syllable per line
about human relationships and
social entertainment.
c. Kalusan – songs depicting
livelihood or work of people.
d. Tagay – song about drinking
liquor.
e. Kanogan – lamentations for the
dead.
3. Folk Tales
a. Myths – stories about how certain
aspects of the world possess certain
characteristics.
b. Fables – stories with lessons using
animals as characteristics.
c. Legends – Explains the origins of
things and about nature.
d. Fantastic Stories – deals with
supernatural characters such as
aswang, kapre, tiyanak.
4. Epic – long stories about a supernatural
events and journeys of a hero.
21st Century Literary Genres
1.Spoken Poetry
Poetry intended for live or recorded
performance. It roots are from oral
tradition but it may also be published. This
can contain elements of rap, hip-hop,
storytelling, theater, and jazz, rock, blues,
and folk music.
2. Hyper Poetry
Digital poetry genre with hypertext
links the reader can click to choose how the
poem will transform or mutate.
3. Blog
A web blog written by a blogger, who
writes articles or posts about their
preferred content including their opinions,
interests and experiences.
4. TextTula
A mobile phone poetry, may be
written with short traditional formal verses
composing of 7777 syllable count with
rhyme scheme aabb, abab, abba.
5. Six-Word Flash Fiction
A very short fictional literature of six
words only, which the narrative can change
based on the reader.
6. Flash Fiction
Another short fictional literature
anywhere from 300 to 1,500 words.
7. Illustrated Novel
A story composing of text and 50%
illustrated images.
8. Digi-Fiction
Uses triple media:book, movie/video
and internet website. Readers must
navigate through the three formats.
 5. Short Story - a narrative with a fully 9. Manga
developed theme but very much A graphic novel usually published in
shorter and less elaborate than a Japan.
novel.
10. Doodle Fiction
6. Novel - a fictitious prose narrative A narrative where the drawing on a
usually in the length of a book, graphic novel usually depicts doodle
typically with a developed theme drawings and writings, often adding
and sub plots but with some humorous elements.
degree of realism.
7. Essay- a short piece writing, either 11.Chick Lit
formal or informal, which Chick literature which depicts stories
expresses the author's argument of women and the struggles and successes
about a particular topic with or in society.
without support or evidence.
12.Science Fiction
Speculative fiction narratives about
futuristic topics, science and technology,
etc.

Choose each 1 genre from the table presented on the last page and fill-in the Venn
diagram. Use a separate sheet of paper.

Early Philippine Literature 21st Century Literary

Genres Genres