The Literary Forms in Philippine Literature by Christine F. Godinez-Ortega

#literature #seedling

Highlights

Pre-Colonial Times

Riddles
tigmo in Cebuano
bugtong in Tagalog
paktakon in Ilongo
patototdon in Bicol

Proverbs or aphorisms
tanaga
basahanon or extended didactic sayings from Bukidnon
daraida and daragilon from Panay

folk lyric
children's songs
Ida-ida(Maguindanao)
tulang pambata (Tagalog)
cansiones para abbing (Ibanag)
lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilongo)
love songs

folk narratives

Our country’s epics are considered ethno-epics

The Spanish Colonial Tradition

theater which we would come to know as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama

Literature in this period may be classified as religious prose and poetry and secular prose and poetry.

Religious lyrics written by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish language.

Fernando Bagonbanta’s “Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin sempiternas” (Unending thanks) is a fine example that is found in the Memorial de la vida cristiana en lengua tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life in the Tagalog language) published in 1605.

Another form of religious lyrics are the meditative verses like the dalit appended to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rime scheme although a number are written in octosyllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject matter.

it is the pasyon in octosyllabic quintillas that became entrenched

Gaspar Aquino de Belen’s “Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon natin na tola” (Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put out in 1704 is the country’s earliest known pasyon.

Other known pasyons chanted during the Lenten season are in Ilocano, Pangasinan, Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol, Ilongo and Waray.

there were various kinds of prose narratives written to prescribe proper decorum

these prose narratives were also used for proselitization

dialogo(dialogue), Manual de Urbanidad (conduct book); ejemplo (exemplum) and tratado (tratado)

Modesto de Castro’s “Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza” (Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza) in 1864

Joaquin Tuason’s “Ang Bagong Robinson” (The New Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s novel.

Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the emergence of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European education. This Filipino elite could now read printed works that used to be the exclusive domain of the missionaries.

The most notable of the secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic tradition

Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw)
Francisco Balagtas

Leona Florentino, Jacinto Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco

secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in Tagalog

There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo, Pampango, Ilocano and in Pangasinan.

The awit as a popular poetic genre reached new heights in Balagtas’ “Florante at Laura” (ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the country’s metrical romances.

Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside of colonization.

Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Emilio Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio.

Rizal’s two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El filibusterismo

Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is largely cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel.

Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad

The more notable essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los Reyes, Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas or Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose.

the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines hastened the demise of Spanish so that by the 1930s, English writing had overtaken Spanish writing.

Magdalena Jalandoni

patriotic writing continued under the new colonialists. These appeared in the vernacular poems and modern adaptations of works during the Spanish period and which further maintained the Spanish tradition.

The American Colonial Period

free verse [in poetry], the modern short story and the critical essay were introduced

literary modernism that highlighted the writer’s individuality and cultivated consciousness of craft, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness.

The poet, and later, National Artist for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used free verse and espoused the dictum, “Art for art’s sake” to the chagrin of other writers more concerned with the utilitarian aspect of literature.

Angela Manalang Gloria, a woman poet described as ahead of her time

more writers turned up “seditious works” and popular writing in the native languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya.

The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated modernism in poetry.

Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.

Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald.

Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead Stars” published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English written by a Filipino.

Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional skills with the short story.

Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña and Patricio Mariano were writing minimal narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction called dali or pasingaw (sketch).

The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or European influences

if there was a dearth of the Filipino novel in English, the novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines

The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present.

Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura Santillan Castrence, etc.

criticism developed during the American period were Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari.

it was Salvador P. Lopez’s criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literay Award for the essay in 1940 with his “Literature and Society.” This essay posited that art must have substance and that Villa’s adherence to “Art for Art’s Sake” is decadent.

The last throes of American colonialism saw the flourishing of Philippine literature in English at the same time, with the introduction of the New Critical aesthetics, made writers pay close attention to craft and “indirectly engendered a disparaging attitude” towards vernacular writings — a tension that would recur in the contemporary period.

The Contemporary Period

The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Quotes

Notes

Collations

Annotations

Before Spanish colonization, precolonial literature wasn't divided between secular and religious.

Filipino religious literary forms I could explore:

References

Godinze-Ortega, Christine F. “The Literary Forms in Philippine Literature.” National Commission for Culture and the Arts, https://ncca.gov.ph/about-ncca-3/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/literary-arts/the-literary-forms-in-philippine-literature/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.