SPANISH

The existing literature of the Philippine ethnic groups at the time of conquest and conversion into
Christianity was mainly oral, consisting of epics, legends, songs, riddles, and proverbs. Theconquistador,
especially its ecclesiastical arm, destroyed whatever written literature he could find, and hence
rendered the system of writing (e.g., the Tagalog syllabary) inoperable. Among the only native systems
of writing that have survived are the syllabaries of the Mindoro Mangyans and the Tagbanua of
Palawan.
The Spanish colonial strategy was to undermine the native oral tradition by substituting for it the
story of the Passion of Christ (Lumbera, p. 14). Although Christ was by no means war-like or sexually
attractive as many of the heroes of the oral epic tradition, the appeal of the Jesus myth inhered in the
protagonists superior magic: by promising eternal life for everyone, he democratized the power to rise
above death. It is to be emphasized, however, that the native tradition survived and even flourished in
areas inaccessible to the colonial power. Moreover, the tardiness and the lack of assiduity of the colonial
administration in making a public educational system work meant the survival of oral tradition, or what
was left of it, among the conquered tribes.
The church authorities adopted a policy of spreading the Church doctrines by communicating to the
native (pejoratively called Indio) in his own language. Doctrina Christiana (1593), the first book to be
printed in the Philippines, was a prayerbook written in Spanish with an accompanying Tagalog
translation. It was, however, for the exclusive use of the missionaries who invariably read them aloud to
the unlettered Indio catechumens (Medina), who were to rely mainly on their memory. But the task of
translating religious instructional materials obliged the Spanish missionaries to take a most practical
step, that of employing native speakers as translators. Eventually, the native translator learned to read
and write both in Spanish and his native language.
This development marked the beginning of Indio literacy and thus spurred the creation of the first
written literary native text by the native. These writers, called ladinos because of their fluency in both
Spanish and Tagalog (Medina, pp. 55-56), published their work, mainly devotional poetry, in the first
decade of the 17th century. Among the earliest writers of note were Francisco de San Jose and Francisco
Bagongbata (Medina). But by far the most gifted of these native poet-translators was Gaspar Aquino de
Belen (Lumbera, p.14). Mahal Na Pasion ni Jesu Christo, a Tagalog poem based on Christs passion, was
published in 1704. This long poem, original and folksy in its rendition of a humanized, indeed, a nativized
Jesus, is a milestone in the history of Philippine letters. Ironically and perhaps just because of its
profound influence on the popular imagination as artifact it marks the beginning of the end of the old
mythological culture and a conversion to the new paradigm introduced by the colonial power.
Until the 19th century, the printing presses were owned and managed by the religious orders
(Lumbera, p.13). Thus, religious themes dominated the culture of the Christianized majority. But the
native oral literature, whether secular or mythico-religious continued. Even among the Christianized
ethnic groups, the oral tradition persisted in such forms as legends, sayings, wedding songs such as
the balayan and parlor theater such as theduplo (Medina, p. 32).
In the 18th century, secular literature from Spain in the form of medieval ballads inspired the native
poetic-drama form called the komedya, later to be called moro-moro because these often dealt with the
theme of Christians triumphing over Moslems (Lumbera, p. 15).
Jose de la Cruz (1746 1829) was the foremost exponent of the komedya during his time. A poet of
prodigious output and urbane style, de la Cruz marks a turning point in that his elevated diction
distinguishes his work from folk idiom (as for instance, that of Gaspar Aquino de Belen). Yet his appeal
to the non-literate was universal. The popularity of the dramatic form, of which he was a master, was
due to it being experienced as performance both by the lettered minority and the illiterate but
genuinely appreciative majority.
 Francisco Baltazar (1788 1862), popularly called Balagtas, is the acknowledged master of
traditional Tagalog poetry. Of peasant origins, he left his hometown in Bigaa, Bulacan for Manila, with a
strong determination to improve his lot through education. To support his studies, he worked as a
domestic servant in Tondo. He steeped himself in classical studies in schools of prestige in the capital.
Great social and political changes in the world worked together to make Balagtas career as poet
possible. The industrial revolution had caused a great movement of commerce in the globe, creating
wealth and the opportunity for material improvement in the life of the working classes. With these great
material changes, social values were transformed, allowing greater social mobility. In short, he was a
child of the global bourgeois revolution. Liberal ideas, in time, broke class and, in the Philippines
even racial barriers (Medina). The word Filipino, which used to refer to a restricted group (i.e., Spaniards
born in the Philippines) expanded to include not only the acculturated wealthy Chinese mestizo but also
the acculturated Indio (Medina). Balagtas was one of the first Indios to become a Filipino.
But the crucial element in Balagtas unique genius is that, being caught between two cultures (the
native and the colonial/classical), he could switch codes (or was perceived by his compatriot audience to
be switching codes), provide insight and information to his oppressed compatriots in the very style and
guise of a tradition provided him by a foreign (and oppressive) culture. His narrative poem Florante at
Laura written in sublime Tagalog, is about tyranny in Albanya, but it is also perceived to be about
tyranny in his Filipino homeland (Lumbera).
Despite the foreign influence, however, he remained true to his native traditions. His verse plays
were performed to the motley crowd. His poems were sung by the literate for the benefit of the
unlettered. The metrical regularity and rhyme performed their age-old mnemonic function, despite and
because of the introduction of printing.
Printing overtook tradition. The printed page, by itself, became the mnemonic device, the stage set
for the development of prose. The first Filipino novel was Ninay, written in Spanish by Pedro Paterno, a
Philippine-bornilustrado (Medina p. 93). Following the sentimental style of his first book Sampaguitas (a
collection of poems in Spanish), the novel endeavored to highlight the endearingly unique qualities of
Filipinos.
National Hero Jose Rizal (1861 1896) chose the realistic novel as his medium. Choosing Spanish
over Tagalog meant challenging the oppressors on the latters own turf. By writing in prose, Rizal also
cut his ties with the Balagtas tradition of the figurative indirection which veiled the supposed
subversiveness of many writings at that time.
Rizals two novels, the Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo, chronicle the life and
ultimate death of Ibarra, a Filipino educated abroad, who attempts to reform his country through
education. At the conclusion of the Noli, his efforts end in near-death and exile from his country. In
theFilibusterismo, he returns after reinventing himself as Simoun, the wealthy jeweler, and hastens
social decay by further corrupting the social fabric till the oppressed react violently to overthrow the
system. But the insurrection is foiled and Simoun suffers a violent death.
In a sense, Rizals novels and patriotic poems were the inevitable conclusion to the campaign for
liberal reforms known as the Propaganda Movement, waged by Graciano Lopez Jaena, and M.H. del
Pilar. The two novels so vividly portrayed corruption and oppression that despite the lack of any clear
advocacy, they served to instill the conviction that there could be no solution to the social ills but a
violent one.
Following closely on the failed reformist movement, and on Rizals novels, was the Philippine
revolution headed by Andres Bonifacio (1863 1897). His closest aide, the college-bred Emilio Jacinto
(1875 1899), was the revolutionary organizations ideologue. Both were admirers of Rizal, and like
Rizal, both were writers and social critics profoundly influenced by the liberal ideas of the French
enlightenment, about human dignity. Bonifacios most important work are his poems, the most well-
known being Pag-Ibig Sa Tinubuang Lupa. Jacinto wrote political essays expressed in the language of the
folk. Significantly, although either writer could have written in Spanish (Bonifacio, for instance, wrote a
Tagalog translation of Rizals Ultimo Adios), both chose to communicate to their fellowmen in their own
native language.
The figure of Rizal dominates Philippine literature until the present day. Liberalism led to education
of the native and the ascendancy of Spanish. But Spanish was undermined by the very ideas of liberation
that it helped spread, and its decline led to nativism and a renaissance of literature in the native
languages.
The turn of the century witnessed not only the Philippine revolution but a quieter though no less
significant outbreak. The educated women of the period produced significant poetry. Gregoria de Jesus,
wife of Andres Bonifacio, wrote notable Tagalog poetry. Meanwhile, in Vigan of the Ilocano North,
Leona Florentino, by her poetry, became the foremost Ilocano writer of her time.

AMERICAN

Philippines Free Press, May 9, 1909 Juan F. Salazar

The poem was anthologized in the first collection of poetry in English, Filipino Poetry, edited by
Rodolfo Dato (1909 1924). Among the poets featured in this anthology were Proceso Sebastian
Maximo Kalaw, Fernando Maramag, Leopoldo Uichanco, Jose Ledesma, Vicente Callao, Santiago Sevilla,
Bernardo Garcia, Francisco Africa, Pablo Anzures, Carlos P. Romulo, Francisco Tonogbanua, Juan
Pastrana, Maria Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Luis Dato and many others. Another anthology,The
English German Anthology of Poetsedited by Pablo Laslo was published and covered poets published
from 1924-1934 among whom were Teofilo D. Agcaoili, Aurelio Alvero, Horacio de la Costa, Amador T.
Daguio, Salvador P. Lopez, Angela Manalang Gloria, Trinidad Tarrosa, Abelardo Subido and Jose Garcia
Villa, among others. A third pre-war collection of poetry was edited by Carlos Bulosan,Chorus for
America: Six Philippine Poets. The six poets in this collection were Jose Garcia Villa, Rafael Zulueta da
Costa, Rodrigo T. Feria, C.B. Rigor, Cecilio Baroga and Carlos Bulosan.
In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary writing in English is marked by imitation of the
style of storytelling and strict adherence to the craft of the short story as practiced by popular American
fictionists. Early short story writers in English were often dubbed as the Andersons or Saroyans or the
Hemingways of Philippine letters. Leopoldo Yabes in his study of the Philippine short story in English
from 1925 to 1955 points to these models of American fiction exerting profound influence on the early
writings of story writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E. Litiatco, Paz Latorena. .
When the University of the Philippines was founded in 1908, an elite group of writers in English
began to exert influence among the culturati. The U.P. Writers Club founded in 1926, had stated that
one of its aims was to enhance and propagate the language of Shakespeare. In 1925, Paz Marquez
Benitez short story, Dead Stars was published and was made the landmark of the maturity of the
Filipino writer in English. Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories no longer
imitative of American models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano Calalang, A.E. Litiatco, Arturo Rotor, Lydia
Villanueva, Paz Latorena , Manuel Arguilla began publishing stories manifesting both skilled use of the
language and a keen Filipino sensibility.
This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on Filipino customs and traditions
earmarked the literary output of major Filipino fictionists in English during the American period. Thus,
the major novels of the period, such as the Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw, and His Native Soil by Juan
C. Laya, are discourses on cultural identity, nationhood and being Filipino done in the English language.
Stories such as How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife by Manuel Arguilla scanned the scenery
as well as the folkways of Ilocandia while N.V. M. Gonzaless novels and stories such as Children of the
Ash Covered Loam, present the panorama of Mindoro, in all its customs and traditions while
configuring its characters in the human dilemma of nostalgia and poverty. Apart from Arguilla and
Gonzales, noted fictionists during the period included Francisco Arcellana, whom Jose Garcia Villa
lauded as a genius storyteller, Consorcio Borje, Aida Rivera, Conrado Pedroche, Amador Daguio, Sinai
Hamada, Hernando Ocampo, Fernando Maria Guerrero. Jose Garcia Villa himself wrote several short
stories but devoted most of his time to poetry.
In 1936, when the Philippine Writers League was organized, Filipino writers in English began
discussing the value of literature in society. Initiated and led by Salvador P. Lopez, whose essays
onLiterature and Societyprovoked debates, the discussion centered on proletarian literature, i.e.,
engaged or committed literature versus the art for arts sake literary orientation. But this discussion
curiously left out the issue of colonialism and colonial literature and the whole place of literary writing in
English under a colonial set-up that was the Philippines then.
With Salvador P. Lopez, the essay in English gained the upper hand in day to day discourse on
politics and governance. Polemicists who used to write in Spanish like Claro M. Recto, slowly started
using English in the discussion of current events even as newspaper dailies moved away from Spanish
reporting into English. Among the essayists, Federico Mangahas had an easy facility with the language
and the essay as genre. Other noted essayists during the period were Fernando Maramag, Carlos P.
Romulo , Conrado Ramirez.
On the other hand, the flowering of a vibrant literary tradition due to historical events did not
altogether hamper literary production in the native or indigenous languages. In fact, the early period of
the 20th century was remarkable for the significant literary output of all major languages in the various
literary genre.
It was during the early American period that seditious plays, using the form of the zarsuwela, were
mounted. Zarsuwelistas Juan Abad, Aurelio Tolentino ,Juan Matapang Cruz. Juan Crisostomo Sotto
mounted the classics like Tanikalang Ginto, Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas and Hindi Ako Patay, all
directed against the American imperialists. Patricio Marianos Anak ng Dagat and Severino
ReyessWalang Sugat are equally remarkable zarsuwelas staged during the period.
On the eve of World War II, Wilfredo Maria Guerrero would gain dominance in theatre through his
one-act plays which he toured through his mobile theatre. Thus, Wanted a Chaperone and The
Forsaken Housebecame very popular in campuses throughout the archipelago.
The novel in Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon and Sugbuanon also developed during the period aided
largely by the steady publication of weekly magazines like the Liwayway, Bannawag and Bisayawhich
serialized the novels.
Among the early Tagalog novelists of the 20th century were Ishmael Amado, Valeriano Hernandez
Pea, Faustino Aguilar, Lope K. Santos and Lazaro Francisco.
Ishmael Amados Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was one of the earliest novels that dealt
with the theme of American imperialism in the Philippines. The novel, however, was not released from
the printing press until 1916, at which time, the author, by his own admission and after having been sent
as a pensionado to the U.S., had other ideas apart from those he wrote in the novel.
Valeriano Hernandez Peas Nena at Neneng narrates the story of two women who happened to be
best of friends as they cope with their relationships with the men in their lives. Nena succeeds in her
married life while Neneng suffers from a stormy marriage because of her jealous husband.
Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan, a love triangle set in the early years of the century when
the workers movement was being formed. The novels hero, Luis Gatbuhay, is a worker in a printery
who isimprisoned for a false accusation and loses his love, Danding, to his rival Rojalde, son of a wealthy
capitalist. Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat has almost the same theme and motif as the hero of the
novel, Delfin, also falls in love with a rich woman, daughter of a wealthy landlord. The love story of
course is set also within the background of development of the workers trade union movement and
throughout the novel, Santos engages the readers in lengthy treatises and discourses on socialism and
capitalism. Many other Tagalog novelists wrote on variations of the same theme, i.e., the interplay of
fate, love and social justice. Among these writers are Inigo Ed Regalado, Roman Reyes, Fausto J.
Galauran, Susana de Guzman, Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, Lazaro Francisco, Hilaria Labog, Rosalia
Aguinaldo, Amado V. Hernandez. Many of these writers were able to produce three or more novels as
Soledad Reyes would bear out in her book which is the result of her dissertation, Ang Nobelang Tagalog
(1979).
Among the Iloko writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, who was also the regions poet laureate
then, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena Pecson Crisologo whose Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwais
considered to be the Iloko version of a Noli me Tangere.
In the Visayas, Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones would lead most writers in writing the
novels that dwelt on the themes of love, courtship, life in the farmlands, and other social upheavals of
the period. Marcel Navarra wrote stories and novels in Sugbuhanon.
Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of the country during the American
period. The Tagalogs, hailing Francisco F. Balagtas as the nations foremost poet invented
thebalagtasan in his honor. Thebalagtasan is a debate in verse, a poetical joust done almost
spontaneously between protagonists who debate over the pros and cons of an issue.
The first balagtasan was held in March 1924 at the Instituto de Mujeres, with Jose Corazon de Jesus
and Florentino Collantes as rivals, bubuyog (bee) and paru-paro (butterfly) aiming for the love of
kampupot (jasmine). It was during this balagtasan that Jose Corazon de Jesus, known as Huseng Batute,
emerged triumphant to become the first king of the Balagtasan. Jose Corazon de Jesus was the finest
master of the genre. He was later followed by balagtasistas, Emilio Mar Antonio and Crescenciano
Marquez, who also became King of the Balagtasan in their own time.
As Huseng Batute, de Jesus also produced the finest poems and lyrics during the period. His debates
with Amado V. Hernandez on the political issue of independence from America and nationhood were
mostly done in verse and are testament to the vitality of Tagalog poetry during the era. Lope K. Santos,
epic poem, Ang Panggingera is also proof of how poets of the period have come to master the language
to be able to translate it into effective poetry.
The balagtasan would be echoed as a poetical fiesta and would be duplicated in the Ilocos as
thebukanegan, in honor of Pedro Bukaneg, the supposed transcriber of the epic, Biag ni Lam-ang; and
theCrissottan, in Pampanga, in honor of the esteemed poet of the Pampango, Juan Crisostomo Sotto.
In 1932, Alejandro G. Abadilla , armed with new criticism and an orientation on modernist poetry
would taunt traditional Tagalog poetics with the publication of his poem, Ako ang Daigdig. Abadillas
poetry began the era of modernism in Tagalog poetry, a departure from the traditional rhymed,
measured and orally recited poems. Modernist poetry which utilized free or blank verses was intended
more for silent reading than oral delivery.
Noted poets in Tagalog during the American period were Julian Cruz Balmaceda, Florentino
Collantes, Pedro Gatmaitan, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Benigno Ramos, Inigo Ed. Regalado, Ildefonso
Santos, Lope K. Santos, Aniceto Silvestre, Emilio Mar. Antonio , Alejandro Abadilla and Teodoro
Agoncillo.
Like the writers in English who formed themselves into organizations, Tagalog writers also formed
the Ilaw at Panitik, and held discussions and workshops on the value of literature in society. Benigno
Ramos, was one of the most politicized poets of the period as he aligned himself with the peasants of
the Sakdal Movement.
Fiction in Tagalog as well as in the other languages of the regions developed alongside the novel.
Most fictionists are also novelists. Brigido Batungbakal , Macario Pineda and other writers chose to dwell
on the vicissitudes of life in a changing rural landscape. Deogracias Del Rosario on the other hand, chose
the city and the emerging social elite as subjects of his stories. He is considered the father of the modern
short story in Tagalog
 Among the more popular fictionists who emerged during the period are two women writers,
Liwayway Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute, considered forerunners in the use of light fiction, a
kind of story telling that uses language through poignant rendition. Genoveva Edroza Matutes Akoy
Isang Tinig and Liwayway Arceos Uhaw ang Tigang na Lupa have been used as models of fine
writing in Filipino by teachers of composition throughout the school system.
Teodoro Agoncillos anthology 25 Pinakamahusay na Maiikling Kuwento (1945) included the
foremost writers of fiction in the pre-war era.
The separate, yet parallel developments of Philippine literature in English and those in Tagalog and
other languages of the archipelago during the American period only prove that literature and writing in
whatever language and in whatever climate are able to survive mainly through the active imagination of
writers. Apparently, what was lacking during the period was for the writers in the various languages to
come together, share experiences and come to a conclusion on the elements that constitute good
writing in the Philippines.

JAPANESE
1. Haiku a poem of free verse that the Japanese like. It was made up of 17 syllables divided into three
lines. The first line had 5 syllables, the second, 7 syllables, and the third, five. The Haiku is allegorical in
meaning, is short and covers a wide scope in meaning.

2. Tanaga like the Haiku, is short but it had measure and rhyme. Each line had 17 syllables and its also
allegorical in meaning.

3. Karaniwang Anyo (Usual Form) like those mentioned earlier in the beginning chapters of this book.

Many of the plays were reproductions of English plays to Tagalog. The translators were Francisco Soc
Rodrigo, Alberto Concio, and Narciso Pimentel. They also founded the organization of Filipino players
named Dramatic Philippines. A few of playwriters were:

1. Jose Ma. Hernandez wrote PANDAY PIRA

2. Francisco Soc Rodrigo wrote sa PULA, SA PUTI

3. Clodualdo del Mundo wrote BULAGA (an expression in the game Hide and Seek).

4. Julian Cruz Balmaceda wrote SINO BA KAYO?, DAHIL SA ANAK, and HIGANTE NG PATAY.

The field of the short story widened during the Japanese Occupation. Many wrote short stories. Among
them were: Brigido Batungbakal, Macario Pineda, Serafin Guinigindo, Liwayway Arceo, Narciso Ramos,
NVM Gonzales, Alicia Lopez Lim, Ligaya Perez, and Gloria Guzman. The best writings in 1945 were
selected by a group of judges composed of Francisco Icasiano, Jose Esperanza Cruz, Antonio Rosales,
Clodualdo del Mundo and Teodoro Santos. As a result of this selection, the following got the first three
prizes:

First Prize: Narciso Reyes with his LUPANG TINUBUAN

Second Prize: Liwayway Arceos UHAW ANG TIGANG NA LUPA
Third Prize: NVM GonzalesLUNSOD NAYON AT DAGAT-DAGATAN
While some continued to write, the majority waited for a better climate to publish their works.
Noteworthy writer of the period was Carlos P. Romulo who won the Pulitzer Prize for his bestsellers I
SAW THE FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES, I SEE THE PHILIPPINES RISE and his MOTHER AMERICA AND MY
BROTHER AMERICANS.

Journalists include Salvador P. Lopez, Leon Ma. Geurrero, Raul Manglapuz and Carlos Bulosan.

Nick Joaquin produced THE WOMAN WHO LOOKED LIKE LAZARUS.Fred Ruiz Castro wrote a few poems.

F.B. Icasino wrote essays in The Philippine Review. Carlos Bulosans works included THE LAUGHTER OF
MY FATHER (1944), THE
VOICE OF BATAAN, 1943, SIX FILIPINO POETS, 1942, among others. Alfredo Litiatco published With Harp
and Sling and in 1943, Jose P. Laurel published Forces that Make a Nation Great.

The Commonwealth Literary Awards gave prizes to meritorious writers. Those who won were:
1. LIKE THE MOLAVE by Rafael Zulueta da Costa (Poetry)
2. HOW MY BROTHER LEON BROUGTH HOME A WIFE by Manuel E. Arguilla (Short Story) 3. LITERATURE
AND SOCIETY by Salvador P. Lopez (Essay)
4. HIS NATIVE SOIL by Juan Laya (Novel)

President Manuel L. Quezons autobiography THE GOOD FIGHTwas published posthumously.

Radio broadcasts echoed the mingled fear and doubts in the hearts of the people.

Other writers of this period were Juan Collas (19440, Tomas Confesor (1945), Roman A. de la Cruz and
Elisa Tabuar.

POST WAR PERIOD

Published in 1946, Ginto Sa Makiling a novel by Macario Pineda, is the first work of note that appeared
after the second world war. In plot, it hews close to the mode of romantic fantasy traceable to
the awits, koridos and komedyas of the Balagtas tradition. But it is a symbolical narrative of social, moral
and political import. In this, it resembles not only Balagtas but also Rizal, but in style and plot it is closer
to Balagtas in not allowing the realistic mode to restrict the element of fantasy.
Two novels by writers in English dealt with the war experience: (Medina, p. 194) Stevan
JavellanasWithout Seeing the Dawn (1947), and Edilberto Tiempos Watch in the Night. Both novels hew
closely to the realist tradition. Lazaro Francisco, the eminent Tagalog novelist of the pre-war years, was
to continue to produce significant work. He revised his Bayaning Nagpatiwakal (1932), refashioning its
plot and in sum honing his work as a weapon against the policies that tended to perpetuate American
economic dominance over the Philippines. The updated novel was titled Ilaw Sa Hilaga (1948) (Lumbera,
p. 67). He was to produce three more novels.Sugat Sa Alaala (1950) reflects the horrors of the war
experience as well as the human capacity for nobility, endurance and love under the most extreme
circumstances. Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig (1956) deals with the agrarian issue, and Daluyong(1962) deals
with the corruption bred by the American-style and American-educated pseudo-reformers. Lazaro
Francisco is a realist with social and moral ideals. The Rizal influence on his work is profound.
The poet Amado Hernandez, who was also union leader and social activist, also wrote novels
advocating social change. Luha ng Buwaya (1963) (Lumbera) deals with the struggle between the
oppressed peasantry and the class of politically powerful landlords. Mga Ibong Mandaragit (1969) deals
with the domination of Filipinos by American industry (Lumbera, p. 69).
Unfortunately, the Rizalian path taken by Lazaro Francisco and Amado Hernandez with its social-
realist world-view had the effect of alienating them from the mode of the highly magical oral-epic
tradition. Imported social realism (and, in the case of Amado Hernandez, a brand of socialist
empiricism), was not entirely in touch with the folk sentiment and folk belief, which is why the Tagalog
romances (e.g., Ginto Sa Makiling, serialized in the comics), were far more popular than their work.
It was Philippine Literature in English which tapped the folk element in the Philippine unconscious to
impressive, spectacular effect. Nick Joaquin, through his neo-romantic, poetic and histrionic style, is
reminiscent of the dramas of Balagtas and de la Cruz. His dizzying flashbacks (from an idealized romantic
Spanish past to a squalid Americanized materialistic present) are cinematic in effect, ironically quite
Hollywood-ish, serving always to beguile and astonish.
Francisco Arcellana, his younger contemporary, was a master of minimalist fiction that is as native as
anything that could be written in English, possessing the potent luminosity of a sorcerers rune.
Wilfrido Nolledo, fictionist-playwright growing up in the aura of such masters, was the disciple who,
without conscious effort, created a school of his own. His experiments in plot and plotlessness, his
creation of magical scenes, made splendorous by a highly expressive language, easily became the rage
among young writers who quickly joined (each in his/her own highly original style) the Nolledo trend.
Among these poetic fictionists of the 1960s were Wilfredo Pasqua Sanchez, Erwin Castillo, Cesar Ruiz
Aquino, Resil Mojares, Leopoldo Cacnio and Ninotchka Rosca. Of them all, only the last two did not
publish verse. Their non-realistic (even anti-realistic) style made them perhaps the most original group
of writers to emerge in the post-war period. But such a movement that slavishly used the American
colonists language (according to the Nationalist, Socialist Tagalog writers who were following A.V.
Hernandez) were called decadent (in the manner of Lukacsian social realism).
Post-war poetry and fiction was dominated by the writers in English educated and trained in writers
workshops in the United States or England. Among these were the novelists Edilberto and Edith Tiempo
(who is also a poet), short-fictionist Francisco Arcellana, poet-critic Ricaredo Demetillo, poet-fictionist
Amador Daguio, poet Carlos Angeles, fictionists N.V.M. Gonzales and Bienvenido N. Santos. Most of
these writers returned to the Philippines to teach. With their credentials and solid reputations, they
influenced the form and direction of the next generation mainly in accordance with the dominant tenets
of the formalist New Critics of America and England.
Even literature in the Tagalog-based national language (now known as Filipino) could not avoid
being influenced or even (in the critical sense) assimilated. College-bred writers in Filipino like Rogelio
Sikat and Edgardo Reyes saw the need to hone their artistry according to the dominant school of
literature in America of that period, despite the fact that the neo-Aristotelian formalist school went
against the grain of their socialist orientation. Poet-critic Virgilio Almario (1944- ), a.k.a. Rio Alma, in a
break-away move reminiscent of Alejandro Abadilla, and in the formalist (New Critical) mode then
fashionable, bravely opined that Florante at Laura, Balagtas acknowledged masterpiece, was an artistic
failure (Reyes, p. 71-72). It was only in the early 1980s (Reyes, p. 73) that Almario (after exposure to the
anti-ethnocentrism of structuralism and Deconstruction) revised his views.
The protest tradition of Rizal, Bonifacio and Amado Hernandez found expression in the works of
Tagalog poets from the late 1960s to the 1980s, as they confronted Martial Law and repression. Among
these liberationist writers were Jose Lacaba, Epifanio San Juan, Rogelio Mangahas, Lamberto Antonio,
Lilia Quindoza, and later, Jesus Manuel Santiago. The group Galian sa Arte at Tula nurtured mainly
Manila writers and writing (both in their craft and social vision) during some of the darkest periods of
Martial Law.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes on the printed page, oral literature flourished in the outlying
communities. Forms of oral poetry like the Cebuano Balak, the Ilokano Bukanegan, the
TagalogBalagtasan, and the SamalTinis-Tinis, continued to be declaimed by the rural-based bards, albeit
to dwindling audiences. In the late 1960s, Ricaredo Demetillo had, using English (and English metrics)
pioneered a linkage with the oral tradition. The result was the award-winning Barter in Panay, an epic
based on the Ilonggo epic Maragtas. Inspired by the example, other younger poets wrote epics or long
poems, and they were duly acclaimed by the major award-giving bodies. Among these poets were
writers in English like Cirilo Bautista (The Archipelago, 1968), Artemio Tadena (Northward into Noon,
1970) and Domingo de Guzman (Moses, 1977).
However, except for Demetillos modern epic, these attempts fall short of establishing a linkage with
the basic folk tradition. Indeed, most are more like long meditative poems, like Eliots or Nerudas long
pieces. Interest in the epic waned as the 1980s approached. The 1980s became a decade of
personalistic free verse characteristic of American confessional poetry. The epic big picture
disappeared from the scene, to be replaced by a new breed of writers nourished by global literary
sources, and critical sources in the developed world. The literary sources were third world (often
nativistic) poetry such as that of Neruda, Vallejo and Octavio Paz. In fiction, the magic-realism of Borges,
Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, among others, influenced the fiction of Cesar Aquino, Alfred
Yuson, and poet-fictionist Mario Gamalinda.
On the other hand, the poets trained in American workshops continue to write in the lyrical-realist
mode characteristic of American writing, spawned by imagism and neo-Aristotelianism. Among these
writers (whose influence remains considerable) are the poet-critics Edith L. Tiempo, Gemino Abad,
Ophelia A. Dimalanta and Emmanuel Torres. Their influence can be felt in the short lyric and the
medium-length meditative poem that are still the Filipino poets preferred medium. Some
contemporary poets in English such as Marjorie Evasco and Merlie Alunan, derive their best effects from
their reverence for the ineluctable image. Ricardo de Ungrias and Luisa Aguilar Carios poems, on the
other hand, are a rich confluence of imagism, surrealism and confessionalism.
The Philippine novel, whether written in English or any of the native languages, has remained social-
realist. Edgardo Reyes Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1966), for instance, is a critique of urban blight, and
Edilberto K. Tiempos To Be Free is a historical probe of the western idea of freedom in the context of
indigenous Philippine culture. Kerima Polotan Tuveras novel The Hand of the Enemy (1972), a
penetratingly lucid critique of ruling-class psychology, is entirely realistic, if Rizalian in its moments of
high satire, although unlike the Rizalian model, it falls short of a moral vision.
Only a few novelists like Gamalinda, Yuson and Antonio Enriquez, can claim a measure of success in
tapping creative power from folk sources in their venture to join the third world magic-realist
mainstream.
But the poets of oral-folk charisma, such as Jose Corazon de Jesus, are waiting in the wings for a
comeback as astonishing as Lam-angs legendary resurrection. Modernist and post-modernist criticism,
which champions the literature of the disempowered cultures, has lately attained sufficient clout to shift
the focus of academic pursuits towards native vernacular literatures (oral and written) and on the
revaluation of texts previously ignored, such as those by women writers. Sa Ngalan Ng Ina (1997), by
prize-winning poet-critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago, is, to date, the most comprehensive compilation of
feminist writing in the Philippines.