EARLY PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

 The early inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had a native alphabet or syllabary
which among the Tagalogs was called baybayin,

Awit
 Among the early forms, is the awit or the song:
o uyayi or hele, a lullaby for putting a child to sleep; the soliranin is a song for
travelers while the talindaw is the seafarers song; the kumintang is a war
song; the maluway is a song for collective labor while the kundiman is a
melancholic love song. The dalit, is a song-ritual usually sung to the rhythm
of dance. The panambitan is a courtship song while the pamanhikan is a
song-ritual of the would-be bridegroom to his would-be bride as he asks
permission to marry her. The subli is another dance-ritual song of courtship
and marriage.
o In the north, among the Ilocanos, the more popular song forms are
the dallot and the duayya, both love songs, and the dung-aw which is a
dirge or a wake song. The Bontoc of Mountain Province have the bagbagto,
a song ritual for harvest, while the Ivatan up in the Batanes islands have three
most popular folk song forms: the laji, the kanta and the kalusan. The laji is
a lyric rendition of a song usually sung after a day’s work when people gather
together in their houses to chat and drink the native wine, palek and just find
time to be merry.
Riddles
 Tagalog riddles are called bugtong, while the Ilocanos call these burburtia. Usually,
riddles are made to rhyme and utilize the talinghaga, a form of metaphor whose
signification eventually conveys the meaning of the answer to the riddle. Riddles
such as these for instance illustrate the use of the talinghaga: Sometimes, the riddles
are relayed through familiar indigenous forms of poetry such as the ambahan,which
is a monorhyming heptasyllabic poem attributed to the Hanunuu-Mangyan ethnic
group in Mindoro. Apart from relaying riddles, ambahans are also used to narrate
common folk experiences. Father Antoon Postma has collected a number of these
ambahans, A poetic form similar to the ambahan is the tanaga. Unlike
the ambahan whose length is indefinite, the tanaga is a compact seven-syllable
quatrain. Poets test their skills at rhyme, meter and metaphor through
thetanagabecause not only is it rhymed and measured but also exacts skillful use of
words to create a puzzle that demands some kind of an answer. Notice how this is
used in the following

Proverbs
Tagalog proverbs are called salawikain or sawikain while they are
termed sarsarita in Iloko.

Epics
Aliguyon (Hudhud) of the Ifugao
Biag ni Lam-ang of the Ilocano
Labaw Donggon, the Sulod epic
Agyu or Olahing or Ulahingan of the Manobos
Sandayo of the Subanun
Bantugan of the Maranao
Darangen which is a Muslim epic
Kudaman of Palawan
Alim of the Ifugao,
Hinilawod of Panay,
Ibalon of Bikol
Tuwaang of the Manobo
SPANISH PERIOD
 Doctrina Christiana (1593), the first book to be printed in the Philippines
 Mahal Na Pasion ni Jesu Christo, a Tagalog poem based on Christ’s passion, was
published in 1704.
 Francisco Baltazar (1788 – 1862), popularly called Balagtas, is the acknowledged
master of traditional Tagalog poetry. Balagtas was one of the first Indios to become a
Filipino.His narrative poem Florante at Laura
 The first Filipino novel was Ninay, written in Spanish by Pedro Paterno.
 Jose Rizal (1861 – 1896) Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo
 Andres Bonifacio - Pag-Ibig Sa Tinubuang Lupa.(Bonifacio, for instance, wrote a
Tagalog translation of Rizal’s Ultimo Adios)

AMERICAN PERIOD
 Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead Stars
 Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw,
 His Native Soil by Juan C. Laya
 How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” by Manuel Arguilla
 N.V. M. Gonzales’s novels and stories such as “Children of the Ash Covered
Loam,”
 seditious plays-Tanikalang Ginto, Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas and Hindi Ako
Patay, all directed against the American imperialists.
 Patricio Mariano’s Anak ng Dagat and Severino Reyes’s Walang Sugat are equally
remarkable zarsuwelas staged during the period.
 Wilfredo Maria Guerrero-Wanted a Chaperone and The Forsaken House
 Ishmael Amado’s Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was one of the earliest
novels that dealt with the theme of American imperialism in the Philippines.
 Valeriano Hernandez Peña’s 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.
 Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan
 Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat

POSTWAR
 Published in 1946, Ginto Sa Makiling – a novel by Macario Pineda,
 Stevan Javellana’s Without Seeing the Dawn
 Edilberto Tiempo’s Watch in the Night.
 Lazaro Francisco, the eminent Tagalog novelist, his works includes Bayaning
Nagpatiwakal, Ilaw Sa Hilaga, Sugat Sa Alaala, Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig
and Daluyong
 The poet Amado Hernandez - Luha ng Buwaya, Mga Ibong Mandaragit
 Edgardo Reyes’ Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag
 Edilberto K. Tiempo’s To Be Free .
 Kerima Polotan Tuvera’s novel The Hand of the Enemy (1972),
 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.