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The Literary Forms in Philippine Literature

by: Christine F. Godinez-Ortega

country's history. This can best be appreciated in the context of the country's precolonial cultural traditions and the socio-political histories of its colonial and
contemporary traditions.
The average Filipino's unfamiliarity with his indigenous literature was largely due
to what has been impressed upon him: that his country was "discovered" and, hence,
Philippine "history" started only in 1521.
country's largely oral past that present-day Filipino writers, artists and journalists are
trying to correct this inequity by recognizing the country's wealth of ethnic traditions
and disseminating them in schools and in the mass media.
this change of attitude among a new breed of Filipinos concerned about the "Filipino

Pre-Colonial Times
Arabic and other chroniclers of the past.
affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors.
the riddle is the talinghaga or metaphor because it "reveals subtle resemblances
between two unlike objects" and one's power of observation and wit are put to the test.

Gongonan nu usin y amam If you pull your daddy's penis
Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your mommy's vagina, too,
(Campana) screams. (Bell)
The proverbs or aphorisms express norms or codes of behavior, community
insights and lessons on life is "more emotionally charged than the terse proverb and
thus has affinities with the folk lyric." Some examples are the basahanon or extended
didactic sayings from Bukidnon and the daraida and daragilon from Panay.
people's lifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous,
didactic and naive as in the children's songs or Ida-ida(Maguindanao), tulang
pambata (Tagalog) or cansiones para abbing (Ibanag).
like the duplo popular during wakes.
the kanogon (Cebuano) or the Annako (Bontoc).
explain how the world was created, how certain animals possess certain

animals and these teach moral lessons.
Our country's epics are considered ethno-epics because unlike, say, Germany's
Niebelunginlied, our epics are not national for they are "histories" of varied groups
that consider themselves "nations."
The epics come in various
These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of indigenous musical instruments
chanters who were taught by their ancestors are considered "treasures" and/or
repositories of wisdom in their communities.
Examples of these epics are the Lamang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman (Palawan); Darangen (Maranao); Ulahin
gan (Livunganen-Arumanen Manobo); Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of
the Buhong Sky from Tuwaang--Manobo); Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon);
and Tudbulol (T'boli).

The Spanish Colonial Tradition

literature. Religion and institutions that represented European civilization enriched
influenced our own Filipino intellectuals and writers for them to understand the
meanings of "liberty and freedom."
secular prose and poetry.

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
language) published in 1605.
quintillas that became entrenched in the Filipino's commemoration of Christ's agony
and resurrection at Calvary. 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.
well-known are Modesto de Castro's "Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si
Urbana at si Feliza" (Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza)
in 1864 and 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
exclusive domain of the missionaries.

Jacinto Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco.
reached new heights in Balagtas' "Florante at Laura" (ca. 1838-1861), the most
famous of the country's metrical romances.
intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside
Ponce, Emilio Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio.
as the political essays and Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El
among Filipinos.
But if Rizal's novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is
largely cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel. Although
Paterno's Ninay gave impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M.
Abad to continue writing in Spanish, this did not flourish.
But the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines
Spanish writing. During the language's death throes, however, writing in the romantic

and which further maintained the Spanish tradition.

The American Colonial Period

essay were introduced. American influence was deeply entrenched with the firm
modernism that highlighted the writer's individuality and cultivated consciousness of
craft, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness.
verse and espoused the dictum, "Art for art's sake" to the chagrin of other writers more
by the new dispensation, 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
the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio andPhilippines Herald. Paz Marquez
Benitez's "Dead Stars" published in 1925 was the first successful short story in
showed exceptional skills with the short story.
provinces. Others like Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Pea 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 in the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who
also penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken'sDavid Copperfield even as the
among others.
like Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag.
The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920's to the present.
delectation by Filipinos.
Among those who wrote criticism developed during the American period were
Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But 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
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
resurgence of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.
intention or not.

Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards encourage him to
literatures of the world will not be far behind.