Philipine and World History of Literature

Sophia Marie D. Verdeflor ABM-Block A
History of Philippine and World Literature
A World Literature Timeline
Invention of Writing and Earliest Literature [Beginnings to 100 A.D.]
1. Writing was not invented for the purpose of preserving literature; the earliest written documents contain
commercial, administrative, political, and legal information, and were created by the first "advanced"
civilizations in an area that Westerners commonly call the Middle East.
2. The oldest writing was pictographic, meaning that the sign for an object was written to resemble the
object itself; later, hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts were invented to record more complicated
information.
3. Begun in 2700 B.C. and written down about 2000 B.C., the first great heroic narrative of world
literature, Gilgamesh, nearly vanished from memory when it was not translated from cuneiform
languages into the new alphabets that replaced them.
4. Though the absence of written signs for vowels can confuse some readers, the consonantal script
developed by the Hebrews ushered in a new form of writing that could be composed without special
artistic skills and read without advanced training.
5. With their return to Palestine in 539 B.C., the Hebrews rebuilt the Temple and created the canonical
version of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.
6. As the stories in the Bible expound, unlike polytheistic religions in which gods often battle among
themselves for control over humankind, the sole resistance to the Hebrew God is humankind itself.
Ancient Greece [Beginnings to 100 A.D.]
1. Though the origin of the Hellenes, or ancient Greeks, is unknown, their language clearly belongs to the
Indo-European family.
2. By serving as a basis for education, the Iliad and Odyssey played a role in the development of Greek
civilization that is equivalent to the role that the Torah had played in Palestine.
3. The Greeks who established colonies in Asia adapted their language to the Phoenician writing system,
adding signs for vowels to change it from a consonantal to an alphabetic system.
4. Before its defeat to Sparta, Athens developed democratic institutions to maintain the delicate balance
between the freedom of the individual and the demands of the state.
5. Unlike the Sophists, Socrates proposed a method of teaching that was dialectic rather than didactic; his
means of approaching "truth" through questions and answers revolutionized Greek philosophy.
6. The basis for Homer's Iliad and Odyssey was an immense poetic reserve created by generations of
singers who lived before him.
7. Neither the Iliad nor the Odyssey offers easy answers; questions about the nature of aggression and
violence are left unanswered, and questions about human suffering and the waste generated by war are
left unresolved.
8. Greek comedy and tragedy developed out of choral performances in celebration of Dionysus, the god of
wine and mystic ecstasy.
Poetry and Thought in China [Beginnings to 100 A.D.]
1. Chinese civilization first developed in the Yellow River basin.
2. The Classic of Poetry is a lyric poetry collection that stands at the beginning of the Chinese literary
tradition.
3. The fusion of ethical thought and idealized Chou traditions associated with Confucius were recorded in
the Analects by Confucius's disciples following his death.
4. The Chuang Tzu offers philosophical meditations in a multitude of forms, ranging from jokes and
parables to intricate philosophical arguments.

5. During the period of the Warring States, Ssu-ma Ch'ien produced the popular Historical
Records chronicling the lives of ruling families and dynasties in a comprehensive history of China up to
the time of Emperor Wu's reign.
6. The end of ancient China is often linked with the rise of the draconian ruler Ch'in Shih-huang.
India’s Heroic Age [Beginnings to 100 A.D.]
1. The ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity of India's billion people has given rise to a diverse written
and oral literary tradition that evolved over 3,500 years.
2. The Vedas are the primary scriptures of Hinduism and consist of four books of sacred hymns that are
typically chanted by priests at ceremonies marking rites of passage.
3. The Upanisads argue that the soul is a manifestation of a single divine essence; release comes from
understanding the basic unity between the self and the universe.
4. Two epics that express the core values of Hinduism are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
5. Dharma is the guiding principle of human conduct and preserves the social, moral, and cosmic integrity
of the universe. It refers to sacred duties and righteous conduct, and is related to three other spheres that
collectively govern an ideal life: artha (wealth, profit, and political power); kama (love,
sensuality); moksa (release, liberation).
6. The belief that all beings are responsible for their own actions and their own suffering is known
as karma.
7. Because Buddhism was a more egalitarian and populist religion, it initially gained a following among
women, artisans, merchants, and individuals to whom the ritualistic and hierarchical nature of Hinduism
seemed constraining.
8. Because Hinduism and its important texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita were able to synthesize tenets and
ideas from the other religions, it was able to triumph in India.
9. The idea that moral and spiritual conquest is superior to conquest by the sword is an enduring motif of
the time and one that was publicly endorsed by Emperor Asoka.
The Roman Empire [Beginnings to 100 A.D.]
1. With its military victories in North Africa, Spain, Greece, and Asia Minor, the social, cultural, and
economic life of Rome changed profoundly.
2. After the fall of the Roman empire, the concept of a world-state was appropriated by the medieval
Church, which ruled from the same center, Rome, and laid claim to a spiritual authority as great as the
secular authority it succeeded.
3. Literature in Latin began with a translation of the Greek Odyssey and continued to be modeled after
Greek sources until it became Christian.
4. The lyric poems that Catullus wrote about his love affair with the married woman he called Lesbia range
in tone from passionate to despairing to almost obscene.
5. Left unfinished at the time of his death, Virgil's Aeneid combines the themes of the Homeric epics: the
wanderer in search of a home from the Iliad, and the hero at war from the Odyssey.
6. Ovid's extraordinary subtlety and psychological depth make his poetry second only to Virgil's for its
influence on Western poets and writers of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond.
7. Probably written by Petronius, and probably written during the principate of Nero, the Satyricon is a
satirical work about the pragmatism and materialism of the Roman empire that would soon be
supplanted by Christianity.
Roman Empire -> Christian Europe [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. The life of the Hebrew prophet Jesus ended in the agony of the crucifixion by a Roman governor, but his
teachings were written down in the Greek language and became the sacred texts of the Christian church.

2. The teachings of Jesus were revolutionary in terms of Greek and Roman feeling, as well as the Hebrew
religious tradition.
3. Until Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, declaring tolerance for all religions, in 313, the Christian
church was often persecuted by imperial authorities, particularly under the rule of emperors Nero,
Marcus Aurelius, and Diocletian.
4. The four Gospels were collected with other documents to form the New Testament, which
Pope Damasus had translated from Greek to Latin by the scholar Jerome in 393–405.
5. In his Confessions, Augustine sets down the story of his early life for the benefit of others, combining
the intellectual tradition of the ancient world and the religious feeling that would come to be
characteristic of the Middle Ages.
India’s Classical Age [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. During the rule of the Guptas in ancient India, great achievements were made in mathematics, logic,
astronomy, literature, and the fine arts.
2. Classical Sanskrit literature deals extensively with courtly culture and life. Aiming to evoke aesthetic
responses, many of the works admitted into the literary canon were poetic works written and performed
by learned poets (kavi) who were under the patronage of kings. A highly stylized form of
poetry, kavya literature consists of four main genres—the court epic, short lyric, narrative, and drama.
3. In contrast to the elegant and formal works of the kavya genre are two important collections of tales that
have influenced tales around the world—the Pañcatantra and the Kathasaritsagara.
4. Women in classical literature are rarely portrayed as one-dimensional characters who are victims of
circumstance.
5. The kavya tradition is concerned with the universe and ideals. Heroes and heroines are rarely
individuals; rather, they represent "universal" types.
China’s Middle Period [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. The "middle period" of Chinese literature occupies a central place in that nation's cultural history; to
many it is the era during which Chinese thought and letters achieved its highest form.
2. During China's "middle period," Confucianism declined in importance; Taoism and Buddhism in fact
began to acquire a more important status. With an emphasis on personal salvation, they offered an
alternative to the Confucian ideals of social and ethical collective interests.
3. Because of the way that it was integrated into life during this period, the T'ang Dynasty is often
considered a period when poetry flourished.
4. Thanks to the development of printing, the vernacular traditions emphasizing storytelling have coexisted
and evolved along with classical literature up to present times.
Islam [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. God's revelations were first received around 610 by the prophet Muhammad, whose followers later
collected them into the Koran, which became the basis for a new religion and community known today
as Islam.
2. Though most of the pre-Islamic literature of Arabia was written in verse, prose became a popular vehicle
for the dissemination of religious learning.
3. As its title "the Recitation" suggests, the Koran was made to be heard and recited; because it is literally
the word of God, Muslims do not accept the Koran in translation from Arabic.
4. Although Persian literature borrowed from Arabic literary styles, it also created and enhanced new
poetic styles, including the ruba'i (quatrain), ghazal (erotic lyric), and masnavi (narrative poem).
5. More widely known than any other work in Arabic, the Thousand and One Nights is generally excluded
from the canon of classical Arabic literature due to its extravagant and improbable fabrications in prose,
a form that was expected to be more serious and substantial than verse.

Formation of Western Literature [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. Contrary to popular belief, the medieval period cannot be characterized as entirely barbaric. During this
period, national literatures in the vernacular appeared.
2. Due to their disparate influences, literature and culture in medieval Europe were very diverse, drawing
from different, often conflicting sources.
3. Composed around 850, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf speaks about the warring lifestyle of the
Germanic and Scandinavian groups that conquered the Roman empire.
4. Not only does the Song of Roland set the foundation for the French literary tradition, but it also
establishes the narrative about the foundation of France itself.
5. Writing in the twelfth century, Marie de France helped establish the major forms and themes of
vernacular literature, especially for what we now call romances, novelistic narrative's that deal with
adventure and love.
6. The thirteenth-century story Thorstein the Staff-Struck is a short example of the Icelandic saga tradition
that speak's about the lives of men and women who lived in Iceland and Norway between the ninth and
eleventh centuries.
7. Beginning in Provence around 1100, the love lyric spread to Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and
eventually England.
8. The Divine Comedy offers Dante's controversial political and religious beliefs within a formal and
cosmological framework that evoke's the three-in-one of the Christian Trinity: God the Father; God the
Son; and God the Holy Spirit.
9. Best known for his Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio was one of the many medieval writers who
contributed to the revival of classical literary traditions that would come to fruition in the Italian
Renaissance and later spread to other parts of Europe.
10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revives the "native" Anglo-Saxon tradition first seen in Beowulf that
had apparently been submerged between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries following the Norman
Conquest.
11. Although Chaucer's Canterbury Tales does not appear to be overtly political, it was written during a
period of considerable political and religious turmoil that would eventually give rise to the Protestant
Reformation.
12. Anonymously written plays such as Everyman focused on morality or were dramatic enactments of
homilies and sermons.
Golden Age of Japanese Culture [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. Although Japanese poetry, drama, literature and other writings of the Golden Age elaborate on a wide
range of philosophical, aesthetic, religious, and political topics, and while literature and culture have
flourished in Japan for over a thousand years, many misconceptions about Japanese literature persist.
2. One of the earliest monuments of Japanese literature, the Man'yoshu (The Collection of Ten Thousand
Leaves), appears to have been intended as an anthology of poetry anthologies.
3. The Kokinshu combines great poems of the past with great poems of the present; it also integrates short
poems into longer narrative sequences, thereby becoming more than a mere collection of poems.
4. Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, arguably the first significant novel in world literature, was written in
the early eleventh century.
5. The Pillow Book is a seemingly unstructured collection of personal observations, random thoughts, and
perceptions that entered the mind of the author.
6. Not only did the Tale of the Heike help to create the samurai ideal, it has served as an inspiration for
more writers in more genres than any other single work of Japanese literature.

7. Although Shintoism, the native religion emphasizing the protective powers of supernaturalism, enjoyed
widespread popularity, Buddhism began to play an increasingly important role in premodern Japan,
most notably in the arenas of literature and drama.
8. No (translated as "talent" or "skill"), Japan's classical theater, is a serious and stylized art form that is
produced without most of the artifices of Western theater such as props and scenery.
Mystical Poetry of India [100 A.D. to 1500]
1. The literary genre of India's medieval era, lyric poetry, was associated with bhakti, or mystical devotion
to God.
2. Bhakti is a populist literary form that is usually composed by poet-saints of all castes and both genders
in their native tongues.
3. Each poem positions the devotee and God in a particular relationship, but the most popular relationship
is that of erotic love between a male god and a female devotee.
4. Bhakti poetry is composed in many different regional languages and elegizes Siva, Krishna, and other
important Hindu deities.
5. The emotive quality of the poems, their ability to provide social critique and the representation of love
that crosses boundaries between the secular and sacred have made Krishna poetry appealing and
accessible to many groups.
Africa [1500-1650]
1. The founding of the Mali empire is attributed to Son-Jara Keita, whose life and exploits are the subject
of the Son-Jara, the national epic of the Manding people.
2. The rise of ancient Mali in the thirteenth century is closely associated with the spread of Islam into the
region, which had begun in the seventh century.
3. The principal custodians of the oral tradition are professional bards, known among
the Manding as dyeli or belein-tigui.
4. The epic of Son-Jara developed by accretion, which together with its oral transmission may account for
its three distinct generic layers.
5. The ideological function of the epic is the construction of a Manding common identity under a founding
hero.
The Renaissance [1500-1650]
1. During the Renaissance, notions of Europe's and of humankind's centrality in the world were challenged
and partially discredited by advances in scientific theory, a rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture, and the
so-called discovery of the Americas.
2. The Renaissance reached its peak at different times in different cultures, beginning in Italy with the
visual arts and, nearly two centuries later, working its way as far as England, where its achievements are
most recognized in drama.
3. An interest in the nature of this life rather than in the life to come is of central importance in the works
of Petrarch and Erasmus.
4. The Renaissance tendency toward perfection is well illustrated by Machiavelli's ideal prince
and Castiglione's ideal courtier, but is also illustrated in the reworking of older literary traditions such as
in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.
5. French rulers and aristocrats adopted the artistic, literary, and social values of the more sophisticated
Italian city-states such as Castiglione's Urbino.
6. Spain's major contributions to Renaissance literature can be traced to Cervantes and Lope de Vega.
7. Works from the English tradition, including Paradise Lost, Hamlet, and Othello, question the values of
the Renaissance.

Native America and Europe in the New World [1500-1650]
1. On November 8, 1519, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a battalion of four hundred soldiers
entered and seized Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital of the emperor Montezuma.
2. Although contact with the Europeans devastated the cultures of the Native American groups, efforts
were also made to preserve Aztec verbal arts.
3. Though many Aztec and Mayan works were translated into European languages, they were not made
available in native languages for fear of encouraging native religious practices.
4. Much of the literary work in Native American cultures belongs to three basic genres of the oral
tradition—song, narrative, and oratory.
5. How is it possible for "outsiders" to appreciate fully the complexity of literary works that are
inextricably linked to indigenous cultural practices and mores?
Vernacular Literature in China [1650-1800]
1. When the Mongol (Yüan) armies overran northern China and the southern Sung dynasties, they
established themselves as a dynasty, abolishing governmental principles derived from Confucian
teachings.
2. Often building on works of classical literature, vernacular literature (dealing with sex, violence, satire,
and humor) became known for its ability to elaborate creatively on plots of earlier works by filling in
details or perhaps even by articulating what had been omitted.
3. Under the Ch'ing Dynasty, and especially during the period known as the "literary inquisition," classical
Chinese writing suffered a devastating blow.
4. China's autonomy and cultural self-confidence were decimated in the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, when European colonial powers began to exert control over China's economy.
Ottoman Empire [1650-1800]
1. On the tenth night of Muharram in 1040 (August 19, 1630), Evliya «elebi dreamed that the Prophet
Muhammad appeared to him and encouraged him to pursue his wanderlust.
2. Sometimes traveling in an official capacity and sometimes traveling as a private
individual, Evliya «elebi recorded his observations in a vivid anecdotal style.
3. After the destruction of the Saljuqid state in the thirteenth century, the Ottomans established themselves
as an independent dynasty in northwestern Anatolia, from which they expanded into Greece, Macedonia,
Bulgaria, and the Balkans.
4. Under Mehmed II the Conqueror, the Ottomans established an architectural style that symbolized their
imperial ambitions, a new legal code, and a policy of imperial expansion. They continued and enriched
Arabic and Persian literary traditions.
Enlightenment in Europe [1650-1800]
1. In the midst of the massive—and often cataclysmic—social changes that violently reshaped Europe
during the eighteenth century, philosophers and other thinkers championed reason and the power of the
human mind, contributing to the somewhat misleading appellation of this prerevolutionary period as an
"Age of Enlightenment."
2. Because literature was produced by a small cultural elite, it tended to address limited audiences of the
authors' social peers, who would not necessarily notice the class- and race-specific values that served as
a basis for proper conduct and actions outlined in poems, novels, and belles lettres.
3. The notion of a permanent, divinely ordained, natural order offered comfort to those aware of the flaws
in the actual social order.
4. Reliance on convention as a mode of social and literary control expresses the constant efforts to achieve
an ever-elusive stability in the eighteenth century.

5. By exercising their right to criticize their fellow men and women, satirists evoked a rhetorical
ascendancy that was obtained by an implicit alliance with literary and moral tradition.
6. Though she outwardly declared her humility and religious subordination, Sor (Sister) Juana InÈs de la
Cruz managed to advance claims for women's rights in a more profound and far-reaching way than
anyone had achieved in the past.
Popular Arts in Pre-Modern Japan [1650-1800]
1. To sustain peace, the Tokugawa shoguns expelled Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries, who
tended to play one feudal baron against another in order to subvert local power, and prohibited any
Japanese from traveling abroad.
2. During this period of peace and stability, the role of samurai retainers in maintaining shogunal authority
shifted from warriors to bureaucrats.
3. Often indifferent to tradition, this new merchant class developed a culture of its own, reflecting the fast
pace of urban life in woodblock prints, short stories, novels, poetry, and plays.
4. Ihara Saikaku is known as a founder of new, popular "realistic" literature, writing about the foibles of
the merchant class in urban Osaka.
5. Cultivating the persona of the lonely wayfarer, Matsuo Basho's austere existence was the antithesis
to Saikaku's prosperity.
6. Ueda Akinari is known for his successful insinuation of the supernatural into everyday life and his keen
understanding of the irrational implications of erotic attachment.
Revolution and Romanticism in Europe and America [1800-1900]
1. Emerging in the late eighteenth century and extending until the late nineteenth century, Romanticism
broke with earlier models of thinking that were guided by rationalism and empiricism.
2. After the American and French revolutions, faith in social institutions declined considerably; no longer
were systems that were organized around hierarchy and the separation of classes considered superior.
3. As manufacturing and industrialization developed, resulting in a decline in the agricultural economy, a
"middle class" began to emerge in England and other parts of Europe.
4. Breaking with the Christian belief that the self is essentially "evil" and fallible, Romantic poets and
authors often explored the "good" inherent in human beings.
5. As the middle class rose to ascendancy in the nineteenth century, new approaches to science, biology,
class, and race began to shake middle-class society's values.
6. Imagination was seen as a way for the soul to link with the eternal.
7. The new thematic emphases of poetry—belief in the virtues of nature, the "primitive," and the past—
engendered a form of alienation that was described in the "social protest" poetry of Romantic poets.
Urdu Lyric Poetry in Northern India [1800-1900]
1. The most popular lyric genre of Urdu, a hybrid language developed from the interaction of Hindi and
Persian, is the ghazal.
2. Derived from the Arabic praise poem (qasidah), ghazal reflects on love—human, divine, and spiritual.
3. Formal and thematic conventions are important to the ghazal tradition.
4. Mirza Asadullah Khan, or Ghalib (Conqueror) as he is more commonly known, is considered the most
important poet associated with this tradition.
Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism in Europe [1800-1900]
1. Nourished by the political and social aspirations of the middle class, nationalism and colonialism came
to dominate the nineteenth century in Europe.
2. Though its first literary use was in Germany at the turn of the nineteenth century, the term realism did
not become a commonly accepted literary and artistic slogan until French critics began to use it in the
1850s.

3. Though the realist program made innumerable subjects available to art, it narrowed the themes and
methods of literature.
4. Contrary to what they might think, realist writers did not make a complete break with past literary
conventions, nor did they follow "to the letter" the theories and slogans they propounded.
5. As prose looked outward at the world around it, poetry looked inward at its very construction as
language.
6. Inspired by Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil, Symbolism's manifesto appeared in 1886, thereby not
including the great midcentury poems by Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and MallarmÈ.
The 20th Century: European Modernisms [1900s]
1. In the twentieth century, modernization was used in tandem with colonization as a means to legitimize
the often forced adoption of Western concepts of "progress" in different parts of the world. As such,
modernization also became a stimulus for movements that rejected "progress" in favor of "tradition."
2. European writers and thinkers looked beyond models of scientific rationalism for means of expressing
knowledge of the world and lived experience that could not be apprehended by intellect alone.
3. Literary and linguistic systems were seen as games in which "pieces" (words) and "rules" (grammar,
syntax, and other conventions) were combined with playfulness and sometimes with pathos to
emphasize the instabilities of language.
4. The twentieth century is sometimes called a "century of isms" as different groups of European artists
and intellectuals attempted to give expression to contemporary history and subjectivity.
5. Western modernism is too conceptually limited to describe much of the cultural productions of older
nations in North America such as the Navajo, Zuni, and Inuit.
Decolonization [1900s]
1. With the spread of Western colonialism from Europe and North America to Asia, Africa, and South
America also came the spread of its by-product; Western modernism.
2. Though early criticisms were leveled at former colonial subjects who wrote in the colonizer's language
since such writing was considered to reflect "impoverished" experiences, more recent evaluations point
to the ways that the writings of former colonial subjects have enriched European languages.
3. Though social-realist movements varied considerably within Chinese, Indian, and Soviet contexts, in
general they denounced the bourgeois and colonialist values expounded in Western art and literature.
4. Though English-language literatures are well known outside India, literatures in regional languages such
as Kannada, Urdu, Sindhi, Bengali, Hindi, and Tamil represent other aspects of Indian life.
5. The literary traditions of the diverse countries that the West calls "the Middle East" reflect the multiple
histories and cultural traditions of the region.
6. In addition to experiences of Western colonialism in Africa, African writers also address issues related
to the slave trade and to the African diaspora.
7. The generally political nature of magical realism in South American writing was often missed by earlier
generations of Western readers, who were too amazed by the imaginative creativity of magical realism.

Philippine Literature
Philippine Literature is a diverse and rich group of works that has evolved side-by-side with the country’s history.
Literature had started with fables and legends made by the ancient Filipinos long before the arrival of Spanish
influence. The main themes of Philippine literature focus on the country’s pre-colonial cultural traditions and the
socio-political histories of its colonial and contemporary traditions.
It is not a secret that many Filipinos are unfamiliar with much of the country's literary heritage, especially those
that were written long before the Spaniards arrived in our country. This is due to the fact that the stories of ancient
time were not written, but rather passed on from generation to generation through word of mouth. Only during
1521 did the early Filipinos became acquainted with literature due to the influence of the Spaniards on us. But
the literature that the Filipinos became acquainted with are not Philippine-made, rather, they were works of
Spanish authors.
So successful were the efforts of colonists to blot out the memory of the 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 through mass media.
The rise of nationalistic pride in the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring about this change of attitude among a new
breed of Filipinos concerned about the "Filipino identity."
Archaic Writing System
Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines has very few artifacts that show evidence of writing,
like the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. It is known that the Filipinos transferred information by word of mouth
so it is not a surprise to know that literacy only became widespread in 1571 when the Spaniards came to the
Philippines. But the early script used by the Filipinos called Baybayin (often mistaken by most Filipinos as
"Alibata", although this was deprived from Arabic, which had no influence on the Philippine language
whatsoever.) became widespread in Luzon.
The Spaniards recorded that people in Manila and other places wrote on bamboo or on specially prepared palm
leaves, using knives and styli. They used the ancient Tagalog script which had 17 basic symbols, three of which
were the vowels a/e, i, and o/u. Each basic consonantal symbol had the inherent a sound: ka, ga, nga, ta, da, na,
pa, ba, ma, ya, la, wa, sa, and ha.
A diacritical mark, called kudlit, modified the sound of the symbol into different vowel sounds. The kudlit could
be a dot, a short line, or even an arrowhead. When placed above the symbol, it changed the inherent sound of the
symbol from a/e to i; placed below, the sound became o/u. Thus a ba/be with a kudlit placed above became a bi;
if the kudlit was placed below, the symbol became a bo/bu.
Pre-Colonial Times
Owing to the works of our own archaeologists, ethnologists and anthropologists, we are able to know more and
better judge information about Philippine pre-colonial times set against a bulk of material about early Filipinos
as recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and other chroniclers of the past. Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands
showcase the Philippines' rich past through their folk sayings, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals
and mimetic dances.

The most seminal of these folk sayings is the riddle which
is tigmo in Cebuano, bugtong in Tagalog, paktakon in Ilonggo and patototdon in Bicol. There are also proverbs
or aphorisms that express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs or values by offering nuggets of wisdom
in short, rhyming verse.
The folk song, is a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the 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).
A few examples are the lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilonggo); love songs like
the panawagon and balitao (Ilonggo); harana or serenade (Cebuano); the bayok (Maranao); the seven-syllable
per line poem, ambahan of the Mangyans that are about human relationships, social entertainment and also serve
as tools for teaching the young; work songs that depict the livelihood of the people often sung to go with the
movement of workers such as the kalusan (Ivatan), soliranin (Tagalog rowing song), the mambayu, a Kalinga
rice-pounding song, and the verbal jousts/games like the duplo popular during wakes.
The folk narratives, such as epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical. They were created to explain the
phenomena of the world long before science came to be known. They explain how the world was created, how
certain animals possess certain characteristics, why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains, flora or
fauna and, in the case of legends, the origins of things. Fables are about animals and these teach moral lessons.
The epics come in various names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (Maranao); Hudhud (Ifugao);
and Ulahingan (Manobo). These epics revolve around supernatural events or heroic deeds and they embody or
validate the beliefs and customs and ideals of a community. They are performed during feasts and special
occasions such as harvests, weddings or funerals by chanters.
Examples of these epics are the Lam-
ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman (Palawan); Darangen (Maranao); Ulahingan (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).
Colonial Literature (16th-18th Century)
The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language. The Spanish conquerors, governing
from Mexico for the crown of Spain, established a strict class system that was based on race and soon
imposed Roman Catholicism on the native population.
While it is true that Spain subjugated the Philippines for more mundane reasons, this former European power
contributed much in the shaping and recording of our literature. Religion and institutions that represented
European civilization enriched the languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we would come to know
as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama.
The natives, called indio, generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator
Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language.
Literature from 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. Another type of religious lyrics is the meditative

verse like the dalit appended to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rhyme scheme although a
number are written in octo-syllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject matter.
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: the languishing but loyal
lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival. The leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw)
and Francisco Balagtas. Some secular poets who wrote in this same tradition were Leona Florentino, Jacinto
Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco.
Another popular type of secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in Tagalog. The awit is set in
dodecasyllabic quatrains while the korido is in octosyllabic quatrains. An example of this is the Ibong
Adarna (Adarna Bird). There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilonggo, Pampango, Ilocano
and in Pangasinan. The awit as a popular poetic genre reached new heights in Balagtas's Florante at Laura (ca.
1838-1861), the most famous of the country's metrical romances.
Classical Literature (XIX Century)
Again, the winds of change began to blow in 19th century Philippines. Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe
called ilustrados began to write about the downside of colonization. This, coupled with the simmering calls for
reforms by the masses inspired a formidable force of writers like Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano
Ponce, Emilio Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio. This led to the formation of the Propaganda Movement where prose
works such as the political essays and Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El
filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the Spanish regime, and, at
the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness among Filipinos.
But before Rizal's political novels came, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno, which was 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, their efforts did not flourish.
Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La Vanguardia, El
Debate, Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. 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.
Modern Literature (XX Century)
A new set of colonizers brought about new changes in Philippine literature. New literary forms such as free verse
[in poetry], the modern short story and the critical essay were introduced. American influence was deeply
entrenched with the firm establishment of English as the medium of instruction in all schools and with literary
modernism that highlighted the writer's individuality and cultivated consciousness of craft, sometimes at the
expense of social consciousness.
Ironically, the greatest portion of Spanish literature by native Filipinos was written during the
American Commonwealth period, because the Spanish language was still predominant among the Filipino
intellectuals.

Among the newspapers published in Spanish were El Renacimiento, La Democracia, La Vanguardia, El Pueblo
de Iloilo, El Tiempo and others. Three magazines, The Independent, Philippine Free Press and Philippine
Review were published in English and Spanish.
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. Another
maverick in poetry who used free verse and talked about illicit love in her poetry was Angela Manalang-Gloria,
a woman poet described as ahead of her time.
The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated modernism in poetry. Abadilla
later influenced young poets to write modern verse in the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte
and Rolando S. Tinio.
While the early Filipino poets grappled with the verities of the new language, Filipinos seemed to have taken
easily to the modern short story like those 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. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional
skill in the short story.
Alongside this development, writers in the vernaculars continued to write in the provinces. Others like 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).
Literature by languages
 Cebuano literature
 Hiligaynon literature
 Ilokano literature
 Tagalog literature
 Waray literature
 Philippine Poetry
 Philippine Literature in English
 Philippine Literature in Filipino
 Philippine Literature in Spanish
Notable People
 Jose Rizal
 Marcelo H. Del Pilar
 Carlos P. Romulo
 Francisco Balagtas
 Amado V. Hernandez

 Carlos Bulosan
 Teodoro M. Locsin
 Claro M. Recto
Notable Works
 Noli Me Tangere
 El Filibusterismo
 Biag ni Lam-ang
 Ibong Adarna
 Florante at Laura
 Doctrina Christiana
A Quick Look at the Fascinating History of Philippine Literature
Philippine literature has evolved from fables and prehistoric tales, to profound work on socio-political issues. The
transition has been a part of the development of Hispanic writing systems and the integration of various languages
in the pursuit of excellence.
Philippine literature had evolved much before colonization. It is full of legends and tales of colonial legacy.
Mexican and Spanish dominance over the land and the people, over varying periods of time, witnessed the
incorporation of English, Spanish, Filipino and native languages, to express ideology and opinion. Literature in
the Philippines developed much later than in most other countries. Evidence reveals the use of a script called
"Baybayin" that flourished in 1521. "Baybayin" was used to write about legends, in Luzon, during Spaniard
domination.
Philippine Literature in Filipino
The literature of the Philippines before the advent of the Spaniards was predominantly a reflection of the
indigenous culture and traditions of the land. The people of Manila and native groups within the Philippines
used to write on bamboo and the arecaceae palm. They used knives for inscribing the ancient Tagalog script.
The literature thus preserved was limited to the seventeen basic symbols of the language. With just three vowels
and consonantal symbols that had predetermined, inherent sound, the literature handed down was in a 'raw' state
and needed to be developed.
The Tagalog language script that was used initially to preserve and hand down literature, was limited to a
diacritical mark or "kudlit" that further modified pronunciation and writing. The dot, line or arrow head was
either placed above or below the symbol. The literature thus preserved has played a very important role in the
public schooling arena and the rise of the educated class.

The colonization by Spain breathed a different kind of life into vernacular and Filipino literature. Spain brought
about liberal ideas and a sense of internationalism to the people of Philippines, which was reflected in the
popularity of chivalric heroic poems called "awit" and religious poems called '"corridos"'. Religious literature,
biography of saints and folktales became the mainstay of vernacular literature during the early period of
colonization.
Philippine Literature in Spanish
Philippine literature in Spanish can be broadly categorized into three stages or phases. The first phase was the
time period when religious works as instructed by the colonial masters were spread throughout the land. In the
early 17th century Tomas Pinpin published a book that attempted to translate Spanish to local Tagalog
language. Thus paving the way for Filipinos to learn and understand the ways of the colonialists. This small
event marked the beginning of increased learning and use of Spanish by local writers and authors. By the early
1800s many writers began to recognize the Philippines a separate entity from Spain and subsequently expressed
their views and ideas through their works. Some prominent works of the time were, "El Paranaso Filipino",
"Mare Magnum".
Literature in the Philippines was developed and preserved by native Filipino intellectuals. Isidro Marfori,
Enrique Fernandez Lumba, Cecilio Apostol, Fernando Ma. Guerrero, Jesús Balmori, Flavio Zaragoza Cano and
Francisco Zaragoza played a major role in the preservation of the stories handed down in time. Writers such as
Castrillo, Fernandez, Rivera, Licsi and Estrada also spent a major part of their lives in the documentation of 'by-
word-of-mouth' hand-downs. Columns and articles in newspapers such as "El Renacimiento", "La Vanguardia",
"El Pueblo de Iloilo", "La Democracia" and "El Tiempo" kept the legacies alive in Spanish. In the later half of
the 19th century, strong nationalistic and patriotic ideas began to flow around all of Philippines and an idea of a
free Philippines, distinct from Spain was expressed by many writers and publications of that time. It was ironic
that nationalism was propagated more through Spanish language instead of the local vernacular tongue. This era
(1870 to 1903) saw the rise of national heroes like Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. Del Pilar and
Pedro Paterno who contributed to important Spanish literary work in the Philippines by the way of various
historical documents, revolutionary propaganda and nationalist articles. Philippine literature in Spanish was
preserved well through private publications like '"Plaridel"' and the first Spanish newspaper '"El Boletín de
Cebú"' and '"Flora Sentino"', by Orlando Agnes.
At the start of the 20th century the American control introduced English to the islands that brought about a
significant change in the use of Spanish in Philippine literature. Further more, Japanese occupation during
World War II and Commonwealth membership brought about a slow demise of Spanish and an emergence of
English in the country's literature.
Philippine Literature in English
The emergence of Philippine literature in English can be traced back to the early 1900s after the Philippine-
American War as English became the medium of teaching in educational institutions across the Philippines. The
advent of missionaries and English educators led to the establishing of English newspapers and magazines
which were short-lived. But the real impetus to English literature was provided by the founding of the
magazines "Philippines Herald" and "Manila Tribune". These publications helped introduce authors like
"Loreto Paras", "Jose Garcia Villa", "Casiano Calalang" to the reading public. The first quarter of the twentieth

century proved to be the most favorable period for English literature in the Philippines and some of the famous
publications of those times were: "A Child's Sorrow", "Many Voices", "The Wound and the Scar", "Literature
and Society".
The advent of the Second World War and the subsequent Japanese occupation led most writers and authors to
either go underground or write in Tagalog. Writing in English regained its earlier fervor and enthusiasm once
the war was over and produced some famous writers like "Carlos Bulosan", "Alejandro Roces", "Francisco
Arcellana", "Nick Joaquin". Later on in the 1960s the Philippine government also recognized writers in the form
of awards and felicitations which still continue today.
Literary work now available includes articles on Spanish conquest, native cultural heritage, pre-colonial
literature and traditional narratives. Another very interesting segment of Philippine literature includes inspiring
speeches and songs. This segment has effectively maintained the mystifying characteristic of Philippine epics
and folk tales. The narratives and descriptions of various magical characters, mythical objects and supernatural
are surreal, distinctly adhering to the ideologies and customs of the natives.
Ethno-epics such as "Biag ni Lam-ang" or the Life of Lam-ang, "Agyu" or "Olahing", "Sandayo of Subanon",
"Aliguyon, the Hudhud" and "Labaw Donggon" are great examples of assimilated styles and language
variations. Today, Philippine literature reflects national issues through political prose, essay writing and novels.
Novels by Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere patronize the revival of the rich folk traditions.
Philippine literature is a uniting element among its people that encompasses a way of life and values cherished
by the locals and will continue to evolve as enriched by modern changes.

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