AN OVERVIEW OF

PHILIPPINE
LITERARY HISTORY
 Philippine literature in the 21st century has a
short story; however, much have already been
written about its writers. Event though Jose
Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere casts a shadow on
Philippine literature, today’s literary scene is
quite different from what it was in the past.
 It has developed in ways that can surprise
English language teachers and students alike as
it has emerged to be flexible, innovative
literature that has answered literary and
educational debates about language.
 According to Dr. Lily Rose Tope (2009), despite
all linguistic debates about what is standard and
what is not ,“ creative writers have jumped the
gun and used English, especially the non-
standard kind, in the creation of language.”
 This is a huge shift, since there was once a belief
that literature should strictly adhere to Standard
English, which, in the opinion of many English
teachers in the Philippines, happens to be
General American English.
 Dr. Gemino Abad (2012) makes clear in the
book Hoard of Thunder that Philippine
literature has evolved over time, writing, “
Thus, at the turn of the last century, american
English having been established as the
medium of instruction in our public school
system, we began to write in English, but
sooner than later, we wrought from it...
 What is crucial, in other words, is the making,
with words and words from a given historical
language, of an artifact which should have
the power to move its reader by what it
represents or stimulates.
 This means that in our usage of English in
the Philippines, we have now moved from
being beholden to General American
English and its ideologies, toward being
assured in the use of our own variety of
English, which is Philippine English.
 Abad (2012) also writes that, “... During the first
phase, it is the struggle with language that
engrossed our writers; during the second phase,
from the 1950s to the 1960s, the issue of alienation
and social commitment, which took root at the time
of commonwealth Literary Awards in 1940; during
the third phase, from the 1970s to the 1980s, a
period of political activism that began as early as the
1950s, the issue of nationalism and national identity;
and during the fourth phase, from the 1990s to the
very present, the issue of universal human rights,
globalization, ecology, and a changing moral order.”
 Today, Filipino writers in English no longer
struggle to write like the Americans, as they
did in the beginning of Philippine literature in
English. Acceptance and awareness have
made our writers use the kind of English that
is used in Philippine society.
 TODAY’SPHILIPPINE LITERATURE, WHETHER
FICTION, POETRY, NON-FICTION, OR THE
DRAMA DALISAY (1998)
1. Today’s literature is derived from
predominantly Western ways of writing and is
influenced by Western writers, but not
necessarily canonical writers;
2. It deals with uniquely Filipino experiences, such
as “OCWs and the Filipino diaspora, the war in
the countryside, the alienation of the middle
class, the Chinese and the others among us, our
connections to the supernatural and the
afterlife, the tangled web of our personal
relationships, including our sexuality, and
artmaking itself as subject”;
3. Its forms of stories are no longer limited to
realism, but have “assumed the forms and
mindsets of magic realism, metafiction,
minimalism, science fiction, parable, comic
books, gothic horror, and postmodern
parody”;
4. When it comes to language,” our young
writers today use English unapologetically,
refusing to be burdened by colonial guilt;
quite a number of them write bilingually.
NOTE:

 There is pleasure in reading and analyzing

literature that is slowly being forgotten, what
with the instant gratification felt when faced
with the Internet. This pleasure in analyzing
texts is something that we teachers can help
you understand and appreciate as there is a
discipline that the close reading of literature
involves.
Seatwork no. 1:

 On a piece of paper write a reaction paper

based on the statement given.
“What is it about reading long texts, such as
short stories or novels that makes it different
from reading tweets and facebook status
posts? What is the importance of literature for
the Facebook generation?