21st Century Literature

(Essay)
By Isagani R. Cruz
National Capital Region

The proposed curriculum for Senior High School (SHS) contains two
literature subjects - "21st Century Literatures of the World" and "21st Century
Literatures from the (Philippine) Regions." (It has been suggested that the latter be
changed to "Contemporary Philippine Literature and the Arts from the Regions.")
(so gin suggest kuno subonf nga ang ichange and literature subjects intop
These are derived from the two literature subjects in the old General
Education Curriculum (GEC), namely, "Literatures of the World" and "Literatures of
the Philippines.” In the new GEC, these two literature subjects are no longer
included, because the new core subjects are all interdisciplinary rather than
disciplinal.
The two subjects in SHS are disciplinal. They are meant to ensure that all
Filipino high school graduates have a good understanding of what is happening
today in the field of literature, and by extension, in the arts.
Why 21st century only? Simply because SHS students were all born in or just
before the 21st century. This century is their century. For them, the 20th century is
what the 19th century is to us teachers. (21st century lang kay dira nga century
naborn ang senior high students
There is also another reason. Just as the British writer Virginia Woolf said of
the turn of the 20th century, namely, that "on or about December 1910 human
character changed," something major happened to literature on or about December
2000. (may dako kuno nga changes sa literature magabout 2000s base sa character
Centre for Research in Twenty-first Century Writings, based in the University
of Brighton, puts it succinctly: "The first decade of the new millennium witnessed a
range of exciting developments in contemporary writings in English, from
innovations in recognized forms such as the novel, poem, play and short story to
developments in digital writings, creative writings and genres. Alongside these
developments, the publishing industry also changed, with technological advances
giving rise to the dawn of the eBook and corporate sponsorship igniting debates
about the usefulness of literary prizes and festivals.” According to the university
of brington, sa first 10 years kuno sang bag o nga millennium nakadiscover sang
mga mayo kag exciting nga pagbag o sa contemporary English halin sapag bago sa
recognized forms such as mga librp, drama, gamay nga storya para sa development
sang digital writings, creative writings. So at the same time, ang publishing
industry nagbag o man, upod sang mga technological advances amuna nagka ebopl
and corporate sponsorship
Just think of the most recent literary texts done in the Philippines. We have
"textula," a poetry genre mastered by Frank Rivera: entire poems are written and
read on mobile phones. Graphic novels are becoming as respectable as prose
novels among literary critics. Poems meant to be recited in front of large audiences
have become more fashionable than poems meant to be read silently by a single
reader (fulfilling one of Cirilo Bautista's prophecies about the future of poetry, by
the way). (sa bag o kuno nga literary texts sa pilipinas, may ara kita nga ginatawag
nga textula, a poetry genre nga namaster ni frank rivera. Ang entire poems kuno
masulat kag mabsa sa mobile cellphone. Graphic novels mas nagagamit na sia like
prose novels kaupod sining literary critics. Mga piece sang poems ginarecite or
ginaperform na sa tunga sang mga galantaw or audience kag mas nagging
fashionable kaysa sa poems nga ginabasa lang silently by one person (nafulfill ang
isa ka prophecy or theory ni Cirilo bautista tungkol sa future sang poems.
Elsewhere in the world, writers are doing things they did not do much until
recently. Think of prose novels being serialized on blogs, with readers suggesting
to authors (and authors obediently accepting) that the plot or the characters
should be changed. Think of hypertextual poems, where readers move from one
website to another because of embedded links in the words, sometimes not
returning to the original pages at all. Think of enhanced eBooks, where readers are
treated to audiovisual clips that not only support the narrative in a novel, but
actually are crucial to the development of plot and character. Think of flash
fiction, which has been brought to an extreme with six-word and even one-word
short stories. (sa iban nga lugar sa world, ang iban nga writers gaubra na sang mga
bagay nga waay nila ginaubra sadto. Example sang prose novels nga gina serialized
na subong sa blogs, upod sa mga readers nga gafollow kag gasuggest sa author
(and ofcourse gatuman ang authors sa iya nga mga fans suggestions) like ang
pagbag o sang storyline or plot sang characters.
Of course, none of these forms of literature were born only in the 21st century.
Hypertext, for example, has been around for at least two decades.
Six-word short stories have been around for a long time. The best-known is
Ernest Hemingway's six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Urban
legend (which may actually be true) says Hemingway called it his best work.
Pre-21st century writers like Margaret Atwood have written such stories.
Atwood, for example, wrote this: "Longed for him. Got him. Shit.”
Neil Gaiman (perhaps the best example of a 20th century writer who has
successfully transformed himself into a 21st century writer) wrote this: "I'm dead.
I've missed you. Kiss...?"
There is a growing body of literary criticism on 21st century literature.
There is, for example, an entire journal devoted to it, "C21 Literature: Journal of
21st Century Writing.”
There have been several professional conferences on the topic, such as "E-
reading between the lines: 21st century literature, digital platforms and literacies"
last July in Brighton. The paper titles reveal some of the main trends in the
emergent field: "Digital Theory on Literature Reading Lists, The Digitisation of
Reader Response, Star Texts: The Next Generation, The Book App, Digital
Literatures: Digital Democracies (or] Digital Threats?” The conference raised a
practical question: "Should readers be given the choice of both printed and
electronic formats - or is the (printed) book set to become the vinyl of the twenty-
first century?”
In our country, graphic novels such as Ferdinand Benedict G. Tan and
Jonathan A. Baldisimo's "Trese 5: Midnight Tribunal” and Carlo Vergara's "Zsazsa
Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila 1" are challenging the traditional definition of
fiction. Even more inyour-face is Alan Navarra's "Ang Panlimang Alas ay Nakabaon
sa Iyong Dibdib," a literary text that defies classification into any of the traditional
categories of "poetry, fiction, and drama." (Even if we added the genre-come-lately
Creative Nonfiction, Navarra's work still does not quite fit in.)
Since curricular reform happens only every decade, the SHS curriculum will
still be in place by the year 2022. By that year, the 20th century will no longer be in
the memory of our students. We pre-digital teachers of the two literature subjects
must ensure that their frame of reference will be theirs and not ours.