Philippine Literature

Literature
• Literature portrays the human experience in which authors of their time
interpret and express in writing
Pre-Colonial Period
BC-1564
 Some history of the Pre-Colonial Period
• Before the Spanish occupation
• Literature was oral in nature which was full of lessons and ideas
Oral Literature
Ancient Filipino poetry
 Bugtong (Riddle)
• One or more measured lines
• With rhymes and may consist of 4-12 syllables
• Statements that contain superficial words, but they function figuratively and
as metaphors, and are in the form of questions
• demand deeper answers
 Purpose of Bugtong
• Entertainment to pass the time
• May be used as a game for groups
• Education to pass down knowledge
• Witty Sly Humor to say about ones enemy or rival
• Preserving culture to be passed down from generation to generation
 Salawikain (proverbs)
• These are statements that are considered as wise.
• These are usually given by parents or elders of the community.
• There is belief that experience is the best teacher.

• Example
• Age matapat na kaibigan, tunay na maaasahan
• You will know a true friend in time of need
 Folk Songs
Ancient Filipino poetry
 Folk Songs
• folk lyrics that are usually chanted
• contain ideas on aspirations, hopes, everyday
life and expressions of love for loved ones.
• bounded by the learning of good morals.
• straightforward and not figurative in nature
 Types of folk Songs

Lullabies Drinking Songs

• locally known as the Hele • locally known as
• sung to put to sleep babies Tagay

• sung on how hard life is and how • are sung during

they hope that their child will not drinking sessions.
experience the hardships of life
 Types of folk Songs

Love Songs Religious Songs

• locally known as the Harana • songs or chants
• also be called Courtship Songs • usually given during
• used by young men to capture the • Exorcisms
heart of the girl that they love. • thanksgiving during good harvest
 Types of folk Songs

Songs of Death
• are lamentations that contain the
roll of good deeds that the dead
has usually done to immortalize his
or her good image
Folk Tales (Mga Kwentong Bayan)
Ancient Filipino poetry
 Folk Tales
Types
• stories of native Filipinos • Myths
• deal with the power of nature personified,
their submission to a deity usually Bathala- • Legends
and how this deity is responsible for the
blessings and calamities • Fables
• also tackle about irresponsibility, lust,
stupidity, deception, and fallibility that • Epics
eventually leads to the instilling of good
morals
 Usual Folk Tale Themes
• Ceremonies needed to appease the deities.
• Pre and Post apocalypse
• Life and Death
• Gods and Goddesses
• Heroes and Heroines
• Supernatural beings
• Animals
 Folk Tales

Myths Legends
• tackle the natural to strange occurences of • usually come with a moral lesson that
the earth
give credit to supernatural powers
• how things were created with an aim to supernatural occurrences, and other
give an explanation to things
out of this world native imagination
• Examples
• The legend of Maria Maliking • Examaple
• Mythical Creatures • The Legend of the Guava
• Asawang
• Dwende
 Folk Tales

Fables Epics
• short or brief stories • lengthy narratives that are based on oral traditions
• cater the children of the native Filipinos
• bounded by good manners and right conduct
• contain encounters of fighters, stereotypical
princes or heroes that save a damsel in distress
• use animals as characters that represent a particular value or characteristic
• Examples • Examples
• Lumawig on Earth by Mable Cook Cole • Biag ni Lam-ang
• Lumawig on Earth
• an epic poem of the
• Summary: Ilocano people from
• This Igorot myth tells of the deeds of the Great Spirit Lumawig when he
the Ilocos region
lived for a time with mortals on earth.
The Spanish Period
1521-1898
 Some history of the Spanish Period
• start of the Philippine's more colorful history
• Filipinos were called two things. One is the “Taga-Bayan”,
while the other is the “Taga-bukid” or “Taga-bundok”.
• A Taga-bayan is considered urbane and civilized and were
in easy range of the church and state.
• A Taga-bundok or Taga-bukid is called a Bruto Salvage
(Savage Brute) or Indio and were the ones who lived far
from the center of the Spanish power.
Religious Literature
The Spanish Period
 Religious Literature

Pasyon Senakulo
• about the passion (journey and • the re-enctment of the Pasyon.
suffering) and the death of Jesus
Christ
 Religious Literature

Komedya
• depicts the European society
through love and fame
• considered religous, because it
usually depicts the battle between
the Christians and the Saracens or
the Moros
Secular or Non-Religious Literature
The Spanish Period
 Secular or Non-Religious Literature

Awit Korido
• tales of chivalry where a knight • metrical tale or a tale that follows
saves a princess the structure of a poem
 Secular or Non-Religious Literature

Prose Narratives
• easy to understand instructional
materials that in a literary light that
teaches Filipinos on proper
decorum
Nationalistic Period
1864-1896
 Nationalistic Period
• Planted seeds of nationalism in Filipinos
• Language shifted from Spanish to Tagalog
• Addressed the masses
 Nationalistic Period

Propaganda Literature Revolutionary Literature

• Political Essays • Political Essays
• satires, editorials and news articles • helped inflame the spirit of
were written to attack and expose the revolution
evils of Spanish rule
• Political Novels
Fin
References

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/tagalog/literature/literary_forms_in_philippine_lit.htm

https://jennyrosesabandalblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/summary-of-pre-colonial-period-of-philippine-
literature/

https://esielcabrera.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/philippine-literature-during-pre-colonial-period/.

https://salirickandres.altervista.org/revolutionary-period/