American Colonization

Philippine literary production during the American Period in

the Philippines was spurred by two significant developments in
education and culture.

Introduction of free public

instruction for all children of
school age
The use of English as
medium of instruction in all
levels of education in public
schools.
 Free public education made
knowledge and information
accessible to a greater
number of Filipinos. Those
who availed of this education
through college were able to
improve their social status
and joined a good number of
educated masses who became
part of the country‘s middle
class.
It was during the American colonization
when the experimental stages happened
with the use of free verse while the
traditional rhyme and meter were retained. From the Balagtas tradition of writing
poems, modernist poetry was
There was abundance in novels that highlighted and influenced a lot of
appeared in magazines and newspapers young writers at that time.
though most of these were in the
vernacular due to a struggle in the use of
the English language.
Short stories in English with the infusion of Filipino
ideals about life and morality blossomed.
Paz Marquez Benitez‘
―Dead Stars
Manuel Arguilla‘s
How My Brother Leon Brought Home a
Wife.
 Many other Tagalog novelists wrote on variations
of the same theme, i.e., the interplay of fate, love
and social justice.
Inigo Ed Regalado Fausto J. Galauran
Susana de Guzman Rosario de Guzman-Lingat
Lazaro Francisco Hilaria Labog
Rosalia Aguinaldo Amado V. Hernandez
 Iloko writers

Leon Pichay Hermogenes Belen Mena Pecson Crisologo

Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa

is considered to be the Iloko
version of Noli me Tangere.

region‘s poet laureate

 Visayan Writers
Magdalena jalandoni
Ramon Muzones

Lead most writers in writing the novels that dwelt on the themes of love,
courtship, life in the farmlands, and other social upheavals of the period.
Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of
the country during the American period. The Tagalogs,
hailing Francisco F. Balagtas as the nation‘s foremost poet
invented the balagtasan in his honor.

Balagtasan is a debate in verse, a poetical

battle done almost spontaneously between
protagonists who debate over the pros and
cons of an issue