Kabataan Sa Makabagong Henerasyon

Essays. The essay was a popular form of expression for the early writers. As early as 1926 essayist expressed the need for literature that was native and national. Many essays first appeared as newspaper columns and later they were published in anthologies. In 1921 Zoilo M. Galang published Life and Success, the first volume of essays in Ebglish. In that year Zoilo M. Galang also published anoher book of essays, Master of Destiny. Among the early essay writers might be mentioned F.M. Africa, Francisco Benitez, Jorge Bacobo, Amador Daguio, Leandro Fernandez, M.M. Kalaw, Pedro de la Llana, I.V. Mallari, Ignacio Manlapaz, Fernando Maramag, Camilo Osias, Claro M. Recto, Carlos P. Romulo, and Eulogioo B. Rodriguez. Short Stories, Virginia R. Moreno has described the literary years 1910 – 19o24 as “ … a period of novices with their experiences both infiction-making and the use of the new language. 1925 – 1931 was the periood of phenomenal growth among the practitioners in the art.” It is true that the early short stories were the work of novices.

The tales were often romantic and the adventures, thems, and plots were sometiomes imitated. There were difficulties in grammar and at times there waws a tendency toward sentimentalism. But gradually, certain writers appeared who showed that the novitiate periods was ending. Jorge Bacobo’s “Horrible Adventure” in the Philippine Revioew for May 1916, and Paz Marquez Benitez’s “The Siren of 34 Real” in the Philippine Review for July 1917 were praised by critics for their high literary quality. On september 20, 1925 The Philippines Herald published “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez Benitez. This story was quickly recognized as one of the best short stories yet written by a Filipino.

In 19o25 Zoilo M. Galang published the first collection of short stories in book form under the title Box of Ashes and Other Stories. Beginning with 19o26, Jose Garcia Villa encouraged writers with his yearly selection of the best Filipino short stories. In 1927 the first Anthology of Filipino short stories was edited by Paz Marquez Benitez. It was entitled Filipino Love Stories. Oin that same year, Jose Villa Panganiban published The Stealer of Hearts and Other Stories. In 1928 the best short stories were compiled by Jose Garcia Villa in Philippine Short Stories: The Best 25 Stories of 1928.

By 1930, original and significant stories were being written. “Zita,” written by Arturo B. Rotor around 1930, has been called “…one of the finest love stories in Filipino literature in English.” Among the early short story writers were: Paz Marquez Benitez, Jorge Bacobo, Amador T. Daguio, Pilar Hidalgo Lim, Paz Latorena, Tarcila Malabanan Jose Villa Panganiban, Arturo B. Rotor, Loreto Paras Sulit, L.B. Uichangco and Jose Garcia Villa. Poems. The first known Filipino poem in English is “Sursum Corda” by Justo Juliano. It appeared in the Philippines Free Press in 1907. This poem, along with others of that period, has been criticized as being too artificial and overwritten in order to achieve intensity. The early poems in book often borrowed images and similies from English or American poets. The first collection of poems in book form was Reminisces, by Lorenzo Paredes, in 1921. In 1922, Procopio Solidum publioshed Never Mind, a collection of Filipino poetry in English. Rodolfo Dato edited an anthology of Filipino poems in 1924 under the title Filipino Poetry. In 1926 he published his own poems in Manila.

I. The Early Period – 1900 to 1930

On August 13, 1898, the American forces occupied Manila . A few years later, in April of 1900, President William McKinley directed the Philippines Commission to make English the official medium of instruction for all public schools. The first teachers of English were members of the United States Army. In August of 1901 six hundred American teachers arrived on the transport Thomas. They replaced the soldiers as teachers. In that year, 1901, the Philippines Normal School was founded. Its purpose was to train Filipino in the art of teaching so that they could eventually take charge of elementary education. The students and the people in general learned English quickly. Even in 1899 there were English newspapers such as The Courier, Insular Press, and Manila Freedom. In 1900 the Daily Bulletin was founded, while The Cablenews started in 1902. The Philippines Free Press began in 1905, edited by F. Theadore Rogers. At first it was a bilingual weekly in English and Spanish. In 1908 it published the first Filipino short stories in English. In that same year, 1908, the University of the Philippines was founded.

This school became the forerunner in the use of English for higher education. In October of 1910 the University of the Philippines ’ College Folio was published. This magazine printed the works of the first promising writers in English. These early selections were mostly ghost stories or folk tales explaining natural phenomena. Often the authors taught a moral message which was evident even at a first reading. Among the famous early teachers of English might be mentioned professors Dean S. Fansier and his wife Harrlott Ely Fansler, George pope Shannon, Tom Inglis Moore, Harold p. Scott, and C. V. Wicker. In literature classes they taught the works of Chaucer, Milton, Bonne, Shakespeare, Irving, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Longfellow, Bryant, Harte, Holmes, Lowell, Shelley, Keats, Colerighe, Lamb, Joyce, Tennyson, Thackeray, Macaulay, and other famous writers. For composition themes they encouraged the students to write about folk tales and their own experiences. In one college class of 1913 the students were asked to write speeches for these topics: The Building of a modern Sanitary Market; A Speech at the First Banquet of the Philippine normal School; An Appeal to the moral Sense – Cockfighting; Primary Education in the Philippines; A Stump Speech before the People of a Certain Barrio; and The unveiling of a Monument Dedicated to Apolinario Mabini. The student themes were required to write the corrected and when a grammatical mistake was made students were required to write the corrected form five times. At the end of each theme the student wrote a statement of originality testifying that “. . . this is my own original work.”

The skill and dedication for the early teachers was to produce rich results in the years to come. At first Filipino writing in English was quite formal and imitative. Influences from the Spanish language could be seen in the use of Spanish expressions and in an ornate style. Grammatical expression was at times awkward and there was some difficulty in the use of prepositions and pronouns. But gradually the quality of writing improved. Between 1908 and 1914 some students at the University of the Philippines collected and retold, in English, old Filipino tales. These writings were gathered by Dean S. Fansler and published in Filipino Popular Tales in 1921 the graduates of the Manila. High School published their English writings in The Coconut. The following year 1913, the Philippine Normal School introduced its publication, The Torch. Aside from student publication, newspaper and magazines provided an early outle for writers. In 1920 the Philippines Herald began publication. It was founded by Manuel L. Quezon and its magazine section was edited by Paz Marquez-Benitez. A distinguished writer herself, she helped to make familiar the names of Paz Latorena, Loreto Paras, Jose Garcia Villa, Casiano T. Calalang, and others. In 1924 A.V.H. Hartendorp became the editor of the Philippine Education Magazine.

Some four years later, he widened its content and renamed it the Philippine Magazine. The high quality of this magazine made it so popular that it became the most influential literary magazine in the country. It published some of the best Filipino writing in English. Filipino writers received further encouragement in 1925. In that year the Free Press began paying for original manuscripts and offered P1,000 for the best stories. The Manila Tribune was founded and, along with the Graphic, the Woman’s Outlook, the Woman’s Home Journal, and the Philippine Collegian, offered further incentives to promising writers. Also in 1925 the Philippine Writers Association was organized with Rizal G. Adorable as president. Among the early members were: Paz Latorena, Loreto Paras, Jose Garcia Villa, Jose Panganiban, Remedios Mijares, Mercedes Grau, Celemencia Joven, Casiano Calalang, Jose Dayrit, Sol H. Gwekoh, Arturo B. Rotor, D.H. Soriano and Augusto C, Catanjal. Perhaps an even more influential group was the Writer’s Club founded in1927 at the University of the Philippines. This group published Literary Apprentice which became the leading college literary publication in the country. The Writer’s Club stimulated and encouraged an artistic consciousness among the literary circles of the Philippines.

The first thirty years of Philippine Literature in English produced little in the fields of drama and he novel. Drama was hardly written because vernacular plays and the zarzuela still dominated the stage. The first Filipino novel in English was A Child of Sorrow, written by Zoilo M. Galang in 1921. He later wrote Visions of a Sower in 1924 and Nadia in 1929. Another novelist of this period was Ernest Lopez who published His Awakening in 1929. From 1900 to 1930 there was some significant writing of essays, short stories and poems. In the following paragraphs the development of these forms will be treated in more details. Essays. The essays was a popular form of expression for the early writers. Some essays were light or humorous, while others dealt with more serious subjects such as education, history, politics, and social problems. As early as 1926 essayists expressed the need for a literature that was native and national.

Many essays first appeared as Galang published Life and Success, the first volume of essays in English. Another collection of Filipino essays appeared 1924, entitled Thinking for Ourselves, edited by Vicente M. Hilario and Eliseo Quirino. In that year Zoilo M. Galang also published another book of essays, Master of Destiny. Among the early essay writers might be mentioned F.M. Africa, Francisco Benitez, Jorge Bocobo, Amador Daguio, Leandro Fernandez, Zoilo M. Galang, Fernando Ma. Guerrero, M.M. Kalaw, Pedro de la Llama, I.V. Mallari, Ignacio Manlapaz, Fernando Maramag, Camilo Osias, Claro M. Recto, Carlos P. Romulo, and Eulogio B. Rodriguez. Short Stories. Virginia R. Moreno has described the literary years 1910-1924 as “…a period of novices with their experiences both in fiction-making and the use of the new language; 1925 to 1931 was the period of phenomenal growth among the practitioners in the art. It is true that the early short stories were the works of novices.The tales were often romantic and the adventures, themes, and plots were sometimes imitated.

There were difficulties in grammar and times there was a tendency toward sentimentalism. But gradually, certain writers appeared who showed that the novitiate period was ending. Jorge Bocobo’s “Horrible Adventure” in the Philippine Review for May 1916, and Paz Marquez Benitez’s “The Siren of 34 Real” in the Philippine Review for July, 1917 were praised by critics for their high literary quality. On September 20, 1925 The Philippines Herald Published “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez Benitez. This story was quickly recognized as one of the best short stories yet written by a Filipino. In 1925 Zoilo M. Galang published the first collection of short stories in book form under the title Box of Ashes and Other Stories. Beginning with 1926, Jorge Garcia Villa encouraged writers with his yearly selection of the best Filipino short stories. In 1927 the first anthology of Filipino short stories was edited by Paz Marquez Benitez. It was entitled Filipino Love Stories. In that same year, Jose Villa Panganiban published The Stealer of Hearts and Other Stories. In 1928 the best short stories were compiled by Jose Garcia Villa in Philippine Short Stories: The Best 25 Stories of 1928. By 1930 original and significant stories were being written. “ Zita,” written by Arturo B. Rotor around 1930, has been called “…one of the finest love stories in Filipino literature in English.” Among the early short story writers were: Paz Marquez Benitez, Jorge Bocobo, Amador T. Daguio, Pilar Hidalgo Lim, Paz Latorena, Tarcila Malabanan, Jose Villa Panganiban, Arturo B. Rotor, Loreto Paras Sulit, L.B. Uichangco, and Jose Garcia Villa.

Poems The first known Filipino poem in English is “Sursum Corda,” by Justo Juliano. It appeared in the Philippines Free Press in 1907. This poem, along with others of that period, has been criticized as being too artificial and overwritten in order to achieve intensity. The early poems of ten borrowed images and similes from English or American poets. The first collection of poems in book form was Reminiscences, by Lorenzo Paredes, in 1921. In 1922 Procopio Solidum published Never Mind, a collection of Filipino poetry in English. Rodolfo Dato edited an anthology of Filipino poems in 1924 under the title Filipino Poetry. In 1926 he published his own poems in Manila. Most critics agree that Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion was a leading poet of the early period. His Azucena was published in New York in 1925. His poems reveal simple images with deep sensitivity and original thought. Some poets who belonged to the early period of Philippine Literature were: Aurelio S. Alvero, Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion, Rafael Zulueta da Costa, Luis Dato, Vicente L. del Fierro, Virgilio Floresca, Angela Manalang Gloria, Jose M. Hernandez, A.E.Litiatco, Fernando M. Maramag, Natividad Marquez, Conrado B. Rigor, Juan F. Salazar, Abelardo Subido, Trinidad Tarrosa Subido, Francisco G. Tonogbanua, L.B. Uichangco, and Jose Garcia Villa. Notes on The Apprenticeship Period (1910-1935)

In 1900 English became the official medium of instruction in Philippine schools. The first teachers were army men and their wives. In 1901 the Philippine Normal School was founded to train the Filipino teachers to take charge of elementary education. In the same year the army transport, Thomas, bought 600 American teachers to the country to be incorporated into the educational system. These teachers introduced English and American literature to the Filipinos.

The period of 1910 to 1935 is generally called the period of apprenticeship or imitation. Virginia R. Moreno, in her “A Critical Study of the Shorty Story in English Written by Filipinos,” describes the years 1910-1925 “as a period of novices with their exercises in fiction-making and the rise of the new language.” The Filipino writers imitated American and English writers. This fact is hardly surprising since the early writers were, for the most part, college students or young graduates whose literary education had been largely confined to American and English authors.

The University of the Philippines was founded in 1908. It became the center of the literary effort. In September 1910, the first issue of the UP Folio came off the press. This publication was recognized as embodiment of the early attempts of Filipinos at self-expression in English.

The UP Folio was replaced by the Philippine Collegian. Other publications which introduced Philippine literature in English to the public were Philippine Review, Independent, Rising Philippines, and Citizens. In 1920 the Philippine Herald, the first Filipino daily in English, was founded. It paid for literary work it published and thus gave a financial reward to writers in English, especially in the short story.

The period of apprenticeship was inaugurated b two significant events. In 925 A. V. H. Jartendorp became the editor-publisher of the Philippine Education Magazine. This soon became the Philippine Magazine, the most influential literary magazine of its time. The Manila Tribune was established in the same year. It began publishing a Sunday supplement featuring original short stories and poems written in English. Other journals followed and there was a market, although still very limited, for Filipino literary output in English.

In 1927 the UP writers club was founded and began publishing the Literary Apprentice, which became the most prestigious college literary publication in the country. In the same year, the Bureau of Education published Philippine Prose and Poetry, which was prescribed as a high school textbook. Furthermore, Jose Garcia Villa introduced Walt Whitman to the Philippines with the publication of his unconventional “Man Songs.” This brought in a wave of experimentation and rapid development.

The literary output was further stimulated by literary contests. The first of these was that offered by the Philippine Free Press in the field of the short story. The short story became the favorite form among Filipino writers. In 1927 the Free Press published the first anthology of Philippine short stories written in English. The short stories during this period were either romantic tales of the past with legendary figures or were imitations of plots and themes from American and other foreign sources.

The most significant short story produced during this period was “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez-Benitez. It was published in the Philippines Herald on September 20, 1925. Her fellow writers immediately recognized the story as incomparably superior to all other Filipino short stories published up to then.

The poetry of the apprenticeship period was dominated by sentimental love lyrics. Verbal exuberance made the poems artificial and insincere. “Sursum Surda is the first known Philippine poem in English; it appeared in the Philippine Free Press in 1907. The first notable collection of Philippine essays in English, “Thinking of Ourselves,” compiled and edited by Vicente M. Hilario and Eliseo M. Quirino, appeared in 1924. The essays dealt with Philippine traditions and history, religion, philosophy, ethics, literature and the arts, politics and government, and other significant matters bearing on Philippine culture.

The play produced during this period was mostly highly emotional rather than emotional experiences. Some were contrived melodramas or broad comedies. American influence on the Filipino drama was less discernable, but contact with American plays was extensive and foreign plays were often staged in Manila. However drama suffered from public apathy. It could not compete with the zarzuela, which was then at the height of its popularity.

The early novels in English were sentimental. The fact is that the cultural basis of literature was too thin to support a sustained, complex tradition necessary for a novel. Zolio M. Galang’s “Child of Sorrow,” the first Filipino novel in English, was published in 1924. otes on The Emergent Period (1935-1945)

The years 1935 to 1945 saw the emergence of a significant trend in Philippine literature in English. Jose M. Hernandez describes this period as a time of self-discovery and of rapid growth. Hernandez proceeds by the enumerating the qualities of the period:

1. The writers consciously and purposefully to create a national literature. 2. The writers had gained full control of the English language and could successfully manipulate it as a literary medium. 3. Experimentation with different literary forms and techniques and moods was the fashion. 4. Three groups of writers emerged:

* Those who were concerned with social consciousness
* Those whose main concern was craftsmanship
* Those who were determined to explore local color. Some of the writers of this group formed the Veronicans.

There were many factors which lead to the flowering of creative energy in Filipino writing. Nevertheless, Herbert Schneider, S. J. points to the following:

1. In 1937 the Philippine Book Guild was founded. Its purpose was to produce literature and create a reading public. 2. In 1939 the Philippine Writer’s Guild was established. The creed of members was to develop a common cultural consciousness among Filipinos. 3. The Free Press, The Graphic, and the Philippine Magazine followed a policy of providing ample space for literary work in English. 4. The Commonwealth Literary Awards, established in 1940, gave the first substantial prices to meritorious writers. 5. The policy adopted by newspapers to issue weekly supplements when literary works were published. The Japanese occupation of 1941-1945 brought this flowering of Philippine literature in English to an abrupt close. The literary works that were produced were published abroad. Although the Japanese occupation years produced little literary work of significance, the period was to become a rich source of subject matter in the succeeding period.

The period of emergence saw a shift from romantic idealism to romantic realism. This realism reached a climax in the stories of Manuel E. Arguilla, N. V. M. Gonzalez, and Nick Joaquin who wrote effective portrayals of Filipino life evocative of rustic scenes, rising artistic value and significance. In poetry, the literary output was rather meager although there seemed to be genuine desire to create new poetic modes of expression. The “schoolroom poets” still provided inspiration, and the Romanticists and Victorians offered patterns that Filipino poets followed. The sonnet enabled them to create love lyrics which captured nuances and moods through a more skilled manipulation of language and imagery.

The revolt against traditional values and mores was first felt in poetry. Jose Garcia Villa was charged with indecency when he published “Man Songs.” He was expelled from the University of the Philippines but succeeded in awakening the Filipino poets to their inhibitive realities. Jose Garcia Villa’s influence on Philippine poetry has been deeply felt. His first book of poems was published in 1933. His second collection of poems, entitled “Poems by Doveglion,” won the Commonwealth Literary Award for 1941.

The inauguration of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935 gave the Filipinos partial self-rule preparatory to independence in 1946. This brought renewed political ferment into Philippine literature. A group of essayist banded together to form the Philippine Writer’s League. They were animated by the belief that “literature conditioned society.” One of the most articulate of this group was Salvador P. Lopez. In his first books of essays, “Literature and Society,” he insisted that the writer should have a direct responsibility to society.

In the drama, the Western influence continued its firm hold on Filipino playwrights. Although the West has already rebelled against photographic representations of life, the Filipino playwrights in English were not yet at home with representational realism. The Philippine drama in English lagged behind in development compared to other literary forms. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that nationalistic themes and revolutionary subjects were popular among the general public. Playwrights who adopted English as their vehicle of artistic expression felt neither rebellious nor seditious.

Another reason may have been that movies took over the zarzuela despite the great competition put up by the latter. Dramatic realism could not assimilate unrealistic dialogue and situations resulting from the use of English. Prominent among the playwrights of this period were Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero and Severino Montano. Guerrero succeeded in establishing a drama tradition in the University of the Philippines and had put up the UP Mobile Theater.

In the field of the novel, Juan C. Laya’s “His Native Souls” won the first Commonwealth Literary Award in 1940. This novel tells of a Filipino repatriate who, having been educated abroad, finds himself a stranger in his hometown. N. V. M. Gonzalez is prolific writer. He wrote “The Winds of April.” He is a regional-realist and gives a down-to-earth portrayal of the farmers and fisherfolk.

III. The American Colonial Period

Despite the threat of censorship by the new colonizers, more writers turned up “seditious works” and popular writing in the native languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya. The poet Alejandro G. Abadilla promoted modernism in poetry. Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.

Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as 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 skills with 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).

The Summary of the “DEAD STARS”

Dead Star is a love story about a man named Alfredo Salazar,who has his fiance in the person of Esperanza and they have been engaged for quite some time. Society views them as an ideal couple. Their wedding is about to take place in the near future. Prior to the wedding however, he sees another girl, when he goes with his father to a judge’s house. He tries to seek love in her, but she kinda declines. in that way, Alfredo became a little bit confused in his upcoming wedding where he is about to chose between two options; to do what he should do by marrying Esperanza as prescribed by his parents or to do what he wants to do by having Julia Salas, his dream – the dead star in his life. In the story, dead stars symbolize a dream for something that is nonexistent. The guy loved the girl. She was his dream, his star. He thought there was love there. But like a dead star which is so far away, and whose shine could actually be the leftover traveling light from it, he was a long way from getting the girl, and the love he thought was possible, never was.

Novels

adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who also penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield

the realist tradition was kept alive in the novels by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar, among others.

The novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines like Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag.

Essay

The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present. Some leading essayists were journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura Santillan Castrence

Among those who wrote criticism were Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez’s criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literary Award for the essay in 1940 with his “Literature and Society.”

IV. The Contemporary Period

The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

With the requirement by the Commission on Higher Education to teach Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country, the teaching of the vernacular literature or literatures of the regions was emphasized. The Difference Between the Myth and the Legend

Myths – Mythology, body of myths of a particular culture, and also the study and interpretation of myth. Myth is a complex cultural phenomenon that can be approached from a number of viewpoints. In general, myth is a narrative that describes and portrays in symbolic language the origin of the basic elements and assumptions of a culture. Mythic narrative relates, for example, how the world began, how humans and animals were created, and how certain customs, gestures, or forms of human activities originated. Almost all cultures possess or at one time possessed and lived in terms of myths. Myths are traditional stories occurring in a timeless past. They involve supernatural elements and are beyond the frontiers of logic. Long ago, when our ancestors heard the sound of thunder and saw lightning, they were frightened because they could not understand why these things happened. In order to understand these and other natural events, they created stories. The stories were handed down from generation to generation all over the country. Although myths are not based on objective truth, they reflect both universal worries and the worries of specific cultures.