Every so often I get messages from students asking about Philippine Literature.

This little article

shares what little I know for whatever good it will do for those genuinely seeking information.

INTRODUCING PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

TO YOUNG FILIPINO STUDENTS

I “The topic assigned to you, ma'am, is on Philippine Literature, specifically, the poetry here in the
country.” This is just one sentence in a series of letters which went like a comedy of errors. But it is
enough to mirror the state of language “here in the country” as the letter stated. In a more
appropriate situation, I would have been “requested,” not “assigned,” but since I’m sure no harm
was meant, I take no offense. Chalk up the situation to the gaps in our language learning systems and
our overall lack of respect and appreciation for language in general. We learn grammar, syntax and
vocabulary, but virtually know very little of the socio-psychological functions of language, the power
of language to create or uncreate meanings, the dangers of saying too much or too little, the silences
between words which say more than the words themselves. Indeed, the ability to tell the difference
between “request,” with its implications of courtesy and humility, and “assign,” with its presumption
of power and entitlement. One gives in to a request, invoking thereby one’s right to say yes or no; on
the other hand, one complies with an assignment, which presumably comes from one’s betters.

II Some of you could be wondering why you are required to earn a few units the Humanities, usually
in Literature. The fundamental consideration is language. Whereas in most of your courses, you use
language as a tool for naming and exchange essential to data learning and processing, in literature
you experience language as itself, as it functions as expression of human behavior. In literature you
encounter all those unnameable human experiences and those that come with thousand names than
our limited sensibilities can handle. So if you ever find yourself with a poem or a story you can’t
understand, it is only because the poem or the story is almost always a piece of human experience,
full of endless complexities and contradictions, infinite possibilities, and beyond simplification.
Literature deals with the human story, or stories if you will. And those stories will never end. Not
even after the author had written his last word.

Only politicians want to simplify things so that it would be easy for them to maneuver to stay in
power. In my generation I witnessed the attempt to homogenize the Filipino people under the
slogan, Isang bansa, isang diwa, ”One country, one soul.” That diwa or soul will come alive, it was
believed, if the nation were unified by one language, the entire 91 million of us from Aparri to Jolo
speaking Filipino, the Tagalog-based language desired by the National Capital. The slogan does not
mention the possible death of something like 150 different languages across the Archipelago. It was
more than an attempt to simplify the complex language situation of our country. It was also a form of
social engineering with the hoped-for end of transforming the character of the Filipino people and
making them malleable to the extant power structures.

III Any discussion of Philippine Literature must recognize the existence of some one hundred and
fifty or more languages in the entire Archipelago. Each of these languages carry a distinct culture
with all its own visible and invisible legacies. Each language surely has its own body of literature. In
the Visayas there are at least five language cultures, each with its own body of literature: Waray,
Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a and Akeanon. Not all of these bodies of literature have found print. A
great part of them is in the oral form. Or if they are on paper at all, they have not been published,
appearing mostly as privately owned manuscripts. Back in the early 90s, the poet laureate
Bienvenido Lumbera declared Waray literature, and all other Visayan literature, as dead, precisely
because, he could not find any evidence of its existence in print.

IV Much of Philippine literature remains oral. Take Waray literature as an example. What are these
oral forms? Riddles, proverbs, stories, prayers, hymns, songs—these are among the oral forms of
literature. These are all found in Waray literature. Are you a participant in the creation of this
literature? Can you cite a puplunganon or a siringganon in appropriate circumstances? Do you tell
stories to one another, whether these stories are true or not? Can you sing some Waray songs?
These are the popular forms in the oral tradition. However we don’t generally think of these as
literature. We also tend to look down on these forms as kadaan, binata, tinagahuron.

On the other hand, do you own a book of stories or poetry in Waray? Do you know the writers
in your language? Have you read their works? It’s likely that your answer to these questions is
negative. Because to this day, printed or published literature in Waray remains sparse. Waray
literature in print is in a fragile stage of development. It suffered a hiatus of nearly fifty years. It is
slowly coming back and its growth depends on dedication of the writers and the support of the
language community. If the writers are repressed or get discouraged by an indifferent public, Waray
could easily go back into hibernation again.

As it is in Waray, so it is also for many other language groups in the Philippines. An active oral
tradition and a poorly-developed literature in print. To this situation we might add: 1) the
overpowering media, both local and global which practically dictates what we must read; 2) the
dominance of the national language and English, which again determines what must be published or
discarded in the name of saleability; 3) low appreciation of the importance of the mother tongue and
the literary forms published in it; 4) difficulty of finding venues for publication. On the whole an
unrewarding environment for creativity.

V. In the Philippines, locals tend to look to Manila for approbation before they valorize elements in
their own culture. Manila, one supposes, look for confirmation from outside the country to feel they
have arrived. There are exceptions however. Ilocano, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Tagalog, and Filipino have
historical continuity, starting from the early 20th Century to the present; Cebuano which enjoys a
wide market that includes some Visayan islands and Mindanao. Bisaya Magazine provided a steady
venue for publication. It has loyal patrons and readers who love and take pride in their literature.
Tagalog and Filipino have political and academic clout and the national media to push them into
prominence. Filipino and Tagalog are often confused with each other, but Tagalogs insist that Filipino
is not the language of their heart.

Over and above all these, there is Philippine Literature in English. In the 70s and 80s, only two
bodies of Philippine literature were allowed in the Filipino classroom: Philippine literature in Filipino,
and Philippine literature in English. It was forbidden to use the mother tongue for communication in
the classroom and within the school premises. English and Filipino language periodicals had spaces
for poetry and fiction in the two languages, and publishing houses readily accept manuscripts. Even
then, the academic curriculum remained heavy on English and American literature, a smattering of
World literature, Greek and Roman mythology, all in English translation of course, and hardly any
Asian literature.

V. My generation of Filipinos was predisposed to write in English. We believed serious writing had to
be done in English. Fortunately, some of us woke up out of that stupor and became advocates of
writing in the mother tongue. One, because writing in English limits your audience only to those who
can read English; two, because our works in English will probably never be recognized as part of the
literatures in English written anywhere else in the world; three, because English oftentimes seem
inadequate to capture the authentic Filipino experience.

The sad part is that while we were frantically seeking to master English for pragmatic and
creative purposes, we were also losing mastery over our own native language. We lost track of our
own literary traditions. We have forgotten the bards of our race—the chanters, the paragkando, the
talaulahingan, magbabalak,makata, paragsiday, paragsumat, the mamaratbat, mananabtan, the magi
of our faded literary traditions.

In a universal sense, tradition has always played an important role in creative writing, that is, in
the making of literature. What is, or what are the traditions that anchor contemporary Filipino
writing? The university-trained may find his/her footing on Western trends, whether he/she writes in
English or the native tongue. On the other hand if he/she writes in the mother tongue, the language
will naturally enforce a system of meanings rooted in history and tradition.

You cannot, however prescribe a language for a writer to use. For he/she will use only the words
that he hears in his sleep and waking dreams.

VI Philippine literature mirrors the development of political consciousness in the country. But we
won’t get a sense of that political consciousness if we continue to think of literature as a few fine
words on paper to impress a reluctant lover. We will not also realize this if we sample our literature
randomly withou t grounding ourselves on our history.

For history teaches us who we are, why we are what we are as individuals and as a nation. This,
to me, is the most important lesson that our literature has to teach us. hat did we lose as a people
between conquest and liberation? What did we gain? What were we like before the conquest? These
are the unnamed and perhaps unnameable aspects of our identity as a people. The power that drives
our aspirations, the ice that douses our fire and leaves us dejected, contemplating our despoiled
land, our disgruntled youth, our poverty.

We can only hope that our writers’ eyes are clear, their ears quick to note the nuances of laughter
or pain, their voices well-tuned, their hearts deep, and their minds free. In that way, they will be
honest and sympathetic chroniclers of our lives as we go through the years making history, in quest
of the future.

November 10/2017