21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

Philippine literature withstood time and periods and has evolved through generations. For every period that
passed, different genres appeared, and these literary works rooted from all regions reflecting their culture, society
and lifestyle.
The early stages of Filipino Literature consist of the Pre-Spanish period, the Spanish period and the
Propaganda and Revolutionary Periods. In the Pre-Spanish period, literature was in oral form as
technology of printing wasn’t available yet. Works such as epics, legends, folklore, salawikain, bugtong,
sawikain, songs such as the Oyayi or Hele are passed on from generations to generations and they are
still well-known up to this day as they are being taught in schools. Philippine Literature changed during
the Spanish Period. It was centered on Christian faith. Pre-Spanish literary types continued to develop;
however, there was a gradual shift of interest from nature and natural phenomena to the lives of the
saints, hymns, miracles and invocations based on the teachings of the Catholic Church. The works
during this time are imitative of the Spanish theme, forms, and traditions. The corrido, awit, dalit,
cenaculo, moro-moro, duplo and karagatan, and zarzuela are reflective of the said characteristics.
Religious matters were in prose as novenas and prayer books, biographies of the saints, tales and
novels. The Filipinos were able to retain their native traditions and poems in the field of poetry reflected
as lyrical folksongs and riddles. Some examples of songs are Bahay Kubo, kundiman, and tapat.
Francisco Baltazar also was popular during this time because of his “Florante at Laura”. Events such
as the exposure of the Filipinos to Europe’s liberal idealism, the opening of the Suez Canal, the Spanish
Revolution in 1868, and the martyrdom of Gomburza led to Filipino nationalism. This gave birth to two
movements during this time – the Propaganda movement and the Revolutionary movement. The
Propaganda movement was reformatory in objective and its members are college students mostly
based in Spain. The primary propagandists were Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Graciano Lopez-
Jaena. The exposure of the evils of the Spanish rule in the Philippines was because of Rizal’s Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo and has paved the way to a revolution against Spain. Del Pilar’s essays
and editorials in Diariong Tagalog which he founded with Lopez-Jaena’s articles in La Solidaridad which
he was an editor reflected nationalism that was dominant at this time.
The Revolutionary movement took over as the propagandists failed to get much reforms. This was
of course more violent, and it demands complete independence from Spain. The Katipunan was
founded by Andres Bonifacio who was inspired by Rizal’s novels. The articles written in tagalog (which
was a form of revolution) was published in the Kalayaan, the newspaper of the society. The literature
at that time was more propagandistic than literary as the situation and events at that time needed such
purpose for liberation.
The three periods mentioned are the core of our history and literature. History has a very important
role in literature as literature not only reflects facts with aesthetic language but more importantly, it
displays the ideas and feelings of the people living at that time. Not only does literature exhibit history
but so as the hope that people have. It shows what they hope for the nation, or for themselves, may it
be about nationalism, love, or other aspects going on in life. As the Philippines underwent a lot of history,
as well as changes, literature also evolved. In the similar case as the first three periods, literary genres
also evolve depending on the influence, state and the condition that our country is in. From epics to
folksongs, to the cenaculo and Noli Me Tangere, to Tagalog and English short stories, essays, poetry,
to the Palanca Awards entries, drama and film, to Wattpad and blogs – these are all reflective of the
history, evolution, and developments or mishaps of the Filipino nation. Each period has its own distinct
genre and unique artists that everyone remembers.
21st century literature per se, is anything that was written and published in the year 2000s. It is a
bit too early to give a definite and elaborate description of the 21st century literature in the Philippines
and the world. It is possible, however, to approach contemporary literature as a reaction to and dialogue
with existing forms of expressive culture. As we engage in technology more and more, we create and
discover more existing forms of expressive culture as well. We have a wide range of resources through
the internet and this gave opportunities to people, especially the youth, to begin writing and expressing
their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. A perfect example would be WattPad. It became popular to the
Filipino youth in 2006.
The idea is to create an e-book reading application, as e-books are becoming in demand during
that time, however, the founders thought that it would be time consuming to maintain their own catalog,
so they decided to let the community decide what they want to read, and they can also upload their
works and content into the application. This had made it possible for the youth to read more and to start
creating their own compositions.