PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

I. WHAT IS LITERATURE?
A) Literature Defined:
1. Literary culture; the production of literary work especially as an occupation; writings in prose or verses; writings
having excellence of form and expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest; the body of
writings on a particular subject; printed matter (as leaflets or circulars); the aggregate of musical compositions.
B) Literature as writing that exhibits excellence of form or expression.
1. This definition emphasizes artistic worth, and limits the range of literature to works which are distinguished by their
style, composition, and general force of presentation. The term literature thus becomes an expression of value
judgment.
2. The problem with this definition, according to Wellek and Warren, is that it tends to confine literature to what we call
“great books.” It may blind us to the value of experimental works, or works that do not follow the conventional rules
of writing.
3. This they say has pedagogical value; but may also do harm because it excludes many works that may not exhibit the
qualities of the so-called great books but which are nevertheless worthy of consideration as literature.
C) Literature as writing of permanent or universal interest.
1. The reference is to the great books (masterpieces) that exhibit a high level of craftsmanship, and that have endured,
or have withstood the changes of time.
2. Those who subscribe to what we would call the universalist notion of literature believe that great works of a
literature will have the same value anytime, anywhere. Valued highly in the past during the time they were
composed, these works are still being appreciated today. These works were appreciated not only by their original
writers but also by readers from different cities or cultures.
3. Such a universalist notion is disputed by those who claim that there is no such thing as ideas of permanent or
universal value. According to them, all ideas and all artistic works for that matter are subject to the changes of time
and taste. Moreover, our responses to the works of art are conditioned or influenced by our cultural background or
orientation. A literary work considered great in one particular period may be forgotten or depreciated in another time.
A masterpiece by a particular cultural group may hold no value at all to others.
D) Alternative Definitions of Literature
1. When dictionary fails, the usual recourse is to consider literature as ‘imaginative writing’. This view involves the old
distinction between fact and fiction: literature deals with things imagined; non-literature (history) with known facts.
2. Wellek and Warren: “In all of them, the reference is to a world of fiction, of imagination. The statements in a novel,
in a poem, or in a drama are not literally true; they are not logical …”
3. If we look at history, literature has also traditionally embraced works that may not be considered, strictly speaking, as
imaginative writing.
4. Example: English literature includes the essays of Francis Bacon (a philosopher) and Thomas Huxley (a scientist),
French literature includes the philosophical works of Descartes and Pascal, and Philippine Literature includes the
polemical essays of Renato Constantino, a historian and social commentator.
5. The distinction between fact and fiction on which the definition rests, “seems unlikely to get us very far, not least
because the distinction itself is often questionable one (Eagleton).” There are societies or ethnic groups who believe
that their myths embody is not fiction but fact; while there are fictional works (pulp romances) which are often not
categorized as literature.
E) Alternative Way of Looking at the Problem of Defining Literature
1. Wellek and Warren (Theory of Literature): “The main difference between the language of science and the language
of literature may be summarized in this manner: scientific language is purely denotative, whereas literary language
is highly connotative.”
a) Denote: applies to the definitive meaning content of a term: in a noun, the thing or the definable class of things
or ideas which it names; in a verb, the act or state which is affirmed.
b) Connote: applies to the ideas or associations that are added to a term and cling to it, often as a result of personal
experience but sometimes as a result of something extraneous (as a widely known context with a widely known
event).
2. ‘Purely Denotative’: it tries to establish one-to-one correspondence between the word and what it refers to. It aims at
exactness.
 3. ‘Highly Connotative’: it does not only refer to something but also communicates the tone of the speaker and tries to
affect the reader in various ways. Literary language exhibits richness of meaning that cannot be found in language
used in a purely denotative sense.
4. Difference of literature from other types of literature invokes two things: its fictionality and its peculiar use of
language.
5. Literature, therefore, is a work of fiction characterized by a very self-conscious use of language which is highly
connotative in nature.
6. Literature is at best a fluid concept; it is not a fixed abstract category but a socially constructed norm which changes
in various contexts.
a) Terry Eagleton: “Literature, in the sense of a set of works of assured and unalterable value, distinguished by
certain shared inherent properties, does not exist.”
F) Two Definitions of Literature:
1. A Dictionary of Literary Terms (J.A. Cuddon): Literature: a vague term which usually denotes works that belong to
the major genres: epic, drama, lyric, novel, short story, ode,…
a) There are many works which cannot be classified in the main literary genres which nevertheless may be regarded
as literature by virtue of excellence of their writing, their originality, and their general aesthetic and artistic
merits.
b) Example: Aristotle’s treatises on Poetics and Rhetoric; Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;
Darwin’s On the Origin of Species; and Dame Rebbeca West’s The Meaning of Treason.
2. A Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic and Cinematic Terms (S. Barnet, M. Berman, and W. Burto): Literature:
sometimes means anything written.
a) Most critics regard such definition as too broad because it includes pamphlets on how to make money from
guppies, and too narrow because it excludes such oral compositions as ballads and folk tales. Perhaps one can
begin by saying that literature uses language in compositions that are valuable in themselves.
G) Literature as Seen by Writers and Wits
1. Cyril Connoly (Enemies of Promise): “Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism
what will be read at once.
2. Ezra Pound (How to Read): “Great Literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible
degree.”
3. Robert Louis Stevenson (Memories and Portraits): “Literature in many of its branches is no other than the shadow
of good talk.”
4. John, Viscount Morley (Critical Miscellanies): “Literature – the most seductive, the most deceiving, the most
dangerous of professions.”
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself from the wrongs of his conditions.”
6. Thornton Wilder: “Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.”
7. Thomas Mann: “Literature is the union of suffering with the instinct of form.”
8. Mark Twain: “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.”
II. THE FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE
A) What is the function of Literature?
1. Jean Cocteau (French Literature): “Poetry is indispensable – if only I knew what for.”
2. To some, literature is important; they cannot live happily without it. They would claim that it is a deeper pleasure,
something related to the life of the mind.
3. To others, literature is of no value.
4. Two Main Functions of Literature:
a) Literature as a form of pleasure
 To provide a form of escape
 To provide aesthetic satisfaction
b) Literature as a form of engagement (to establish direct connection with the world)
 To provide a way of interpreting the world
 To provide a way of transforming the world
B) Literature provides a Form of Escape
1. This idea is an ancient one, related to the notion of literature as a substitute for life.
2. This is reading “for the fun of it.”
3. People want to escape from reality and to get lost in the marvellous world of narratives.
 4. People want to forget the demands of work or the many drudgeries of daily life. In short they want to experience a
different world vicariously.
C) Literature Provides Aesthetic Satisfaction
1. Many people read literature because of the pleasure that they derive from craftsmanship: its form, technique, and
style. They focus on the manner, not the matter, and they take delight in the way the work has been executed.
2. People find pleasure in a well-constructed plot, vivid characterization, unusual imagery, expressive language, poetic
rhythm, etc.
3. The most fundamental obligation of literature is its obligation to literature as an art: before it tries to answer other
requirements, it must first satisfy the requirements of craft.
D) Literature as a Way of Interpreting the World
1. Guillaume Apollinaire (French poet and Cubist painter): It is the social function of great poets and artists to renew
continually the appearance nature has for the eyes of men…
a) Literature, according to him, always refreshes our way of seeing this world.
b) The world appears meaningful to us because the great writers have allowed us, through their works, to see some
sense in it.
c) Literature is not a mere duplication of reality but an ordered and significant rendition of it.
2. Literature may be considered as a mode of knowledge, not the kind of knowledge from reading technical paper, but
rather a knowledge of a deeper and more philosophical kind.
3. The reading of literature then is “an act of engagement and participation. It is also, simultaneously, an act of
clarification and discovery…” (Pickering and Hoeper).
E) Literature as a Way of Transforming the World
1. There are many people who believe that literature should present not only an interpretation of the world but also a
way of changing it.
a) “Literature as a handmaiden of society” – writers must fill a social obligation; they must wield their pens to
change our imperfect societies.
b) Literature as an agent of social change.
2. Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Theater for Pleasure or Theater for Instruction’ advocated the creation of a new theater that would
not just entertain but also challenge our conventional assumptions and beliefs about ourselves and our relation to
society.
III. HISTORICAL LITERARY DIVISIONS
A) Ancient Literature – the literature of formative past possessed by various groups of people who once inhabited our
archipelago.
1. It is also a literature of varying human interests. Fortunately, some of these literary forms managed to survive war
and tropical disasters because they were etched in communal minds, and later on, reduced into permanent forms.
2. Literatures in this period are orally transmitted by nomadic people.
B) Literature of Enlightenment – covers the period of Spanish influence.
1. Under this period, the literatures are mainly religious as the word “Enlightenment” signifies religion.
C) Literature of Nationalism – involves the writings of Filipinos in Spanish and the vernacular during the later days of
Spanish regime and the early days of American occupation as well.
1. Writers:
a) Jose Rizal – Noli Me Tangere (1887) ; El Filibusterismo (1891) ; A las Flores de Heidelberg; Ultimo Adios
b) Marcelo H. Del Pilar - La Solaridad; Asimilacion de Filipinas
c) Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar
D) Contemporary Literature – embraces the works of our people in three media – Tagalog, Spanish, and English – from
the commencement of the 20th century up to our own time.
IV. APPROACHES TO LITERATURE
A) Formalistic, Pure or Literary Approach
1. The selection is read and viewed intrinsically, or for itself; independent of author, age, or any other extrinsic factor.
This approach is close to the “art for art’s sake” dictum.
2. The study of the selection is more or less based on the so-called literary elements which more or less boil down to:
a) literal level (subject matter);
b) the affective values (emotion, mood, atmosphere, tone, attitudes, empathy);
c) the ideational values (themes, vision, universal truths, character)
d) technical values (plot, structure, scene, language, point of view, imagery, figure, metrics, etc.);
 e) total effect (the interrelation of the foregoing elements); and
f) communication
3. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) The portrait in the play is evidently a symbol. What does it mean? From what classical work is the portrait
derived?
b) For Paula and/or Candida, where does the crisis occur?
c) What purpose/purposes does the “play within a play” technique serve? How effective is it?
d) Why is the play called an elegy?
e) What is the theme/themes of the play? Discuss.
f) Discuss the evocative power of the language in Bitoy Camacho’s “salute” to Intramuros and Don Lorenzo’s
house in the First Scene.
B) Moral or Humanistic Approach
1. Under this approach, the nature of man is central to literature.
2. The reader or teacher or critic more or less “requires” that the piece presents man as essentially rational; that is,
endowed with intellect and free will; or that the piece does not misinterpret the true nature of man. In these times of
course, the true nature of man is hotly contested, making literature all the more challenging. Whatever the case, this
approach is close to the “morality of literature,” to questions of ethical goodness or badness.
3. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) What does Don Lorenzo consider important in man’s life? What responsibilities does he feel a man should have?
b) Do you agree with the concept of womanhood that Paula and Candida uphold?
c) What value does the past hold for every man or every generation? What duties does a man have for his past, if
any?
C) Historical Approach
1. The very popular historical approach, based on Taine’s “moment-milieu race,” sees literature as both a reflection and
a product of the times and circumstances in which it was written.
2. Man as a member of a particular society or nation at a particular time, is central to the approach and whenever
teacher gives historical or biographical backgrounds in introducing a selection or arranges a literature course in
chronological order, he is hewing close to this approach.
3. The historical approach is often suitable to high school classes, to survey courses, for “average” classes, and for
pieces tackled or discovered for the first time. It operates in the premise that the history of a nation has telling effects
on its literature and that a piece can be better understood and appreciated if one knows the times surrounding its
creation.
4. From this approach, the sociological approach may be said to have branched out.
5. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) Discuss Joaquin’s portrayal of the Spanish past in the play. How well does he draw this era in Philippine history?
b) Enumerate some manners and morals of the past that are shown in the play.
c) At what time in Philippine history does the story occur? Can you say anything about the outbreak of the Pacific
war in the Philippines?
d) What do you know about Intramuros? Of the La Naval de Manila?
e) Discuss: “One needs a sense of history to appreciate Joaquin’s works.”
D) Sociological Approach
1. This is considered an extension of the historical approach, sometimes looms so large, that it is sometimes equated for
the latter or taken by itself. It considers literature as principally the expression of man within a given social situation.
Often, this social situation is reduced to a question of economics, in which men are somewhat simplistically divided
into haves and have-nots, thus passing into “proletarian approach,” which tends to underscore the conflict between
the two classes.
2. The sociological approach stresses social “relevance,” social “commitment,” contemporaneity, and it deems
communication with the reader important. Wanting to disseminate a message, especially when it tends subtly or
deliberately towards the propaganda (another controversial matter in literature), the selection has to be understood.
Socially-committed literature almost deliberately invites questions using this approach.
3. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) What part does the almighty dollar play in the Portrait?
b) Comment on the persuasive powers of the American dollar. Does it win or lose in the play?
c) Discuss the relevance of an “old-fashioned” theme like “past versus the present.”
E) Cultural Approach
1. This approach considers literature as one of the principal manifestations and vehicles of a nation’s or race’s culture
and tradition. It includes the entire complex of what goes under “culture” – the technological, the artistic, the
sociological, the ideological aspects; and considers literary piece in the total cultural milieu in which it was born.
2. This approach is one of the richest ways to arrive at the culture of a people and one of the most pleasurable ways of
appreciating the literature of a people. It goes by the dictum “culture teaching through literature.”
3. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) What culture do Candida and Paula represent?
b) What are some characteristics of this culture as reflected in their way of life?
c) What culture does Tony and the advertising media men and women represent?
d) Comment on the clash of cultures. What is the outcome?
e) What customs of the Spanish past, as seen in the play, are worth and not worth preserving? Why or why not?
f) Enumerate American customs and attitudes that are entering Philippine culture, as seen in the play? Discuss.
F) Psychological Approach
1. Set in dizzying motion, principally by Freud, perhaps beyond his wildest expectations, it considers literature as the
expression of “personality,” of “inner drives” of “neurosis.” It includes the psychology of the author, of the
characters, and even the psychology of creation. It has resulted in an almost exhausting and exhaustive
“psychological analysis” of characters, of symbols and images, of recurrent themes, etc.
2. Taking Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a teacher can ask the following questions:
a) Discuss Candida and Paula as repressed or fulfilled women.
b) Discuss whether Don Lorenzo is a man with “obligations to the past” or a man who cannot cope with the present.
c) What may be some reasons why Joaquin seems to have “chosen” to be spokesman of our Spanish past?
d) As far as the characters of Candida and Paula are concerned, what purpose may the “play within a play” fulfil?
e) What effect does the presence of the portrait have upon Candida and Paula?
f) Discuss the conviction with which they make their final decision.
G) Impressionistic Approach
1. This is the now popular approach – very personal, very relative, sometimes very fruitful, something simply the lazy
man’s way out. Unconditioned by explanations and often taking the impact of the piece as a whole, it seeks to see
how the piece has communicated.
2. Students may be asked to react or respond to anything in the Portrait that may have impressed them for one reason or
another; or to the play as a whole.