History of Philippine Literary Criticism

Presented By: Jmar I. Almazan

 La frente hoy del filipino puede levantarse
erguida: esta borrado el antiguo infamante de
su incapacidad; el filipino es capaz, capaz de
llegarse hasta el genio.Luna, Resurreccion
Hidalgo y Pardo de Tavera han sido
premiados en aquella Exposicion! Tres
unicos artistas filipinos que se han atrevido a
disputer un premio en este torneo de las
ciencias, de las artes, letras, industria y
comercio, entre una inmensa pleyade de
pintores y escultores a cuales mas famosos.
el genio es patrimonio de todos y que la
capacidad y el talento no es exclusivo de
ciertas castas!(Colome 2000, 46-47)1
 La frente hoy del filipino puede levantarse
erguida: esta borrado el antiguo infamante de
su incapacidad; el filipino es capaz, capaz de
llegarse hasta el genio.Luna, Resurreccion
Hidalgo y Pardo de Tavera han sido
premiados en aquella Exposicion! Tres
unicos artistas filipinos que se han atrevido a
disputer un premio en este torneo de las
ciencias, de las artes, letras, industria y
comercio, entre una inmensa pleyade de
pintores y escultores a cuales mas famosos.
el genio es patrimonio de todos y que la
capacidad y el talento no es exclusivo de
ciertas castas!

- As praised to his
compatriots (who won
prizes in the Exposicion
Universal de Paris , on the
pages of La Solidaridad in
July 1889.
 This remark from a member of the ilustrado class is revealing.
For it does not only provide an insight into Lopez Jaenas
consciousness, but also uncovers a germ of the ilustrados view
of culture, an important starting point for any history of the
development of Philippine Literary Criticism during the late 19th
century. (The Ilustrados as Literary Critics: Philippine Literary Criticism
under Spanish Rule, p.44)

- argues that the Ilustrados contributed pioneering

ideas in Literary Critism , understood here as the
practice of analyzing, evaluating, explaining, or
refuting a work of art and its previous
interpretations in the context of various social
relations in a particular social space (country).
 Literary Criticism is a social act, it thus occurs in a
specific field of cultural production which is under the
relative domination of the field of power.
The social nature of criticism and its relative
autonomy transforms the cultural field into a sight of
struggle among various factions, thereby producing
contradictory literary pronouncements.

Rizals Novels

Ilustrados Friars

Rizals novels Noli Me Tangere ("Touch Me Not") and El filibusterismo ("The Subversive")
exposed to the world the injustices imposed on Filipinos under the Spanish colonial regime
The 20th century in the Philippines began in
extremely challenging times.
1896-1906
the Philippine Revolution broke out
the Philippine Republic was declared
three centuries of Spanish colonial rule came
to an end
the Americans occupied the country in the
wake of the Spanish-American War
the Filipino-American War began, ended, and
gave way to a new government under US
colonial auspices.
Philippine Literary Criticism
1908 saw the establishment of the University of the
Philippines which, as the first English university in the
country, became deeply involved in the rise of
Filipino literature in English, and the practical, the
classroom criticism

In the beginning of the century, formal literary

criticism in the country was largely practiced by
writers themselves, who wrote literary chronicles,
writing manuals, prefaces, and reviews in popular
magazines.
 Writers like Epifanio de los Santos, Julian Cruz
Balmaseda, and Rufino Alejandro wrote literary
chronicles. Lope K. Santos, Iigo Ed. Regalado, Jose
Villa Panganiban, and Clodualdo del Mundo discussed
the nature of literature, its making and function in
society.

In the 1960s, writers in English, many of whom

trained in the United States, like Miguel Bernad SJ,
Ricaredo Demetillo, Edilberto and Edith Tiempo,
Epifanio San Juan Jr., and Gemino Abad, were
influential critics, particularly from their base in the
universities.
 Formalism, combined with the ideas of symbolist and
expressionist writers in Europe, inspired new theories in
the literary practice of Tagalog writers. The foremost
theoretician to emerge from this group was Virgilio
Almario.

By the late 1960s, however, the radicalization of Filipino

intellectual life led to the resurgence of Marxism. Critics
like Almario, Epifanio San Juan Jr., Bienvenido Lumbera,
Nicanor Tiongson, Lucila Hosillos, Gelacio Guillermo,
Edel Garcellano, and Elmer Ordoez wrote on the need
to see literature in the context of dynamic processes of
historical transformation.
 Martial Law was instituted by President Marcos in
1972. These events and socio-economic changes in
the country inspired writers to confront the harsh
social realities of their time.
(Significant among these is Fernando Castro's Let There
be Light, 1954 (YA.i987.a.729o))

Filipino writers have shown a remarkable degree of

skill in expressing their ideas in a foreign tongue and
most of them provide striking insights into the lives
and struggles of the Filipinos, whose main aim has
been to free themselves from political and economic
bondage.
 References
http://nlpdl.nlp.gov.ph:81/CC01/NLP00VM052
mcd/v4/v4.pdf
http://panitikan.com.ph/2014/06/23/contem
porary-literary-criticism-in-the-philippines-
preliminary-notes/
ovcrd.upd.edu.ph/dilimanreview/article/view/
3539/3270
https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1997articles/pdf/articl
e3.pdf