The Literary Forms in Philippine Literature

I. Pre-Colonial Times

Showcase a rich past through their folk speeches, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances that affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors.

has vast collection of folk speeches such as:

riddle or tigmo in Cebuano;
bugtong in Tagalog
paktakon in Ilongo
patototdon in Bicol

proverbs or aphorisms - express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs or they instill values by offering bits of wisdom in short, rhyming verse
tanaga- a mono-riming heptasyllabic (7) quatrain (4 line-stanza) expressing insights and lessons on life

folk song - expresses the hopes and aspirations, the people's lifestyles as well as their loves; often repetitive and sonorous
narrative song - uses for its subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes

folk narratives, i.e. epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical;

II. The Spanish Colonial Tradition

Showcase an array of religious prose and poetry.

Religious lyrics versed in both Spanish and Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish language.

religious poetry or the pasyon became known in the Filipino's commemoration of Christ's agony and resurrection at Calvary
prose narratives - written to prescribe proper decorum; also used for proselytizing

secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the emergence of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European education
secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic tradition: the languishing but loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival.

secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in Tagalog (e.g. Florante at Laura, Ibong Adarna)

Propaganda Prose

political essays and Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the Spanish regime, and, at the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness among Filipinos.

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.

modern short story

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.

World literature: In the cold northern countries, where the sun disappears almost completely during the winter season, great fires were lit in the midwinter to help the sun to be reborn. The ancient Greeks tell a myth in which Prometheus stole fire from Zeus, the chief god, and gave it to humans so that they could keep themselves warm. To punish him, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock where his liver was eaten by an eagle every day but grew again every night.

Legend (story) - traditional narrative or collection of related narratives, popularly regarded as historically factual but actually a mixture of fact and fiction. The medieval Latin word legenda means “things for reading”. During certain services of the early Christian Church, legenda, or lives of the saints, were read aloud. A legend is set in a specific place at a specific time; the subject is often a heroic historical personage. A legend differs from a myth by portraying a human hero rather than one who is a god. Legends, originally oral, have been developed into literary masterpieces. Legends are stories about real people who are famous for doing something brave or extraordinary. Every time the story was told, it became more exaggerated and so it is now difficult to tell how much of the story is really true.

World Literature: One of the greatest legendary figures in Britain is King Arthur. He was the son of King Uther Pendragon, a Celtic King. King Uther gave his child to Merlin the wizard. Merlin taught Arthur everything he knew so that he could become a great king. When King Uther died, Merlin stuck a sword into a rock and said, ‘This sword is in the stone by magic. Only the true king will be able to pull it out’. Many men tried but none succeeded. When Arthur tried, the sword slipped out easily. Arthur was made king. He went on to found the Round Table, an order to knights who became famous for fighting the wicked and helping the poor.