Philippine Contemporary Fiction

Prior to the 1920s, Philippine short stories are better classified as tales rather than stories, mostly ghost tales or folktales explaining natural phenomena with a theme in which a moral was brought home to the reader. Plot structure was worked along the easy, chronological, and then method, to use E.M. Frosters terminology. The short -story writers of that era drew mostly on Western culture and Western models. By the 1930s the market for the Philippine short stories in English was no longer confined solely to the home front but had started to break into print abroad as well. Among the prominent writers were Paz Marquez Benitez, Paz Latorena, Arturo B. Rotor, Amador Daguio, Loreto Paras Sulit, Carlos Bulosan, and Manuel Arguilla. Bienvenido Santos and N.V.M Gonzales, although writing at that time, were not to gain wider recognition and a larger audience until after World War II. The years immediately before the war were characterized by a desire to create a national literature, not merely by writing about simple rustic life, Philippine flora and fauna, and Philippine national heroes, but by attempting to define the national psyche or identity, however evasive that might be. By the end of the 1930s the Philippine short story had already improved in quality, offering plausible characterization, a stricter control of language, and interesting situations and themes. The modern short story (in the sense of contemporary or twentieth century) was not to be written until after the war. Manuel Arguilla, who died before the war, wrote the most significant prewar collection, How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Stories, exemplifying a dynamic tension between social commitment and artistic excellence the objective of good literature both before the war and for all time. The social not was pursued in Carlos Bulosans America Is in the Heart, in the choice of subject matter and characters like the peasants and the laborers, and in the portrayal of the effects of politics on the private lives of people, the interrelation between economic conditions and political power. N.V.M. Gonzales began writing in the 1930s, but his first short-story collection was not published until 1947, when Seven Hills Away appeared. Other distinguished collections followed, all products of serious artistic effort and of an artistic creed which upheld the belief that art must involve working with material (a serious craft) and must be a thing of beauty (artistic/form). The social note in Gonzalezs fiction never called attention to itself and never took precedence over the artistic objective, and Gonzalez was long considered the supreme craftsman, training many of his students at the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas always to labor with loving attention over every line and detail. Likewise, Francisco Arcellana started literary career before the war, but his influence and reputation as one of the Philippines finest writers did not spread until after the war . His artistic ingenuity is most apparent in Divide by Two, with its strong emotional impact, its subtle manipulation of symbols, and the powerful rhythm of its language. Bienvenido

Santos was another prewar youth and postwar writer whose first book of short stories, You Lovely People, about Filipino exiles in America during the war, was not published until well after the wars end in 1955. Like Gonzalez and Arcellana, he wrote mostly about loneliness, alienation, and homesickness, all postwar maladies. And of course there was Nick Joaquin, who stood above his contemporaries both as craftsman and as cultural historian. His mastery of the language is manifested in his flexible style, one that could be lush and exuberant one moment, slangy or colloquial and very contemporary the next, depending on his subject, his vision matched only by a creative power that was quite unsurpassed in its sense of history, tradition, and art. Gregorio Brillantes, in his volume of short fiction titled Distance to Andromeda and in other short stories, wrote particularly about the generation under thirty, adolescent and postadolescent youths who suffered alienation from family, from society, and from themselves. Brillantes writes with a sure hand, frequently offering rich insights about the Catholic faith as it illumines the lives of countless Filipino families. These were the big names in the field of the short story, the artists who never used their art as a tool for social and political propaganda. More than mere preoccupation with form, their writing showed that they had significant truths to express and personal visions to share. More names shone on the horizon: Kerima Tuvera, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Aida Rivera Ford, Juan Gatbonton, and Andres Cristobal Cruz, to name but a few. The 1960s were, summarily, a period when writers seriously grappled with problems of art. The early 1970s saw a proliferation of politically motivated or committed writing and protest literature. Short-story writers became more conscious of the political milieu and of social issues in the wake of the increased activism all over the world and right in their country, especially during the troubled days of a dictatorial government. Some of the more recent fiction writers include Paulino Lim, Alfred Yuson, Jose Dalisay, Mario Eric Gamalinda, and Cristina P. Hidalgo. In the meantime, what about the novelists? The war provided postwar novelists with a subject. Stevan Javellanas Without Seeing the Dawn focuses on an antiheroic protagonist hardened and embittered by the war, but ultimately vindicating himself and becoming almost heroic in the process. Edilberto Tiempo, the fiction writer and critic, wrote with an awareness of social history but remained strictly formalistic in his firm grasp of craft and his handling of history. Bienvenido Santos worked with a sense of pathos, irony, and realism, and took up the theme of personal and sociocultural alienation, especially among Filipinos stranded in America during the war, suffering from intense homesickness but somehow managing to endure with strength and fortitude and loveliness of spirit. Francisco Sionil Joses monumental Rosales saga, which is made up of five novels, has, more than any other series of works, touched on this Filipino search for roots, as well as on struggle, social corruption, and the fight for social justice in postcolonial times. No other writer has been more widely translated on his own country and other countries. N.V.M. Gonzalezs novels also reflect discipline, control, and irony, best reflected in his portrayal of the harsh world of the fisherfolk and peasants who endured and prevailed with dignity and grace in the face of pressure and want. His novels are manifestations of reality turned art.

Recent novelists have ventured into the murky terra incognita of postmodernism, rejecting the traditional concepts of fiction, portraying a world devoid of value and meaning, interweaving literature with journalism, history, biography, and even criticism. The objective is merely pleasure of the text through verbal or psychological constructs, a totality of vision. Examples of such avant-garde Filipino fictionists are Mario Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, and Alfred Yuson, to name but three of the more prominent figures. Meanwhile, the influence of literature in the country is imperiled by the impact of modern technology on life and culture, and the Filipino writer feels it his responsibility to put literature back on track and in the center of life, aware of the perpetual need to upgrade and transform it into a meaningful social yet artistically forward-moving activity, opening up to a large interdependent world, listening to the polyphony of voices which could add to their own largeness of spirit and understanding, aware that they cannot continue to write in isolation, that each of the writings of all writers of the world is but a mere episode within that one general experience of the universal person forever in the process of unfolding and evolving. (Required Reading! I post here Dr. Ophelia Dimalanta's Introduction to Philippine Contemporary Fiction which appeared in OAD Reader Vol. 2, 2006. Ma'am Ophie's Introduction is educational and more than worth your while.)
POSTED BY LIT102 PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

Philippine literature in English has its roots in the efforts of the United States, then engaged in a war with Filipino nationalist forces at the end of the 19th century. By 1901, public education was institutionalized in the Philippines, with English serving as the medium of instruction. That year, around 600 educators in the S.S. Thomas (the "Thomasites") to replace the soldiers who had been serving as the first teachers. Outside the academe, the wide availability of reading materials, such as books and newspapers in English, helped Filipinos assimilate the language quickly. Today, 78.53% of the population can understand or speak English (see List of countries by English-speaking population).

Contents
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1 The Commonwealth Period 2 The Post-war period 3 Literary awards and competitions 4 Contemporary Writers 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] The Commonwealth Period

The founding of Silliman University by Presbyterian missionaries and the Philippine Normal School (PNS) in 1901 and the University of the Philippines (U.P.) in 1908, as well as of English newspapers like the Daily Bulletin 1900, The Cablenews 1902, and the Philippines Free Press 1905, helped boost the spread of English. The first ten years of the century witnessed the first verse and prose efforts of Filipinos in student publications such as The Filipino Students Magazine first issue, 1905, a short-lived quarterly published in Berkeley, California, by Filipino pensionados (or government scholars); the U.P. College Folio (first issue, 1910); The Coconut of the Manila High School (first issue, 1912); and The Torch of the PNS (first issue, 1913). However, the beginnings of anything resembling a professional market for writing in English would not be realized until the 1920s with the founding of other newspapers and magazines like the Philippines Herald in 1920, the Philippine Education Magazine in 1924 (renamed Philippine Magazine in 1928), and later the Manila Tribune, the Graphic, Womans Outlook, and Womans Home Journal. The publications helped introduce the reading public to the works of Paz Marquez Benitez, (Jose Garcia Villa), Loreto Paras, and Casiano Calalang, among others. Cash incentives were given to writers in 1921 when the Free Press started to pay for published contributions and awarded P1,000 for the best stories. The organization in 1925 of the Philippine Writers Association and in 1927 of the University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop, which put out the Literary Apprentice, also helped encourage literary production. In 1939, the Philippine Writers League was put up by politically conscious writers, intensifying their debate with those in the "art for arts sake" school of Villa.

Among the significant publications of this fertile period were:

Filipino Poetry (1924) by Rodolfo Dato; English-German Anthology of Filipino Poets (1934) by Pablo Laslo; Jose Garcia Villas Many Voices (1939) and Poems of Doveglion (1941); Poems (1940) by Angela Manalang-Gloria; Chorus for America: Six Philippine Poets (1942) by Carlos Bulosan; Zoilo Galangs A Child of Sorrow (1921), the first Filipino novel in English, and Box of Ashes and Other Stories (1925), the first collection of stories in book form; Villas Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others (1933); "The Wound and the Scar" (1937) by Arturo Rotor, a collection of stories; "Winds of April" (1940) by N. V. M. Gonzalez; "His Native Soil" (1941) by Juan C. Laya; Manuel Arguillas "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Stories" (1941); Galangs "Life and Success" (1921), the first volume of essays in English; and the influential "Literature and Society" (1940) by Salvador P. Lpez.

Dramatic writing took a backseat due to the popularity of Filipino vaudeville (bodabil) and Tagalog movies, although it was kept alive by the playwright Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero.

[edit] The Post-war period

During the Japanese occupation, when Tagalog was favored by the Japanese military authority, writing in English was consigned to limbo, since most of the English writers are forced to write in Tagalog or joined in the underground and write English stories based on the battles to serve as propaganda pieces in boosting the morale of the guerrillas. It picked up after the war, however, with a fervor and drive for excellence that continue to this day. Stevan Javellanas "Without Seeing the Dawn" (1947), the first postwar novel in English, was published in the United States. In 1946, the Barangay Writers Project was founded to help publish books in English. Against a background marked by political unrest and government battles with Hukbalahap guerrillas, writers in English in the postwar period honed their sense of craft and techniques. Among the writers who came into their own during this time were, among many others:

Francis James De mesa Carl Joseph Cruz Qwerty Uiop Wiw Wiw Carlos Bulosan Linda Ty Casper Gilda Cordero-Fernando Amador Daguio jansen allen abanes Ricaredo Demetillo N. V. M. Gonzalez Sinai C. Hamada

Alejandrino Hufana Dominador Ilio Nick Joaquin F. Sionil Jos Virginia Moreno Vicente Rivera Jr. Alejandro R. Roces Bienvenido Santos Abelardo and Tarrosa Subido Edilberto K. Tiempo Kerima Polotan Tuvera Manuel A. Viray Oscar de Zuiga

Fresh from studies in American universities, usually as Fulbright or Rockefeller scholars, a number of these writers introduced New Criticism to the country and applied its tenets in literature classes and writing workshops. In this way were born the Silliman National Writers Workshop.

[edit] Literary awards and competitions

In 1940, the first Commonwealth Literary Awards were given by President Manuel L. Quezon to Salvador P. Lopez for "Literature and Society" (essay), Manuel Arguilla for "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Stories" (short story), R. Zulueta da Costa for "Like the Molave" (poetry), and Juan C. Laya for "His Native Soil" (novel). Government recognition of literary merit came in the form of the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards (1960), the Pro Patria Awards for Literature (1961), and the National Artist Awards (1973). Only the last of these three awards survives today. Writers in English who have received the National Artist award include: Jose Garcia Villa (1973), Nick Joaquin (1976), Carlos P. Romulo (1982), Francisco Arcellana (1990), N. V. M. Gonzalez, Rolando Tinio (1997), Edith L. Tiempo, (2000), F. Sionil Jos (2003), and Bienvenido Lumbera (2006). A select group of local writers have also received the international Magsaysay Award, namely, F. Sionil Jos, Nick Joaquin and Bienvenido Lumbera.

[edit] Contemporary Writers

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Despite the lack of a professional writer's market, poetry and fiction in English continue to thrive and be written with sophistication and insight. Among the fictionists of recent years are:

Dean Francis Alfar Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Linda Ty Casper Ian Casocot Erwin Castillo Jose Dalisay, Jr. Antonio Enriquez Eric Gamalinda Vicente Garcia Groyon Amadis Ma. Guerrero F. Sionil Jos Luis Joaquin Katigbak Ma. Francezca Kwe Angelo Rodriguez Lacuesta Susan Lara Jaime An Lim Issh Gajo Rosario Cruz Lucero Renato Madrid Resil Mojares Timothy Montes Wilfredo Nolledo Charlson Ong Ninotchka Rosca Menchu Aquino Sarmiento Lakambini Sitoy Katrina Tuvera Alfred A. Yuson Jessica Zafra

Poets include:

Gemino Abad

Alexis Abola Merlie Alunan Cirilo Bautista Salvador Bernal Jos Wendell Capili Elsa Coscoluella Ricardo de Ungria Lourd Ernest De Veyra Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta Simeon Dumdum, Jr. Federico Licsi Espino Jr. Marjorie Evasco J. Neil C. Garcia Ramil Digal Gulle Ma. Luisa Igloria Mookie Katigbak Marne Kilates Emmanuel Lacaba Paolo Manalo Danton Remoto Angelo Suarez Ramon Sunico Anthony Tan Joel Toledo Emmanuel Torres Naya Valdellon