New and Emerging Literary Forms

21St Century Literature

DRAMA
Philippine Drama in English During the Postwar Period (1946–1960)
By the 1940s and 1950s, dramas in English had been performed on stage in the Philippines. During that time, three notable
Filipino dramatists emerged. They were Severino Montano, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, and Alberto S. Florentino.

Severino Montano (1915–1980) established the Arena Theatre at the Philippine Normal College in 1952. Almost two hundred
performances were staged there from 1953 to 1964. Among those performances were the staging of Montano’s four major
dramas, namely, Parting at Calamba (1953), Sabina (1953), The Ladies and the Senator (1953), and The Love of Leonor
Rivera (1954).
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero (1910–1995) was a prolific playwright. He wrote over a hundred plays; most of them were staged. His
plays portray the educated middle class. Among his popular works are Wanted: A Chaperone (1940), The Three Rats (1948),
and Condemned (1943).
Alberto S. Florentino (1931– ) became known for his drama The World Is An Apple. It won first prize in the Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards for Literature in 1954 and was published in the Sunday Times Magazine that same year. The play as well as
the others like Cavort with Angels (1959) and Oli Impan (1959) is set in Tondo slums.
During the period, the theater was moribund in the cities, however. One reason is that the language used, which was English,
made the plays only accessible to the educated Filipinos.
"The World Is an Apple" by Alberto S. Florentino is a one-act play. As the term suggests, a one-act play is composed of only
one act or part. Its story has a few characters; it is condensed and has a single effect.
Florentino’s play only has three characters, namely, Gloria, Mario, and Pablo. The story takes place one evening in an
improvised home in Intramuros. Gloria and Mario are a poor couple. Their poverty forces Mario’s hand both literally and
figuratively. So, he returns to his old life of stealing and joins his old friend Pablo for a heist.

The World Is An Apple: A Synopsis

It is payday, and Mario comes home without any money to give his wife Gloria for their sick daughter named Tita. At first, he
tells his wife that he spent all of his money on a few drinks with his friends. However, Gloria does not believe him because he
does not look intoxicated. Then Mario attempts to lie the second time by telling her that he spent it all on a woman. Once
again, Gloria does not believe him because she knows Mario loves their daughter very much that he could not have done it.
Finally, Mario tells her that he lost his job a week ago and that he has been looking for a new one ever since. Gloria is shocked
to hear the news and worried that Mario would not be able to find a job soon. Mario, however, assures her that it will not take
long for him to get a new job.
Gloria then asks Mario why he lost his job. Mario relates that he was accused of pilfering (stealing a small amount of
something) at work. He took an apple that rolled out of a broken crate and thought of giving it to their child. The people at his
work kept the apple, though, for evidence. Gloria wants Mario to ask those people for a second chance, but Mario is convinced
that they want to throw him out so that they could bring their own men into the job. When Gloria suggests that Mario
complain, he does not want to do so for fear of those people finding out about his police record. Then he tells Gloria that he
has found a good job. He is to be a night watchman for a company. Gloria is thankful to God, though she feels uncertain
because she will be alone at night without Mario by her side.
Then comes Pablo, Mario’s friend. Mario becomes nervous, and Gloria is not very happy to see him. Pablo asks about their
child’s condition and offers money to Gloria so that she can take her to a doctor, but Gloria refuses it. She is convinced that
Pablo has come to lead Mario back to his old ways. Soon enough, she discovers that Mario has indeed decided to go back to
stealing for their sake. She tries to stop him from going, but Mario leaves with Pablo anyway. Before he leaves, he tells Gloria
to take care of their daughter and herself, and he will take care of himself. The story ends with Gloria shouting Mario’s name
as she watches him walk away with Pablo.

The three notable Filipino dramatists in English of the Postwar Years are Severino Montano, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, and
Alberto Florentino. They produced relevant dramas during the period. However, because their works were written in English,
they could only reach out to the educated class.

Creative Nonfiction
It is a major genre of literature. It refers to narratives of real events told in a literary style.
Kinds of Creative Nonfiction
Memoir - This account is narrowly focused on a single event in a person’s life.
Biography - This is a detailed account of a person’s life written by another person.
Autobiography - This is a written account of the life of a person written by the subject himself or herself.
Diary - This is a collection of discrete accounts of a person’s experiences and thoughts each day.
Essay - This writing features any subject that the writer personally comments about or describes.

Philippine Creative Nonfiction

The American Occupation (1898–1940)
The essay in English proved to be an influential medium. The first volume of essays was Life and Success (1921) by Zoilo
Galang. The earliest travel writing was Notas de Viaje (1930) by Maria Paz Mendoza-Guazon. The essay “Literature and
Society” by Salvador Lopez sparked a debate on socially relevant literature versus aesthetic value. It won in the first
Commonwealth Literary Awards in 1940.
The Japanese Occupation (1941–1945)
Because of censorship, only a few essays in English were published. Horizons from My Nipa Hut, published in 1941, is a
collection of humorous essays by Francisco B. Icasiano. I Am a Filipino, the most famous essay of Carlos P. Romulo, was
published the same year.
1960s and 1970s
Literary journalism came into its own. It appeared in some publications like the Philippines Free Press and the Philippine
Graphic. It attracted some of the best Filipino writers. Nick Joaquin, who sometimes used the pen name Quijano de Manila,
was the most prolific among those writers.

1990s
A few autobiographies and memoirs were published like Memory’s Fictions: A Personal History (1993) and Postscript to a
Saintly Life (1994) by Bienvenido Santos. Also, there were works on wars like Living With the Enemy: A Diary of the
Japanese Occupation (1999) by Pacita Pestaño-Jacinto, and Breaking the Silence (1996) by Lourdes Reyes Montinola.
Also, published in this period were travel writings by Filipino women like Sylvia Mayuga’s Earth, Fire & Air (1992) and Kerima
Polotan’s Adventures in a Forgotten Country (1999).
Early 21st Century
This period saw the publication of collections of short essays and narratives of young writers. Their works were Wala
Lang (2004) by Bud Tomas; Love, Desire, Children, Etc.: Reflections of a Young Wife (2005) by Rica Bolipata-Santos; The
King of Nothing To Do (2006) by Luis Katigbak; and Stressed in the City (2007) by April T. Yap.

Creative nonfiction refers to narratives of real events told using a literary style of writing. Some of its forms are the memoir,
the biography, the autobiography, the diary, and the essay. In Philippine Literature, the essay is the most common form of
creative nonfiction.

Popular fiction, also called genre fiction, refers to works of literature that are intended for the masses or large
audience. Its main purpose is to appeal to the general public. Below are a few features of popular fiction:

 Its story is plot-driven.

 Its characters are mostly stock figures.
 Its setting is either familiar or exotic.
 Its language is closer to everyday spoken language.
 It contains a lot of dialogues.
 Science fiction, also called sci-fi, at its core, deals with science and technology. It is often lumped with the
fantasy and horror genres under the broader term “speculative fiction.” As this term suggests, sci-fi writers
are often preoccupied by the question “what if.”
 Pocholo Goitia’s short story “An Introduction to the Luminescent” is an example of science fiction. It was
published in Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 1 in 2005. The story is set in the year 2105 in a mall
described as an “ultrasaur,” a massive structure that towers at two kilometers and stretches at half kilometer.
Magenta, one of the characters, is a member of La Luminosa, a group of biogenetically engineered people
that live in the mall. This mall is protected by “clone warriors” that hover in the air using devices called
gravity disruptors.
 Chick literature, or chick lit, is written by women who write for women. The usual target readers are young
and single women, especially in their 20s or 30s. The stories deal with real life, usually love and relationships,
and they are written in a light-hearted tone.
 Tara Sering’s Getting Better is an example of chick literature. The novella was published in the October 2002
issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines, a magazine that targets contemporary women and that mostly features
topics regarding relationships, beauty, fashion, and health. Told in the second person point of view, the story
tackles the life of a single woman named Karen—how she was as a girlfriend, how she dealt with cheating,
and how she moved on.
 Ghost stories are part of Filipino pop culture. They are a specific kind of stories in the horror fiction genre.
As the name suggests, a ghost story features a ghost as one of its characters. Like any story in the horror
fiction genre, a ghost story is meant to scare its reader.
 Joel P. Salud’s “The Haunting at Concha Cruz Drive” is an example of a ghost story. It was published in True
Philippine Ghost Stories Book 1 in 2002. It tells the story of three friends driving along a road named Concha
Cruz Drive which is known to be haunted by ghosts of a young couple who were victims of drag racing
accident.
 Popular fiction refers to works of literature whose main purpose is to appeal to the general public. It
includes the science fiction genre, chick literature, and ghost stories.
21st Century

Literary Genre
This refers to a type or category of literature. It has a specific form, content, and style. The four main genres of literature are
poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. Under each of those genres are different genres. For example, fiction includes
speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction.

Literary Technique
This is a literary device deliberately used by a writer to convey a specific idea or meaning. An example is motif, an object or
idea that is repeated in a literary work. Another literary technique is the use of figurative language, an example
is personification, a figure of speech in which an inanimate object is given human qualities.

Many works of literature produced at present are characterized by the writers’ use of unconventional techniques. For
instance, the illustrated novel, the graphic novel, and doodle-fiction present narratives using pictures or images. The
illustrated novel presents images that tell some parts of the story, while the other parts are told in words. The graphic
novel tells a story in comic book format. A work of doodle fiction contains doodles and hand-written graphics.
Besides the illustrated novel, the graphic novel, and doodle-fiction, there are other literary forms or genres emerging at
present, such as the flash fiction, slipstream, metafiction, and magic realism.

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is known for its extreme brevity. A typical work of flash fiction is only a few hundred words long. Examples are
the stories in Fast Food Fiction: Short Short Stories To Go (2003), edited by Noelle Q. de Jesus. The collection features
stories written by well-known Filipino writers like Gemino H. Abad, Gregorio Brillantes, Jose Dalisay, Jr., Jessica Zafra, and
Lakambini Sitoy.
Slipstream
Slipstream, or the “fiction of strangeness,” features elements of fantasy, science fiction, and serious fiction. For many, works
of slipstream are difficult to categorize because of their similarities with speculative fiction. The collection Philippine
Speculative Fiction, edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, contains stories that are slipstream fiction.

Metafiction
Metafiction is about fiction itself. A work of metafiction can be a story about a writer who writes a story or a story about
another work of fiction. Some works of metafiction by Filipinos are the novel Ilustrado (2010) by Miguel Syjuco and Hari
Manawari (2011) by German Gervacio.
Magic Realism
Magic realism is a fiction genre in which magical elements are blended with reality. It is characteristic of the stories by Latin
American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Isabel Allende. The short story “The Death of Fray
Salvador Montano, Conquistador of Negros” by the Filipino writer Rosario Cruz Lucero has elements of magic realism.

Many works of literature at present are characterized by the writers’ use of unconventional techniques. They can be
categorized under different genres like flash fiction, slipstream, metafiction, and magic realism.

LUZON

The literary works in this lesson are by writers from Luzon. The writers used the Filipino cultural elements below:
Kundiman - This is a genre of Tagalog folk love songs that express an intense longing for a beloved, a cause, or the
motherland. They are usually played in minor chord, giving them a sad, melancholic sound.
Kambubulag - This is the Kapapampangan term for a type of native moth. It comes from the root word “bulag”
meaning “blind,” and there are Filipino superstitions about becoming blind after encountering moths.

Mikael de Lara Co is a writer and musician. He was born in Makati City and graduated with a degree in Environmental
Science from Ateneo de Manila University. His English and Filipino poetry collections have received awards including
Palanca Awards and the Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Prize. He was also a member of the Los Chupacabras band. At
present, he works for the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office at the Malacañang.
Example:
Kundiman (An Excerpt) scraped against marble. A stick
By Mikael de Lara Co rattled towards stillness. A minor.
I ate alone. I grew old. I grew older. All the lullabies ever hummed
I said hold in my own language coming together to vibrate
again and again, hawak, kapit, in the saddest of frequencies.
tahan na, uwi na. Then strained Your keys dangled by the sink.
to hear all the engines in this city Somewhere a chord is diminished
droning in A minor. A knife
to static. Kundiman means (Reproduced by permission of Mikael de Lara Co)
the opposite of if ever.
Explanation:
Co used diction to create a specific tone for “Kundiman” (2014). He used Tagalog words and
phrases: kundiman; hawak (hold); kapit(hold on); tahan na (stop crying); and uwi na (go home now). These words,
which have an emotional ring to them like the words in a kundiman, create a mood reminiscent of Filipino
sentimentality. Also, the mention of the A minor chord evokes sad, longing feelings that contribute to the sentimental
tone of the poem.

Catherine Batac Walder hails from Pampanga. She graduated from the University of the Philippines and moved to
Europe in 2005 to pursue a Master of Philosophy degree. Her works have been featured in local publications including
Inquirer’s Youngblood, Philippines Free Press, and Philippine Speculative Fiction 8. Also an avid reader, her letters have
been published in international magazines like Reader’s Digest and Time. She is now a blogger and a full-time mother
based in South East England.
Example:
The Kambubulag (An Excerpt)
By Catherine Batac Walder
“I can’t believe that woman,” Delia said.
“What woman?” Odessa asked.
“Oh, one I met while smoking just now. Kept asking if we passed Kambubulag Road on the way here. ‘Never heard of
the road,’ I told her. She said it’s four kilometers from the hotel and mentioned how we should be careful because we
might encounter the kambubulag. ‘Most residents here have resigned themselves to the fact that they have more
chances of dying on that road than any other non-resident. But as anyone would say, if it’s your time, then it is,’ she
said [. . .]”
(Reproduced by permission of Catherine Batac Walder)
Explanation:
In “The Kambubulag” (2013) the writer used a Filipino cultural symbol of bad luck, the kambubulag, to create the
fictional urban legend of the Kambubulag Road. Old folk legends of the moth being a harbinger of death is prevalent in
Luzon. It signals the reader to regard the woman and her superstition as out of the ordinary.
Context is the background of the text which may have been influenced by the author’s life, language, society, and
culture.
Diction is the choice of words that suit the writer’s intended purpose.
Kundiman and kambubulag folk tales are part of Filipino folk literature. They can be a source of inspiration, or they can
be used as literary devices. Also, writing a poem or a story around those cultural symbols reawakens interest in those
literary forms.

VISAYAS and MINDANAO

Merlie M. Alunan was born in Dingle, Iloilo and graduated with a Creative Writing degree from Siliman University. She
is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines and promotes writing in the mother tongue. Her poems are in
English, Cebuano, and Waray. At present, she resides in Tacloban City.
Example:
Old Women in Our Village (An Excerpt)

By Merlie M. Alunan Only the old women hear

Old women in my village say the ceaseless warning, watching
the sea is always hungry, they say, the grain drying in the sun,
that’s why it comes without fail or tending the boiling pot
to lick the edges of the barrier sand, or gutting a fish for the fire, fingers
rolling through rafts of mangrove, bloody, clothes stained, scent of the ocean
smashing its salt-steeped flood rising from the mangled flesh into their lungs.
on guardian cliffs, breaking itself Nights, as they sit on their mats
against rock faces, landlocks, hills, rubbing their knees, waiting for ease
reaching through to fields, forests, to come, and sleep, they hear the sea
grazelands, villages by the water, endlessly muttering as in a dream
country lanes, towns, cities where someday someday someday . . . .
people walk about in a dream, Nudging the old men beside them,
deaf to the wind shushing their mates—empty-eyed seafarer,
the sea’s sibilant sighing each a survivor of storms, high waves,
somedaywecome and the sea’s vast loneliness,
somedaywe come now half-lost in their old age
someday . . . . amid the household clutter—
old women in my village
nod to themselves and say, who knows, the women say, but this much
one uncharted day, the sea is true—no plea for kindness can stop it—
will open its mouth and drink in nodding their heads this way and that,
a child playing on the sand, tuning their ears to the endless mumbling . . . .
a fisherman with his nets, somedaywecomewecomewecome
great ships laden with cargo, somedaywecomewecomewecome
and still unsated, they say, somedaysomedaysomeday
suck up cities towns villages— (Reproduced by permission of Prof. Merlie M. Alunan)
one huge swallow to slake its hunger.
As to when or how it would happen,
Explanation:
The imagery in “Old Women in Our Village” (2012) is heightened through the use of sound devices. For instance,
the cacophony in the first stanza implies strong feelings, like in the line “against rock faces, landlocks, hills.”
Then euphony in the next stanza evokes pleasant feelings as in the line “the sea’s sibilant sighing.” This suggests an
impending disaster, which is echoed in the rest of the poem.
Gutierrez Mangansakan II, an advocate of the Moro culture, is a filmmaker and writer from Pagalungan,
Maguindanao. In 2001, his film House under the Crescent Moon won the grand prize for video documentary from the
Cultural Center of the Philippines Prize for Independent Film and Video. Since then, he has made films that focus on the
plight of women and children. Also, he was the editor of Children of the Ever-Changing Moon (2007), a collection of
essays by young Moro writers. He became a fellow at the University of Iowa’s International Program in 2008.
Mangansakan wrote a short story entitled “A Harvest of Sorrows” for the collection Peace Mindanao edited by Jaime An
Lim, a multi-awarded writer, it is also published by UST Publishing House in 2013. The story features a narrator whose
experience mirrors Mangansakan’s experience in relief work. For him, the issue and images of refugees and
displacement have always been a consistent element in both his films and writing.
Example:
A Harvest of Sorrows
by Gutierrez Mangansakan II
“A Harvest of Sorrows” begins with the narrator’s arrival at an evacuation center at 9 AM in a remote village in
Mindanao. He has come to give away several sacks of rice to the refugees in the center. The refugees have fled their
homes because fighting broke out in their villages. At the center he meets his friend Ayesha, the social worker who is in
charge of supervising relief operations. Ayesha tells him that a woman in the center gave birth to a stillborn child, and
the father does not know it yet. The father, together with the other men, has gone back to the village to guard the rice
fields, where crops are ready for harvest in ten days. Later, while the narrator and Ayesha are having coffee, the latter
announces that the father will be sent for and that the child will be buried after the noon prayer.
Each writer in the lesson tackles a theme that situates his or her work in a context specific to the region.
Merlie Alunan’s poem “Old Women in Our Village” depicts sea, an important part of life of the Visayans, as an agent of
destruction and death. On the other hand, Gutierrez Mangansakan II’s short story “A Harvest of Sorrows” highlights the
plight of refugees from war.
Context – This is the background of the text which may have been influenced by the author’s life, language, society, and
culture.
Imagery – This language awakens the reader’s sensory perceptions through words and phrases.
Cacophony – This sound device refers to words or phrases with harsh sounds that create a disturbing tone.
Euphony – This sound device refers to words or phrases with melodic sounds that create a calming tone.

E-LIT

Electronic literature refers to works commonly published and shared on the Web. Unlike traditional printed
literature, it has features that could only be presented through multimedia.

Kinds of Electronic Literature

 Hyperpoetry – This is a kind of graphic poetry, which combines words with images. It has no standard lines
or verses, but its words are arranged in a way that it creates meaning and visual effect.
 Hyperfiction – This contains hyperlinks. When readers click on a hyperlink, they go to another Web page
that contains the next part of a story.
 Photo poem – This uses real-life images or electronically generated images as representation of the textual
poem.
 Silent comics – These have no verbal dialogues. The dialogues are presented through symbols.
 Textula – This poem is intended to be shared through the SMS.
 Blog – This Web site is where a person writes about his or her personal opinions, activities, and experiences.
References: https://link.quipper.com/