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Notes On The Apprenticeship Period

The period from 1910-1935 in Philippine literature is described as the "apprenticeship period" where Filipino writers imitated American and English writers as they were educated primarily through those authors. The University of the Philippines became the center of literary efforts where the first publications like the UP Folio introduced Philippine literature in English. Publications continued to emerge that published and rewarded literary works in English, especially short stories, stimulating further output.

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243 views1 page

Notes On The Apprenticeship Period

The period from 1910-1935 in Philippine literature is described as the "apprenticeship period" where Filipino writers imitated American and English writers as they were educated primarily through those authors. The University of the Philippines became the center of literary efforts where the first publications like the UP Folio introduced Philippine literature in English. Publications continued to emerge that published and rewarded literary works in English, especially short stories, stimulating further output.

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Juna Algones
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Notes on the Apprenticeship Period (1910-1935)

In 1900 English became the official medium of instruction in Philippine schools. The first teachers were army men and their
wives. In 1901 the Philippine Normal School was founded to train the Filipino teachers to take charge of elementary
education. In the same year the army transport, Thomas, brought 600 American teachers to the country to be incorporated
into the educational system. These teachers introduced English and American literature to the Filipinos.

The period of 1910 to 1935 is generally called the period of apprenticeship or imitation. Virginia R. Moreno, in her “A Critical
Study of the Shorty Story in English Written by Filipinos,” describes the years 1910-1925 “as a period of novices with their
exercises in fiction-making and the rise of the new language.”

The Filipino writers imitated American and English writers. This fact is hardly surprising since the early writers were, for the
most part, college students or young graduates whose literary education had been largely confined to American and English
authors.

The University of the Philippines was founded in 1908. It became the center of the literary effort. In September 1910, the first
issue of the UP Folio came off the press. This publication was recognized as embodiment of the early attempts of Filipinos at
self-expression in English.

The UP Folio was replaced by the Philippine Collegian. Other publications which introduced Philippine literature in English to
the public were Philippine Review, Independent, Rising Philippines, and Citizens.

In 1920 the Philippine Herald, the first Filipino daily in English, was founded. It paid for literary work it published and thus
gave a financial reward to writers in English, especially in the short story.

The period of apprenticeship was inaugurated b two significant events. In 1925 A. V. H. Jartendorp became the
editorpublisher of the Philippine Education Magazine. This soon became the Philippine Magazine, the most influential literary
magazine of its time. The Manila Tribune was established in the same year. It began publishing a Sunday supplement
featuring original short stories and poems written in English. Other journals followed and there was a market, although still
very limited, for Filipino literary output in English.

In 1927, the UP writers club was founded and began publishing the Literary Apprentice, which became the most prestigious
college literary publication in the country. In the same year, the Bureau of Education published Philippine Prose and Poetry,
which was prescribed as a high school textbook. Furthermore, Jose Garcia Villa introduced Walt Whitman to the Philippines
with the publication of his unconventional “Man Songs.” This brought in awave of experimentation and rapid development.

The literary output was further stimulated by literary contests. The first of these was that offered by the Philippine Free Press
in the field of the short story. The short story became the favorite form among Filipino writers.

In 1927 the Free Press published the first anthology of Philippine short stories written in English. The short stories during this
period were either romantic tales of the past with legendary figures or were imitations of plots and themes from American
and other foreign sources.

The most significant short story produced during this period was “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez-Benitez. It was published in
the Philippines Herald on September 20, 1925. Her fellow writers immediately recognized the story as incomparably superior
to all other Filipino short stories published up to then.

The poetry of the apprenticeship period was dominated by sentimental love lyrics. Verbal exuberance made the poems
artificial and insincere. “SursumSurda is the first known Philippine poem in English; it appeared in the Philippine Free Press in
1907.

The first notable collection of Philippine essays in English, “Thinking of Ourselves,” compiled and edited by Vicente M. Hilario
and Eliseo M. Quirino, appeared in 1924. The essays dealt with Philippine traditions and history, religion, philosophy, ethics,
literature and the arts, politics and government, and other significant matters bearing on Philippine culture.

The play produced during this period was mostly highly emotional rather than emotional experiences. Some were contrived
melodramas or broad comedies. American influence on the Filipino drama was less discernable, but contact with American
plays was extensive and foreign plays were often staged in Manila.

However drama suffered from public apathy. It could not compete with the zarzuela, which was then at the height of its
popularity. The early novels in English were sentimental. The fact is that the cultural basis of literatu re was too thin to
support a sustained, complex tradition necessary for a novel. Zolio M. Galang‟s “Child of Sorrow,” the first Filipino novel in
English, was published in 1924.

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