Panitikan sa Panahon ng mga Kastila (Literature Under Spanish

Colonialism) 1565-1897

Report by: Mary Jane T. Hugo BSE III- General Science

1565- first permanent settlement in the Philippines

Imposed on the Filipino people the Spanish monarchy and the Roman Catholic religion

Pueblos (taga-bayan) – were easily reach of the power of the Church and State - “ urbane and civilized” Filipino

Taga- bundok, taga-bukid- kept their distance from the colonial administrators and their native agents; staying close to the sources of their livelihood in the mountains or the hinterlands -Indio (native); Brutos salvages ( salvage brutes)

Non-Christian-Filipinos come to be regarded with Condescension

The name “Filipino” was reserved for Spaniards born in the Philippines

Everybody else who had only native ancestors was an “Indian”.

Spanish Colonial Rule was supposed to derive its authority from the union of Church and State.

The Parish Priest- only Spaniards who had direct contact with Filipinos ;became the embodiment of Spanish power and culture among the colonized populace.

The literature of the entire period was in the main created under his encouragement and supervision

Although in the last half century of Spanish rule, the attitudes and outlook of medieval Catholicism as these were represented by the friar/ missionary/ parish priest began to be challenged by Filipinos who had, by virtue of a university education, come into the orbit of liberal minds in nineteenth- century Spain and Europe.

A Confluence of two cultures

Monopoly of printing presses by religious orders prior to the nineteenth century explains the religious content of Early written literature. 

Dominicans were the first to set-up a printing press, Doctrina christiana ( Christian Doctrine 1593) – first

book ever published in the Philippines Francisco Blancas de San Jose (friar-

lexicographer)- produced the first printed literary work in Tagalog appeared in one of the books

This was the poem “May Bagyo Ma’t Mat Rilim ( Though It Is Stormy and Dark) which was published in Memorial de la vida Cristiana ( Memorandum of Christian life, 1605) along with the poems by San Jose himself and by the bilingual poet (ladino) Fernando Bagongbanta.

Doctrina Christiana

The First Book Printed in the Philippines

printed in Gothic letters and Tagalog characters

signed Juan de Cuellar

“May Bagyo Ma’t May Rilim

uses turbulent nature of imagery to affirm Christian heroism Use of the seven-syllable line, the monorime and the talinghaga (metaphor) of

Pre-colonial poetry. Anonymous author meeting of two cultures The work exemplifies that the missionaries were doing to oral literature they

found among Filipinos Being such a pervasive presence in Philippine society during the three centuries

of Spanish colonialism, the songs , riddles, proverbs and tales of the Pagans understandably made the missionaries and the Parish priest apprehensive

Oral literature was “Christianized

Spanish Imposition, Filipino Response Reading, writing and arithmetic were taught in

catechetical school Main purpose of schooling was to impart the

fundamentals of Christian doctrine to the children In eighteenth century, it was rare Filipino who had

schooling beyond the catechetical level Ladinos( Latinized)- Filipinos able to read and write in

one of the Latin languages Pedro Bukaneg- the Ilokano poet to whom the published version of Lam-ang is often attributed Tomas Pinpin- the printer/author of a manual titled Ang Librong Pag-aaralan ng mga Tagalog ng Wikang Castilla, ( The Book the tagalogs Must Study in Spanish, 1610) Fernando Bagongbanta- the poet mentioned earlier for his contribution to San Jose’s Memorial de la vida Cristiana

Gaspar Aquino de Belen- the first Filipino literary artist, the first one to come up with a long work that bore the signs of conscious design and careful composition

Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon Natin ( The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ Our Lord, 1704) appeared as an addendum to Aquino’s translation of a Spanish devotional work. Tagalog ostosyllabic verse, the poem relates the events leading to the crucifixion, starting from the Last Supper, in strophies of five monoriming lines

was treasured as a Christian narrative poem intended to replace the epic poems of the Pagan past

Pasyon- a permanent tribute to the 1704 poem

Sinakulo- a stage play on the passion and death of Christ

this is a dramatic performance to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ.

Halos lahat ng pasyon ay nasusulat sa quintillos

unang Pilipinong sumulat at kumanta ng pasyon sa Tagalog ay si “Padre Gaspar Aquilino de Belen”

Eighteenth Century

Komedya- theatre genre; drew its plot from medieval Spanish ballads about highborn warriors and their colourful adventures for love and fame, providing Filipino viewers a glimpse of an Idealized European society that exemplified the virtue of religious piety and steadfast loyalty to the monarch

2 types of narrative poems became popular at this time

Awit – strophe consisted of four monoriming dodesyllabic lines

Korido- strophe consisted of four monoriming octosyllabic lines

Both were sung or chanted, never simply read and apparently they circulated the way oral literature circulated, enabling the more popular ones to reach a wide audience at atime when the greater majority og the population was illiterate

First half of the Nineteenth Century

Witnessed the peak of the awit as a poetic genre in the masterwork of the poet Francisco Baltazar (1788-1862), p.k.a as Balagtas

Famous works: La India Elegante y el Negrito Amante ( The

fashionable India and Her Negrito Suitor)- a short farce

Orosman at Zafira- a full length komedya Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa

Cahariang Albania ( The life of Florante and Laura Went Through in the Kingdom of Albania, 1838)

Historians put Balagtas in the forefront of Philippine Literature, designating him as first of the two literary giants of the period of Spanish colonialism

Filipino writers during Balagtas’ time wrote not for a reading but for a “listening “audience.

Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa Cahariang Albania ( The life of Florante and Laura Went Through in the Kingdom of Albania,1838)

Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura) was indicative of the pressures that acted upon the Filipino man of letters ; is in the form of the awit familiar to Filipino lovers of traditional verse, and it was sung like the ancient epics and the more recent pasyon

Marks of classical learning manifest to Greek and Roman Mythology

Its figurative language ( extravagant rhetoric of Spanish poetry of the Middle Ages)

Mahiganteng Langit (Vengeful Heaven) - the first celebrated soliloquies that make Florante at Laura a rich source

of ethical precepts many of which have entered the traditional lore of Filipinos.In the last half of the nineteenth century, Jose Rizal and his generation were to read foreshadowing of nationalism in Balagtas’ poem The poem was thought to be an accurate reflection of the misery and outrage of a people refusing to be crushed by foreign oppressionAn imaginative work anticipating in an allegorical form the reformist’s own condemnation of colonial abuses.

The appearance of modern Tagalog poetry in the twentieth century was to come in the form of a revolt against Balagtas.

Ibong Adarna Ibong Adarna is an epic written in the 18th Century

about an eponymous magical bird. The title's longer form during theSpanish Era was "Corrido at Buhay na Pinagdaanan nang Tatlóng Principeng anac nang Haring Fernando at nang Reina Valeriana sa Cahariang Berbania" (Filipino for "Corrido and Life Lived by the Three Princes, children of King Fernando and Queen Valeriana in the Kingdom of Berbania").

The author of the largely known epic was claimed to be José de la Cruz or "Huseng Sisiw", but until now the real author was never known.

Orosman at Zafira( 1974)

Florante at Laura was described as ‘the cause of every evil deed’, is the force that keeps things happening in Orosman at Zafira.

Three- part play

Balagtas Real concerns: Florante at Laura –to rise above the theme of religious

war., real concern appear with the clash of human motives when men and their women are c aught up in their turnoil of social disorder

  In Orosman at Zafira, creation of character portraits

that have a greater depth and dimension than the conventional cardboard heroine and heroes of the celebrated awit, revealing a more mature artist than the one we know through Florante at Laura.

a native priest who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century, notable for his sermons in Tagalog

Contribution : Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at

Feliza ( Exhange of Letters between Twp Maidens Urbana and Feliza, 1864- Popular books of manner

Sa Katungkulan sa Bayan (On Public Officers) and Sa Piging ( at a Banquet) are excerpts from the book that helps us appreciate the profound influence of de Castro’s prescriptions on the social behaviors of Christian Filipinos, not only in the Tagalog region

Urbana at Feliza was to establish the stereotypes of popular characters who were to people Tagalog dramas and novels in the early years of the twentieth century.

Modesto de Castro

Urbana at Feliza

Written by Modesto de Castro during 1938

In which two sisters exchange letters on sundry topics that included the requisites of public office and proper decorum at the dinner table

this was suggested as a form of expression by women. The story relates

the importance of purity and ideal virtues that married people should practice and enrich.

The Growth of a Nationalist Consciousness

A royal decree in 1863 opened new horizons to the emergent middle class when it provided for a complete educational system consisting of elementary, secondary and collegiate levels

Pedro Paterno (1857-1911) and Jose Rizal (1861-1896) were writers who employed Spanish no longer to propagandize for the Christian religion but for changing concept of “Filipino”, Which at this stage had ceased to refer only to Philippine-born Spaniards and now include Spanish mestizos, Chinese mestizos and Hispanized indios.

Pedro A. Paterno

Works: Sampaguita (native fragrant flowers), a book

more notable for what its symbolized than for its value of literature ;marked the beginning of the national consciousness among the Filipino intelligentsia

Ninay (1885), like Sampaguitas, insisted on its “nationality”, first Filipino novel ever

Jose Rizal

Noli Me Tangere Noli Me Tangere marks the first time realism

as a literary concept entered Philippine writing.

It was with the end of analysing problems of the colony so that something could be done to solve them

The chapter “Capitan Tiago” is a masterful character study in which touches the irony and wit leavewn the authors heaviliy detailed commentary onn the weaknesses of the native elite that make them prone to exploitation by their foreign masters.

El Filibusterismo ( The Filibuster, 1891)

It is even more loosely plotted than Noli Me Tangere but its wealth of political insight makes it an interesting window into Rizal’s mind. It is a bitter book, attesting to Rizal’s darkening vision of the Possibility of enlightened rule by Spain in the immediate future. The final chapter of the novel is a dramatic working out of the novelist’s view of revolution through character analysis in which Simoun’s pain and anguish are juxtapose with Padre Florentino’s quietism and moral certitude to bring the novel to a deeply moving conclusion.

Rizal’s Poetry

A las Flores de Heidelberg ( To the Flowers of Heidelberg)- conversational, only hinting the at the pain of the exile

Ultimo Adios (Final Farewell)- sonorous and incantatory, achieving a cumulative emotional impact by piling detail upon evocative detal intil the climatic penultimate stanza

The essay as literary reform found a congenial time to develop during the campaign for reform in the

Last quarter of the Nineteenth century

The Propaganda Movement (1872-1896) provided the impetus for its development- issues had to be clarified, abuses and injustice denounced accusations refused, future action laid out

La Solidaridad ( The Solidarity, 1889-1895) La Solidaridad ( The Solidarity,

1889-1895) .the organ that would project the views of the movement was founded “ to fight all forms of reaction, to impede all retrogression, to hail and accept all liberal ideas and to defend all progress

Two leading propagandists: Marcelo H. del Pilar and Jose Rizal

Su Excelencia, Senor Don Vicente Barrantes by Rizal and Asimilacion de Filipinas (The Assimilation of the Philippines) by Marcelo H. del Pilar

Marcelo H. Del Pilar (1850-1896), “Plaridel”

Works: Sagot ng Espanya sa Hibik ng Pilipinas (The Respone

of Spain to the Pleas of the Philippines)- was a companion piece to Hermenegildo Flores” Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espanya ( The Plea of the Philippines to Mother Spain) --- [portrayal of the sad fight of the Philippines under the the “monastic supremacy” of the friars

Ang Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab ng Taong Baba sa Kalupitan ng Fraile (The Passion Story That Ought to inflame the Hearts of Persons Subjected to the Cruelty of Friars)

Dupluhan- a fragment from a duplo discourse in which the form of the folk game has been given patriotic content.

Shift of Spanish to Tagalog as the language of the Nationalist movement signalled more than a change of medium

Reformism to Revolution The literature that was to be

written in Tagalog Katipunan Katipunan Andres Bonifacio

(1863-1896) and Emilio Jacinto (1875-1899) used Tagalog to advantage as

a tool for organizing the masses.

Andres Bonifacio Bonifacio’s poem aiming is to establish

once and for all the break from reformism makes the daughter speak out in the renunciation of the “negligent and perfidious” mother.

Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog (What the Tagalog Must Know) is a simple and forthright essay rallying in the Struggle against Spain

Emilio Jacinto

Liwanag At Dilim- Emilio’ Jacinto’s short essays that have come down to us

Ang Ningning at Liwanag (Shiny Light and Brighty Light)

and “Katipunan” The Revolution that led to the

proclamation of independence in Kawit, Cavite.

Apolinario Mabini Mabini was among those who tried through

reason and passion to keep the Revolution going.

General Franklin Bell, the ruthless commander of the American Forces in Batangas, called for the surrender of the Filipino revolutionary forces

La Revolucion Filipina ( The Philippine Revolution, 1902), Mabini’s letter; a quality that bespeaks the author’s prodigious intelligence and wisdom

Women as literary artists doubtless existed prior to the nineteenth century.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, early literary pieces by women surfaced, all of the poems.

Leona Florentino- an Ilokano poet whose opinions and married life departed from the moral and social expectations of the period

Gregoria de Jesus – Supremo’s wife who addresses her deceased husband Andres Bonifacio, poignant in its recollection of details of her married past that had now become reminders of her bereavement

The third bears the nine women, each one an allegorical penname, pleading their case as Victims of the ravages of U.S. colonial rape

At the close of the Nineteenth Century, the body of written Philippine literature was in general largely religious, consisting poems and Homilitic essays pronted in Catholic Pamphlets and newspapers

Existed in the oral tradition and manuscripts

Made up poems, plays and songs on romantic subjects taken from the Spanish ballads.

Marks the beginning of a truly Filipino literature

Source:

Madiyaw Karajaw: Antolohiya ng mga Panitikan sa Pilipinas