Philippine LiteratureUNDER THE

REPUBLIC

By: Robert Angelo G.

Alesna

An E-Scrapbook on…

Literature Under The Republic

(1946-1985)The Japanese occupation leaves the Philippine economy in ruins and it seemed that massive foreign aid could rebuild it. With the life of the Filipinos hanging in the balance because of hunger, insecurity and terror. Many Filipinos resorted to collaborating with the Japanese for reasons such as politics, survival and opportunity. After the Pacific War ended, collaborators were given amnesty by President Manual Roxas. The amnesty was a result of the US colonialisms decision to hush up the issue on collaboration.

This in turn put the Filipino ruling elite’s credibility at stake because ambiguities and irregularities that was not resolved. The US colonialist also linked the issue of collaboration not as a political will but as a means of survival (expediency). If a rigid trial was done to the detractors, many of the Filipino ruling elite would loose their credibility and this was not favorable to the US colonizers because at that time the elites were the intermediary between the American colonizers and the Filipinos. The elites had a lot of influence to the masses, and the US wanted to tap their services and use them as leverage.

To secure the new republics alliance with the US after its independence was granted a series of treaties and agreements were signed, and these strengthened the ties between the two countries. The Bell Trade act, imposed free trade which enforced imports from US for 28 years and parity rights allowing US citizens to have equal rights to access to the countries natural resources. The Philippine Rehabilitation Act together with the Bell Trade act which allowed the US to use the Philippines for their military bases and control of the Philippine military.

With the US serving as crutches to the Philippines, westernization occurred. The Educational Exchange Program otherwise known as the Fulbright Program was the key to the Philippines assimilation of US culture – the program actually aimed a 2-way exchange of culture, but this did not actually happen. This was the time when Filipino artist, writers, and musicians were given a chance to go to the US to learn about the country, they also were given lecturing privilege. The impact of this program can be seen in terms or the artwork and literature that showed in their works that they are able to keep up with the literary and artistic trends of the US during that time. They were introduced to what was called the New Criticism. A method which emphasized close analysis of text and structure rather than analysis of social or biographical contexts. This paved the way for a new form of writing and that left the traditional social role it used to have during the revolutionary period. Literary works during this period was concerned more on a personal level.

Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig(Novel)

Bartolina (Poem)

Walking Home (Poem)

In Sipolog (Novel)

Ako ang Daigdig (Poem)

Summer Solstice (Short Story)

Notable

Works

“A liberal

education is

at the heart

of a civil

society, and

at the heart

of a liberal

education is

the act of

teaching.”

Notabl

e

Author

s

Lazaro Francisco

Was Filipino writer known for his novels

such as Ama and Daluyong. He was

awarded the National Artist for

Filipino Literature in 2009. Francisco also

received the Republic Cultural Heritage

Award for Literature in 1970.

Notabl

e

Author

s

Amado Vera Hernandez

September 13, 1903–March 24, 1970, was a Filipino writer and labor leader who was known for his criticism of social injustices in the Philippines and was later imprisoned for his involvement in the communist movement. He was the central figure in a landmark legal case that took 13 years to settle.

He was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan but grew up Tondo, Manila, where he studied at the Manila High School and at the American Correspondence School.

Notabl

e

Author

s

He was born on April 29,1932 in MaTorres obtained his BA Education at the Ateneo de Manila University, and in 1957, on a Fulbright-Smith-Mundt fellowship, he obtained his M.A. in English at the State University of Iowa where he enjoyed an International Scholarship in Creative Writing and attended Paul Engle’s Writers’ Workshop. He joined the Ateneo faculty in 1958, and since 1960 was curator of the Ateneo University Art Gallery. At the Ateneo, he held the Henry Lee Erwin Chair in Creative Writing and the FEBTC/Jose B. Fernandez Chair for art research. In addition to the extensive local and international recognition he received for his work in the arts and letters, Torres was art columnist in The Manila Times and SIM. He has also been a member of several committees on art exhibits across the globe.

Emmanuel Torres Emmanuel

Torres is a poet, art critic , professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Ateneo de Manila and curator of its art museum .

Notabl

e

Author

s

N.V.M Gonzales

On 14 April 1987, the University of the Philippines conferred on N.V.M. González the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, "For his creative genius in shaping the Philippine short story and novel, and making a new clearing within the English idiom and tradition on which he established an authentic vocabulary, ...For his insightful criticism by which he advanced the literary tradition of the Filipino and enriched the vocation for all writers of the present generation...For his visions and auguries by which he gave the Filipino sense and sensibility a profound and unmistakable script read and reread throughout the international community of letters...“ N.V.M. González was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in 1997. He died on 28 November 1999 in Quezon City, Philippines at the age of 84. As a National Artist, Gonzalez was honored with a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. 

He was born on 8 September 1915 in Romblon, Philippines.[1] González, however, was raised in Mansalay, a southern town of the Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro.

Notabl

e

Author

s

Alejandro G. Abadilla

Alejandro G. Abadilla (March 10, 1906–August 26, 1969), commonly known as AGA, was a Filipino poet, essayist and fiction writer. Critic Pedro Ricarte referred to Abadilla as the father of modern Philippine poetry, and was known for challenging established forms and literature's "excessive romanticism and emphasis on rime and meter". Abadilla helped found the Kapisanang Panitikan in 1935 and edited a magazine called Panitikan. His Ako ang Daigdig collection of poems is one of his better known works.

Notabl

e

Author

s

Nick Joaquin

After being read poems and stories by his mother, the boy Joaquín read widely in his father's library and at the National Library of the Philippines. By then, his father had become a successful lawyer after the revolution. From reading, Joaquín became interested in writing. Was a Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature. He is considered[by whom?] one of the most important Filipino writers in English, and the third most important overall, after José Rizal and Claro M.

Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was born in Paco, Manila, one of ten children of Leocadio Joaquín, a colonel under General Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1896 Revolution, and Salome Márquez, a teacher of English and Spanish.

A sort of

review…

Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig(Novel)

By: Lazaro FranciscoNobela ni Lazaro Francisco, ang Maganda pa ang Daigdig (1955) ay naglalahad sa buhay ni Lino Rivera. Si Lino ay anak ng magsasaka at dumanas ng pagdurusa sa sistemang piyudal. Nagbalik siya sa Pinyahan makaraan ang digmaan, at hinanap ang kaniyang anak na si Ernesto. Makikilala niya si Kumander Hantik na hihimukin siyang sumama sa kilusan upang wakasin ang bulok na sistemang agraryo. Tatanggi si Lino. Darating sa buhay niya si Pari Amando na nag-aari ng malalawak na lupain at magpapanukala ng pagbabago. Tahimik na sana ang pamumuhay ni Lino, lalo na't napaibig siya kay Bb. Sanchez. Darating ang sandali na masasangkot siya sa gulong, at pagbibintangang pumatay sa isang lalaki. Mabibilanggo siya, ngunit makatatakas, kasama ang iba pang bilanggo, at magbabalik sa kaniyang lalawigan. Ang pangkat ni Lino ang magsisilbing tagapagtanggol ng naaaping magsasaka. Sasapi rin siya sa pangkat ni Don Tito, na isang makapangyarihang panginoong maylupa. Magwawakas ang nobela sa bakbakan ng mga rebelde at tropa ng pamahalaan. Pagkaraan, maihahayag na walang sala si Lino na taliwas sa paratang na siya'y mamamatay-tao.

A sort of

review…

Walking Home (Poem)By: Emmanuel S. Torres

At midnight I and a stranger drowse

toward separate homes.The crunch of small

stones underfootreminds us how far we

are 

from each other, although our shadows

would include each other more

than once, streaming forward

from the streetlight behind us

 brightening the lonelinessof the steps toward sleep.

At the fork of the road, we part

ways, deepening into night.

Excerp

ts

What’s hot

during this time?

A Merger Of Traditions.

The taga-bukid and taga-bayan were the two cultures that made up the political entities. The educated and the wealthy and the ones who lacked the education and therefore did not qualify to exercise power. The taga bayan were more inclined to the culture of the Free World, while the taga-bukid was the nationalistic and anti American.

What’s hot

during this time?

A transition from the Euro-Hispanic (socially conscious, deals with reality) period to the Anglo-American (thrived more on aesthetic qualities and was full of sentimentality and escapism) period of literature in the Philippines was brought about by Villa, the contradictions between the two styles resulted in the emphasis of a crisis for the Anglo American Tradition. It was later resolved in the 1970s. These two traditions had been implanted with indigenous traditions and through the efforts of the Filipino writers can be clearly called the Filipino literary tradition.

What’s hot

during this time?

Existentialism and the Search for Identity.

When President Ramon Magsaysay died of a plan crash in Cebu, this provoked an intellectual crisis. Claro M. Recto criticized President Ramon Magsaysay for being submissive to the US, with the death of Ramon Magsaysay; the country was under confusion and the people beginning to ask Recto for some answers that would shed some light regarding the country’s political philosophy. However Recto was not able to finish what he started because he dies in Rome of a heart attack. With Recto’s death, the cultural scene in the Philippines became an extension of the US; many major publications in New York were brought to the Manila. Literary works included were poetry, fiction and drama, the latest literary fads in the west spread like wildfire. Some of the creative writers whose works were read by Filipinos were Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Norman Miller, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Jean Genet, and Samuel Beckett.

That’s how colorful and unique was our Literature Under The

Republic…

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