Early Stages of Filipino Literature: Pre-Spanish Period

Types of Traditional Filipino Poems and Songs

• Corrido: a song about the lives of saints, oppression, history, daily lives of peasants, and socially relevant issues, with 8 syllables per line.
• Awit: a song about the lives of saints, with 20 syllables per line, sung during religious processions.
• Dalit: a Philippine traditional poem with 4 lines, 8 syllables per line, with a rhyming scheme.
• Cenakulo: a stage reenactment of the passion of Jesus Christ.
• Pasyon: a written work about the life of Jesus Christ.
• Moro: a melodrama centering on the fight between Muslims and Christians.
• Duplo and Karagatan: a political debate that occurs during the 9th night of the dead, with "Duplo" being skilled and well-trained participants, and "Karagatan" being amateur.

Notable Events during the Spanish Period

• Popularity of Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar.
• Exposure of Filipinos to Europe's liberal idealism.

Propaganda Movement

• Started by "The Illustrados" to expose the evils of Spanish administration and demand freedom and equality for Filipinos.
• Key figures involved:
  • Jose Rizal: wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Filibustersimo.
  • Marcelo H. Del Pilar: wrote essays and editorials in Diariong Tagalog and founded "Diariong Tagalog".
  • Graciano Lopez-Jaena: founded La Solidaridad, which aimed to open the eyes of Spaniards to their colonizing the Filipinos.

Revolutionary Movement

• War of independence waged by Katipunan against the Spaniards from 1896 to 1898.
• Katipunan was founded by Andres Bonifacio, who was inspired by Rizal's novels.
• Kalayaan: the newspaper of the society, which published articles in Tagalog.

Definition of Literature

• Literary works delivered writtenly or verbally with artistic and intellectual values.
• Reflects culture, society, and lifestyle.

Early Stages of Filipino Literature

Pre-Spanish Period

• Oral Teaching (Word of Mouth): storytelling and sharing their own literature with moral values.
• Key forms of literature:
  • Epics: long narratives about heroes, particularly male, that are chanted during occasions.
  • Legends: origin of something, based on reality, told in a fictitious manner.
  • Myths: not proven to exist in real life and entirely fictional, mostly about gods and goddesses.
  • Folklore: stories by a particular group of people that are passed down through generations.
  • Salawikain (Proverbs): concise statements that teach moral lessons about everyday life.
  • Sawikain (Idiomatic Expressions/Idioms): statements that are not meant literally, holding different meanings to their literal meaning.
  • Bugtong (Riddles): statements that describe something that poses as problems to be solved.
  • Oyayi or Hele (Lullaby): sung to children to help them sleep.

Spanish Period

• Literature was centered on Christian Faith, with religious matters written in prose as novena and prayer books, biographies of saints, tales, and novels.