Philippine literature during the spanish period

1. 1. Philippine Literature During the Spanish Period

2. 2. Objective: • To be able to understand how Literature started during the Spanish Period.
3. 3. Spanish colonization of the Philippines started in 1565 during the time of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi,
the first Spanish governor-general in the Philippines. Literature started to flourish during his time. The
spurt continued unabated until the Cavite Revolt in 1872.
4. 4. SPANISH INFLUENCES ON THE PHILIPPINE LITERATURE
5. 5. 1. ALIBATA 2. Christian Doctrine 3. Spanish language became the literary language this time 4.
European legends and traditions 5. Ancient literature was collected and translated to Tagalog 6.
Grammar books were printed in Filipino 7. Religious tone
6. 6. ALIBATA
7. 7. THE FIRST BOOKS
8. 8. 1.Ang Doctrina Cristiana (The Christian Doctrine) 2.Nuestra Senora del Rosario 3.Libro de los
Cuatro Postprimeras de Hombre 4.Ang Barlaan at Josephat 5.The Pasion 6.Urbana at Felisa 7.Ang
mga Dalit kay Maria (Psalms for Mary)
9. 9. LITERARY COMPOSITIONS
10. 10. 1. Arte y Reglas de la Lengua Tagala (Art and Rules of the Tagalog language) 2. Compendio de la
Lengua Tagala (Understanding the Tagalog language) 3. Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala (Tagalog
vocabulary) 4. Vocabulario de la Lengua Pampanga (Pampango vocabulary) 5. Vocabulario de la
Lengua Bisaya (Bisayan vocabulary) 6. Arte de la Lengua Ilokana (The Art of the Ilocano language) 7.
Arte de la Lengua Bicolana (The Art of the Bicol Language)
11. 11. FOLK SONGS
12. 12. Example: • Leron-Leron Sinta (Tagalog) • Pamulinawen (Iloko) • Dandansoy (Bisaya) • Sarong
Banggi (Bicol) • Atin Cu Pung Singsing (Kapampangan)
13. 13. RECREATIONAL PLAYS
14. 14. There were many recreational plays performed by Filipinos during the Spanish times. Almost all of
them were in poetic form.
15. 15. CENAKULO Dramatic performance of the passion and death of Christ
16. 16. ZARZUELA The father of drama, a musical comedy or melodrama three acts which death with
men’s passion and emotions like love, hate, revenge, cruelty , avarice or some political problem.
17. 17. LAGAYLAY A special occasion for the pilareños of sorsogon during maytime to get together
18. 18. Dramatic performance for the purpose of manifesting devotion for the holy cross. TIBAG
19. 19. PANULUYAN Philippine Christmas dramatic ritual narrating the whole family’s search for a place to
stay in Bethlehem for Jesus Christ‘s birth through songs.
20. 20. SALUBONG Dramatizes the reunion of the risen Christ and his mother.
21. 21. CARILLO A form of dramatic entertainment perform on a moonless night during a town fiesta or on
darknights after a harvest.
22. 22. SAINETE A short musical comedy popular during the 18th century. They were exaggerated
comedy shown between acts plays and were mostly performed by characters from the lower class.
23. 23. THE MORO-MORO Like the Cenaculo, the Moro-Moro is presented also on a special stage. This
is performed during town fiestas to entertain the people and to remind them of their Christian religion.
Example: “Prinsipe Rodante”
24. 24. KARAGATAN This is a poetic vehicle of a socio- religious nature celebrated during the death of a
person.
25. THE DUNG-AW This is a chant in free verse by a bereaved person or his representative beside the
corpse of the dead.
26. 28. AWIT • is in dodecasyllabic verse. • are fabricated stories from writers’ imagination although the
setting and characters are European. • refers to chanting. Example: Florante at Laura by Francisco
Balagtas
27. 29. CORRIDO • is in octosyllabic verse. • were usually on legends or stories from European countries
like France, Spain, Italy and Greece. • refers to narration. Example: Ibong Adarna by Jose de la Cruz

Philippine literature in Spanish (Spanish: Literatura filipina en español; Filipino: Panitikang Pilipino sa
Espanyol) is a body of literature made by Filipino writers in the Spanish language. Today, this corpus is the
third largest in the whole corpus of Philippine literature (Philippine Literature in Filipino being the first, followed
by Philippine literature in English). It is slightly larger than the Philippine literature in the vernacular languages.
However, because of the very few additions to it in the past 30 years, it is expected that the former will soon
overtake its rank.

History[edit]
According to Mariñas (1974) Philippine Literature in Spanish can be divided into 5 stages of
development[1] namely:

1. Works of Spanish Religious About the Philippines (1593–1800)

2. Formative Stage (1800–1900)
3. Nationalist Stage (1883–1903)
4. The Golden Age (1903–1966)
5. Modern Works (1966–present)

Spanish religious works about the Philippines (1593 - 1800)[edit]

The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language editors. The Spanish conquerors,
governing from Mexico for the crown of Spain, established a strict class system that imposed Roman
Catholicism on the native population. Augustinian and Franciscan missionaries, accompanied by Spanish
soldiers, soon spread Christianity from island to island. Their mission was implemented by the forced relocation
of indigenous peoples during this time, as the uprooted natives turned to the foreign, structured religion as the
new center of their lives. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples
as translators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos.
The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-
translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog
language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a
model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the
illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely
circulated.
The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-
translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog
language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido,
provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional
languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal
languages and widely circulated

In the early 17th century a [Chinese Filipino] printer, Tomas Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized
phonetic script writer. His intention was to teach his fellow Tagalog-speakers the principles of learning
Spanish. His book, published by the Dominican press (where he worked) appeared in 1610. Unlike the
missionary's grammar (which Pinpin had set in type), the native's book dealt with the language of the
colonizers instead of the colonized. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and printed by a
Philippine native.[citation needed]As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that
animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period. Pinpin
construed translation in simple ways to help and encourage Tagalog readers to learn Spanish.

Formative stage (1800 - 1873)[edit]

During the so-called 'Formative Stage', Filipino writers began to recognize the Philippines a separate entity
from Spain and codified these in different form of expressions.
Among the first Filipinos to produce works is Luis Rodríguez Varela, a mestizo born in Tondo (which was
province outside Manila walls but now incorporated as a district) in 1768.
Among the works, the earliest recognised work in this era is "Proclama historial que para animar a los
vasallos que el Señor Don Fernando VII tiene en Filipinas a que defendian a su Rey del furor de su
falso amigo Napoleón, primer Emperador de fanceses, escribe, dedicada e imprime a su costa Don
Luis Rodríguez Varela". As the title expresses, the work is full of prohispanic sentiments.
In 1810, a year later the publication of the said work, Fernández de Folgueras, Governor General to the
Philippines was granted by the 'Office of the Censor' to publish three books. The books were entitled: "Elogio
a las Provincias de los Reynos de la España Europea", "Elogio a la mujer" and "El Parnaso Filipino".
The last book, a collection of poems written by various Filipino poets at that time, is still now one of the most
important works in the entire corpus of Philippine Literature in Spanish. And although it was severely criticised
during its heyday (in 1814), it bears the merit of being the first book about the Philippines in Castilian that is
purely literary and not didactic or religious.
This era also saw the publication of works by José Vergara, one of the Philippine representative to the Spanish
Cortes; and Juan Atayde (1838–1896), a military official. Most of the works published during these years are
poetry.
But since most of the people who are knowledgeable in Spanish are those that belong to
the Catholic hierarchy, religious works still make up a large part of the corpus.
During his stay as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Manila, Fr. Pedro Peláez, S.J., (1812–1863) founded
the "El Católico Filipino", a journal of religious nature. While serving the said post, he also taught at
the University of Santo Tomas and acted as a correspondent to "La Genereción", a journal published in
Madrid. In his works, Peláez worked much to the defence of his fellow Filipinos.
Though it was first printed anonymously, a flyer published in Madrid in 1862 entitled "Documentos
importantes para la cuestión pendiente sobre la provisión de curatos en Filipinas" was also attributed to
him. It was also Peláez who first used the term "PERLA DE ORIENTE" to refer to the Philippines. This was
made popular later by José Rizal in his last poem and the modern translation into Filipino by the national
anthem. The term was first used in 1855 in his work entitled "Sermón de San Andrés".
With the death of Peláez, another priest continued the battle for self-identity in the person of Fr. José Apolonio
Burgos (1837–1877). Burgos was a student of Peláez at UST. A year after an earthquake of 1863 that took the
life of his teacher, he graced the Madrid journal "La Verdad" with "Manifesto que a la noble Nación
Española dirigen los leales filipinos" to defend the heavy criticisms of the regular priests against the
Filipinos of that time. He also able to publish "El Eco Filipino" in order to reiterate the call of reform to the
Philippine government and hierarchy.

Oral literature or folk literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken (oral) word to literature as
literature operates in the domain of the written word. There is no standard definition as folklorists
have varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature but a broad conceptualization refers
to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form.[1]