MAGLENTE, JOHN YMAN D.

DKC

August 08, 2016

DR. JAVIER, DEBORAH A.

LITIRATURE UNDER THE REPUBLIC

(1946 1985)
Independence of the Philippines (1946)
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Year after the Japanese occupation in the Philippines.

The economy and the Filipinos are in despair due to the terrors, huger
and insecurity during the Japanese occupation.
The establishment of the Third Republic
Manuel A. Roxas, the first president of the 1946 Republic.

American Control of the Philippines (1946 1960)

-

Culture was based on the American ideology

Fulbright Program
similar to pensionado system of the American
Occupation; supposedly exchange of cultural influences but it caused
Americanization of the Filipino Intellectual.
New Criticism
a critical method resting the assumption that
literary work could be studied or produced as an object with an
autonomous life on its own.
o Used in literary contest like Philippine Free Press short story
contest and Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards.
The society is still divided into 2, the taga-bayan (represented the
Americanized intelligentsia identified itself with the culture of the Free
World) and the taga-bukid (represented the ultra-nationalistic and
anti-American people that they believed that we should be rallying
behind the champions of the Free World

A Merger of Traditions
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Euro-Hispanic tradition and Anglo-American tradition were combined in

the literature during the Third Republic.
Before, the Euro-Hispanic struggled against the Anglo-American
tradition.
o Euro-Hispanic Tradition
refers to the literary part of the
cultural heritage of the Spanish colonialism which brought over
into Philippines.
2 Writers that gives importance of this tradition during the
American Period and the Third Republic

Lazaro M. Francisco (1898 1980)

o Ranks among the finest novelist since the
beginning of the 20th Century.
o Literary works:
Ama (Father, 1930)
depicted the evil
of tenancy-system in the Central Luzon.
The story is all about three brothers who
grew up separately and to become a
farmer, landowner and government
official then the struggle is between the
farmer and the land owner.
Bayang Nagpatiwakal (The Country That
Commites Suicide,1932)
direct
confrontation with the central problem of
the colonized Filipino people.
Ilaw ng Hilga (Nothern Light, 1948)
allegory of the Philippines under the
economic domination of foreign business.
Maganda pa ang Daigdig (The World is
still Beautiful, 1956) and sequel
Daluyong (Tidal Wave, 1962) an
agrarian unrest which had flared up in
the late 1940s.
Amado V. Hernandez (1903 1970)
o More poet than a novelist, he wrote tw novels
that reflected the economic and political
troubles in 1950.
o Literary Works:
Luha ng Buwaya (Crocodile Tears, 1962)
depicted the plight of the peasantry and
how exploitation by the land lords taught
them to organize in order to fight for
their rights.
Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey,
1960)
tacles the flawed craftsmanship
fail to douse its fiery protest against the
domination of the Philippines by the
American industrialists, morally bankrupt

religious leaders, and corrupt

beureaucrats.
Isang Dipang Langit (An Armstretch of
Sky, 1961)
a book of trivial and
profound, but the most effective pieces
are the prison poems written during the
period between 1951 and 1956 while the
poest is in jail.
Bayang Malaya (Free Country, 1969)
long narrative poem about a crusading
newspaperman, who becomes a guerilla
fighter, a labor leader and then a political
prisoner.

Other Writers:
Constante Casabar (1929 - ?)
o Literary trained at the University of Santo
Tomas, his novels appeared in Bannawag
(Dawn) fresh out of collage, he joined its staff
in 1954.
o Migrated to Canada and then to US because of
the threats he received and his family.
o Literary Work:
Daigti Mariing iti Parbangon (Those Who
Rise at Dawn, 1957) is a bright and
ambitious young man of his hometown,
putting him against the rich and the
powerful even as he struggles against
the compromises that make life easier
for him and his family.
Alberto S. Florentino (1931-)
o A young playwright working with the English
language chose to identify himself with the
likes of Francisco and Hernandez.
o Wrote poetry or fiction that would concern
himself with personal themes and not social
problems
o Anglo-American Tradition brought by the Americans and grew
influence with the rise of the English speaking intelligentsia.

It was started by Jose Garcia Villa when Selected Poems

and New published in 1958. It is a collection which
summed up the career of the only Filipino poet with an
international reputation and underscored his influence in
the development of the Philippine poetry, particularly in
English language.
Other Writers:
Alejandro G. Abadilla (1904 1969)
o Wrote the Ako ang Daigdig (I Am the Universe)
which signaled the outbreak of the revolt
similar to Villas in 1920.
Genoveva Edroza-Matute (1915 -)
o A Tagalog factionalist who learned her craft as
an English writer.
o Her stories are focused on women and children
trembling in the brink of discoveries that would
open their eyes around them.
o Literary works:
Akoy Isang Tinig (I Am a Voice, 1952)
a collection of stories demonstrated her
craftsman-like of handling of structure in
projecting theme.

Existentialism and the Search for Identity

-

March 17, 1957: Death of President Ramon Magsaysay in a plane

crash in Cebu.
The cultural scene in the Philippines is the extension of the US cultural
scene
Writers during this time:
o Kerima Polotan (1925-)
Superior prose stylist, best when probing the psychology of
women acutely sensitive to the shades of corruption with
wich the loneliness and emptiness of urban life.
Works: Stories (1968) stories about women and
their search for self-image in a male dominant
society.
o