Philippine Literature and 21st Century Literary Genres

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the history of Philippine literature from pre-colonial times to 21st-century emerging genres, including key authors, works, and literary definitions.

Precolonial Period

A period including all literature produced before the Spanish colonization, consisting of chants, proverbs, songs, and folk narratives passed down through word of mouth.

Folktale

An anonymous, timeless, and placeless tale circulated orally, such as the stories about Juan like "Juan Gathers Guavas" or "Juan Pusong and His Father’s Cows".

Fable

A type of literature featuring animal characters or inanimate objects that behave like people, often featuring the monkey as a cunning character.

Legend

A story presented as history but unlikely to be true, such as the Igorot story of the flood caused by the sons of Lumawig the Great Spirit.

Myth

A story told to explain a belief, practice, or natural phenomenon, such as the Tagalog story stating the first man and woman came from a bamboo.

Epic

A narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero, such as the Ilocano "Biag ni Lam-ang" or the Panay "Hinilawod".

Spanish Colonial Period Literature

Literature mostly influenced by Christianity and European ideals of liberty, shifting subjects from nature to the lives of saints and Catholic teachings.

Ladinos

Native writers such as Fernando Bagongbanta and Gaspar Aquino de Belen who mainly wrote devotional poetry during the Spanish period.

Pasyon

A religious narrative, with the earliest version being "Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon natin na tola" ($1704$) by Gaspar Aquino de Belen.

Komedya (Moro-moro)

A native drama depicting the war between Christians and Muslims, where the Christians always win; Jose de la Cruz was a master of this form.

Florante at Laura ($1838-1861$)

The most famous metrical romance in the Philippines, written by Francisco Baltazar, the master of traditional Tagalog poetry.

Ninay ($1885$)

Written by Pedro Paterno, this work is considered to be the first Filipino novel.

Leona Florentino ($1849-1884$)

A poet in Ilocano and Spanish known as the "mother of Philippine women’s literature" whose works were exhibited in Europe in $1889$.

"Dead Stars" ($1925$)

A work by Paz Marquez Benitez considered as the first Filipino modern short story in English.

"A Child of Sorrow" ($1921$)

Written by Zoilo M. Galang, this is recognized as the first Filipino novel in English.

Local Color

A literary technique used by Manuel Arguilla featuring unique regional traditions and emphasizing ordinary events in people's lives.

Japanese Period ($1941-1945$)

An era of censorship where English was disallowed and Tagalog was declared an official language along with Nihonggo.

"Without Seeing the Dawn"

The first postwar Filipino novel in English, written by Stevan Javellana, narrating experiences under Japanese rule.

Nick Joaquin

A National Artist for Literature who wrote "May Day Eve" and used the pen name Quijano de Manila for articles.

Ilocano Literature

Believed to be the richest and most highly developed next to Tagalog, with roots tracing back to the early $17th$ century.

Literary Genre

A category of literature characterized by a specific form, content, and style, with four main types: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama.

Imagery

Mental pictures created by a poet through language that appeals to the five senses.

Apostrophe

A literary device where the writer addresses someone or something that is not present in the work.

One-act Play

A condensed drama composed of only one part with few characters and a single effect, such as "The World Is an Apple" by Alberto S. Florentino.

Creative Nonfiction

A major genre referring to narratives of real events told in a literary style, with the essay being the most common form in the Philippines.

Memoir

A form of creative nonfiction narrowly focused on a single event in a person’s life.

Biography

A detailed account of a person’s life written by another person.

Popular Fiction

Also called genre fiction, these works are plot-driven with stock characters intended to appeal to a large audience.

Chick Literature (Chick lit)

Stories written by women for young, single women in their $20s$ or $30s$, usually dealing with love and relationships in a light-hearted tone.

Illustrated Novel

A modern narrative that presents images to tell some parts of the story while words tell others.

Graphic Novel

A narrative work where the story is conveyed using comic book form, encompassing fiction, non-fiction, and short stories.

Doodle Fiction

A literary presentation where the author incorporates hand-written graphics and drawings in place of traditional fonts.

Digi-fiction

A combination of three media: book, movie/video, and internet website, requiring navigation in all three formats to get the full story.

Manga

The Japanese word for comics, used as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan.

Flash Fiction

A genre known for extreme brevity, where a typical work is only a few hundred words long.

Slipstream

Known as the "fiction of strangeness," it features elements of fantasy, science fiction, and serious fiction that are difficult to categorize.

Metafiction

Fiction about fiction, such as a story about a writer writing a story or a story about another work of fiction.

Magic Realism

A genre where magical elements are blended with reality, as seen in Rosario Cruz Lucero's "The Death of Fray Salvador Montano".

Hyperpoetry

A kind of graphic poetry commonly published on the web that combines words with images and has no standard lines or verses.

Textula

Mobile phone poetry using traditional formal verses intended to be shared via SMS, popularized by Frank Rivera.