Philippine Literature and Forms of Fiction - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the lecture notes on Philippine literature, its periods, and forms of fiction.

Literature

Body of written works, including poetry and prose, traditionally defined as such; can be classified by language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter.

Oral literature

Literature transmitted orally across generations before being written down.

Written literature

Literature that exists in written form; the products of written literature are called literary texts.

Literary text

The finished written works produced by literature; the tangible writings themselves.

Pre-Colonial Period (BC-1564)

Period where works were mainly oral (epics, legends, songs, riddles, proverbs); ancestors were pagans; subjects included gods, goddesses, and mythical creatures.

Spanish Colonization Period (1565-1863)

Alibata (Baybayin) was replaced by the Roman alphabet; Spanish became the language of Philippine literature; religious themes dominated, though native oral literature persisted.

American Period (1910-1945)

Literary production spurred by public education and English as a medium of instruction; literature increasingly written in English and influenced by American models; genres included poetry, sarswela, short story, and novel.

Contemporary Period (1960-Present)

21st Century literature; includes works written and published in the 2000s and onwards.

Four Major Periods of Philippine Literature

The four periods: Pre-Colonial, Spanish Colonization, American Period, and Contemporary.

Hypertext Fiction

Texts read on computers that require clicking hyperlinks; consists of multiple texts called lexia linked together.

Lexia

Individual textual units in a hypertext, connected by hyperlinks.

Textula

Mobile-phone poetry; a form with 7,777 syllables and a rhyme scheme such as aabb, abab, or abba.

Flash Fiction

An extremely brief story with plot and character development; variations include six-word stories, minisaga (50 words), twitterrature (≈280 words), drabble (≈100 words), sudden fiction (≈750 words), and flash fiction (≈1,000 words).

Graphic Novels

Narratives told in comic-strip formats, published as a book; use words and pictures in sequence and differ from illustrated fiction.

Chick Lit

Humorous, lighthearted fiction addressing modern womanhood; often features romance, friendship, and workplace issues; targets young women readers.

Alibata (Baybayin)

The first Filipino alphabet; replaced by the Roman alphabet during Spanish colonization.

Littera

Latin root meaning 'letter of the alphabet,' source of the word literature.

Literature

Traditionally defined as a body of written works; can be classified by language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter.