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Panitikan: An Essay On Philippine Literature
Philippine Literature started as a chant from tribes/ tribal chanting until the present time where in colonial days, the voices of the Filipinos against the Spaniards is voiced out through their native languages and through English (in verse and in prose).
Development: riddles/ chanting/Through Voices/sound to written works such as verse and prose.
- Indigenous Philippine Literature was born in the ethnic community
- Bugtong (riddles) was used to entertain the people in the lineal villages along riverbanks and see coasts
- The Families during meal time made the Bugtong an affectionate game and learning process
- Heart of a riddle: metaphor ( linking 2 unrelated images both found in riddles)
- Relationship = VISION / A WAY OF SEEING
- TALINGHAGA = METAPHOR
Proverb/ Salawikain (rhyme & wisdom)
Added = Performed through poems (poetry form)
Tanaga – Proverbs with monorhyming – strength/ pain
Ambahan – Chanted & Written by mangyans (songs about Nature, Childhood, woman relationships, hospitality)
The Mangyans inscribe their songs on bamboo tubes
Songs – Active Literature – Gives life by the use of rhythm. Brings life to every activity.
Verbal jousts/ games like the duplo were played at funeral wakes
The bayak spoke of love;
Balagtasan on stage
Later, on radio and television. Debated in verse and in prose, seriously or in jest, various facts of Philippine Life
Epics like tuwaang, hinilawod, and bastogan
- The oral forms of Philippine Literature are the spontaneous expression of people’s feelings and vision in words crafted by the poets and storytellers of the community.
- (transmitted and preserved orally) “not primitive”
- Product of tradition and folk practice