At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 identify new and emerging literary forms at the present time, and
 analyze some selected works written by present-day Filipino writers.

What new literary forms are emerging at present?

What are the distinct qualities of such literary forms?

Literary Genre
This refers to a type or category of literature. It has a specific form, content, and style. The four main genres of
literature are poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. Under each of those genres are different genres. For
example, fiction includes speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction.

Literary Technique
This is a literary device deliberately used by a writer to convey a specific idea or meaning. An example is motif,
an object or idea that is repeated in a literary work. Another literary technique is the use of figurative language,
an example is personification, a figure of speech in which an inanimate object is given human qualities.

Introduction
Many works of literature produced at present are characterized by the writers’ use of unconventional techniques.
For instance, the illustrated novel, the graphic novel, and doodle-fiction present narratives using pictures or
images. The illustrated novel presents images that tell some parts of the story, while the other parts are told in
words. The graphic novel tells a story in comic book format. A work of doodle fiction contains doodles and hand-
written graphics.

Besides the illustrated novel, the graphic novel, and doodle-fiction, there are other literary forms or genres
emerging at present, such as the flash fiction, slipstream, metafiction, and magic realism.

Flash Fiction
Flash fiction is known for its extreme brevity. A typical work of flash fiction is only a few hundred words long.
Examples are the stories in Fast Food Fiction: Short Short Stories To Go (2003), edited by Noelle Q. de Jesus.
The collection features stories written by well-known Filipino writers like Gemino H. Abad, Gregorio Brillantes,
Jose Dalisay, Jr., Jessica Zafra, and Lakambini Sitoy.

Slipstream
Slipstream, or the “fiction of strangeness,” features elements of fantasy, science fiction, and serious fiction. For
many, works of slipstream are difficult to categorize because of their similarities with speculative fiction. The
collection Philippine Speculative Fiction, edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, contains stories that are
slipstream fiction.

Metafiction
Metafiction is about fiction itself. A work of metafiction can be a story about a writer who writes a story or a story
about another work of fiction. Some works of metafiction by Filipinos are the novel Ilustrado (2010) by Miguel
Syjuco and Hari Manawari (2011) by German Gervacio.

Magic Realism
Magic realism is a fiction genre in which magical elements are blended with reality. It is characteristic of the
stories by Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Isabel Allende. The short
story “The Death of Fray Salvador Montano, Conquistador of Negros” by the Filipino writer Rosario Cruz Lucero
has elements of magic realism.

Many works of literature at present are characterized by the writers’ use of unconventional techniques. They can
be categorized under different genres like flash fiction, slipstream, metafiction, and magic realism.
As a reader, why do you have to make sense of the context of a literary work?
How is each literary work representative of the region where the writer is from and of the nation?

The literary works in this lesson are by writers from Luzon. The writers used the Filipino cultural elements below:

 Kundiman - This is a genre of Tagalog folk love songs that express an intense longing for a beloved, a cause,
or the motherland. They are usually played in minor chord, giving them a sad, melancholic sound.
 Kambubulag - This is the Kapapampangan term for a type of native moth. It comes from the root word
“bulag” meaning “blind,” and there are Filipino superstitions about becoming blind after encountering moths.

Mikael de Lara Co is a writer and musician. He was born in Makati City and graduated with a degree in
Environmental Science from Ateneo de Manila University. His English and Filipino poetry collections have received
awards including Palanca Awards and the Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Prize. He was also a member of the Los
Chupacabras band. At present, he works for the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning
Office at the Malacañang.

Example:

Kundiman (An Excerpt)

By Mikael de Lara Co

I ate alone. I grew old. I grew older.

I said hold in my own language
again and again, hawak, kapit,
tahan na, uwi na. Then strained
to hear all the engines in this city
droning in A minor. A knife
scraped against marble. A stick
rattled towards stillness. A minor.
All the lullabies ever hummed
coming together to vibrate
in the saddest of frequencies.
Your keys dangled by the sink.
Somewhere a chord is diminished
to static. Kundiman means
the opposite of if ever.

 (Reproduced by permission of Mikael de Lara Co)

Explanation
 Co used diction to create a specific tone for “Kundiman” (2014). He used Tagalog words and
phrases: kundiman; hawak (hold); kapit (hold on); tahan na (stop crying); and uwi na (go home now). These
words, which have an emotional ring to them like the words in a kundiman, create a mood reminiscent of
Filipino sentimentality. Also, the mention of the A minor chord evokes sad, longing feelings that contribute to
the sentimental tone of the poem.

Catherine Batac Walder hails from Pampanga. She graduated from the University of the Philippines and moved to
Europe in 2005 to pursue a Master of Philosophy degree. Her works have been featured in local publications including
Inquirer’s Youngblood, Philippines Free Press, and Philippine Speculative Fiction 8. Also an avid reader, her letters
have been published in international magazines like Reader’s Digest and Time. She is now a blogger and a full-time
mother based in South East England.

The Kambubulag (An Excerpt)

By Catherine Batac Walder

“I can’t believe that woman,” Delia said.

“What woman?” Odessa asked.

“Oh, one I met while smoking just now. Kept asking if we passed Kambubulag Road on the way here. ‘Never heard of
the road,’ I told her. She said it’s four kilometers from the hotel and mentioned how we should be careful because we
might encounter the kambubulag. ‘Most residents here have resigned themselves to the fact that they have more
chances of dying on that road than any other non-resident. But as anyone would say, if it’s your time, then it is,’ she
said [. . .]”

(Reproduced by permission of Catherine Batac Walder)

Explanation:
In “The Kambubulag” (2013) the writer used a Filipino cultural symbol of bad luck, the kambubulag, to create the
fictional urban legend of the Kambubulag Road. Old folk legends of the moth being a harbinger of death is prevalent
in Luzon. It signals the reader to regard the woman and her superstition as out of the ordinary.

Context is the background of the text which may have been influenced by the author’s life, language, society, and
culture.

Diction is the choice of words that suit the writer’s intended purpose.

Kundiman and kambubulag folk tales are part of Filipino folk literature. They can be a source of inspiration, or they
can be used as literary devices. Also, writing a poem or a story around those cultural symbols reawakens interest in
those literary forms.
As a reader, why do you have to make sense of the context of a literary work?
How is each literary work representative of the region where the writer is from and of the nation?

Merlie M. Alunan was born in Dingle, Iloilo and graduated with a Creative Writing degree from Siliman University.
She is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines and promotes writing in the mother tongue. Her poems
are in English, Cebuano, and Waray. At present, she resides in Tacloban City.

Example:
Old Women in Our Village (An Excerpt)
By Merlie M. Alunan

Old women in my village say

the sea is always hungry, they say,
that’s why it comes without fail
to lick the edges of the barrier sand,
rolling through rafts of mangrove,
smashing its salt-steeped flood
on guardian cliffs, breaking itself
against rock faces, landlocks, hills,
reaching through to fields, forests,
grazelands, villages by the water,
country lanes, towns, cities where
people walk about in a dream,
deaf to the wind shushing
the sea’s sibilant sighing

Someday we come
someday we come
someday . . . .

Only the old women hear

the ceaseless warning, watching
the grain drying in the sun,
or tending the boiling pot
or gutting a fish for the fire, fingers
bloody, clothes stained, scent of the ocean
rising from the mangled flesh into their lungs.

Nights, as they sit on their mats

rubbing their knees, waiting for ease
to come, and sleep, they hear the sea
endlessly muttering as in a dream
someday someday someday . . . .
Nudging the old men beside them,
their mates—empty-eyed seafarer,
each a survivor of storms, high waves,
and the sea’s vast loneliness,
now half-lost in their old age
amid the household clutter—
old women in my village
nod to themselves and say,
one uncharted day, the sea
will open its mouth and drink in
a child playing on the sand,
a fisherman with his nets,
great ships laden with cargo,
and still unsated, they say,
suck up cities towns villages—
one huge swallow to slake its hunger.
As to when or how it would happen,
who knows, the women say, but this much
is true—no plea for kindness can stop it—
nodding their heads this way and that,
tuning their ears to the endless mumbling . . . .
somedaywecomewecomewecome
somedaywecomewecomewecome
somedaysomedaysomeday

(Reproduced by permission of Prof. Merlie M. Alunan)

Explanation:
The imagery in “Old Women in Our Village” (2012) is heightened through the use of sound devices. For instance,
the cacophony in the first stanza implies strong feelings, like in the line “against rock faces, landlocks, hills.”
Then euphony in the next stanza evokes pleasant feelings as in the line “the sea’s sibilant sighing.” This suggests an
impending disaster, which is echoed in the rest of the poem.

Gutierrez Mangansakan II, an advocate of the Moro culture, is a filmmaker and writer from Pagalungan,
Maguindanao. In 2001, his film House under the Crescent Moon won the grand prize for video documentary from the
Cultural Center of the Philippines Prize for Independent Film and Video. Since then, he has made films that focus on
the plight of women and children. Also, he was the editor of Children of the Ever-Changing Moon (2007), a collection
of essays by young Moro writers. He became a fellow at the University of Iowa’s International Program in 2008.

Mangansakan wrote a short story entitled “A Harvest of Sorrows” for the collection Peace Mindanao edited by Jaime
An Lim, a multi-awarded writer, it is also published by UST Publishing House in 2013. The story features a narrator
whose experience mirrors Mangansakan’s experience in relief work. For him, the issue and images of refugees and
displacement have always been a consistent element in both his films and writing.

Example:
A Harvest of Sorrows
by Gutierrez Mangansakan II

“A Harvest of Sorrows” begins with the narrator’s arrival at an evacuation center at 9 AM in a remote village in
Mindanao. He has come to give away several sacks of rice to the refugees in the center. The refugees have fled their
homes because fighting broke out in their villages. At the center he meets his friend Ayesha, the social worker who is
in charge of supervising relief operations. Ayesha tells him that a woman in the center gave birth to a stillborn child,
and the father does not know it yet. The father, together with the other men, has gone back to the village to guard the
rice fields, where crops are ready for harvest in ten days. Later, while the narrator and Ayesha are having coffee, the
latter announces that the father will be sent for and that the child will be buried after the noon prayer.

To know the context of any literary work lets you gain a deeper insight into its theme and meaning. Here are two ways
to get the context of a literary work:

 by doing a close reading of the text

 by looking at the history and culture of its place of origin
What is electronic literature? What are the different kinds of electronic literature?

Electronic literature refers to works commonly published and shared on the Web. Unlike traditional printed
literature, it has features that could only be presented through multimedia.

Kinds of Electronic Literature

 Hyperpoetry – This is a kind of graphic poetry, which combines words with images. It has no standard lines
or verses, but its words are arranged in a way that it creates meaning and visual effect.
 Hyperfiction – This contains hyperlinks. When readers click on a hyperlink, they go to another Web page
that contains the next part of a story.
 Photo poem – This uses real-life images or electronically generated images as representation of the textual
poem.
 Silent comics – These have no verbal dialogues. The dialogues are presented through symbols.
 Textula – This poem is intended to be shared through the SMS.
 Blog – This Web site is where a person writes about his or her personal opinions, activities, and experiences.

Vladimeir Gonzales
Filipino fictionist and playwright Vladimeir Gonzales is known for his short stories in Filipino, as well as his works of
nonfiction compiled in his books Isang Napakalaking Kaastigan and A-side/B-side: ang mga Piso sa Jukebox ng
Buhay Mo.

He has also published several hyperfiction works in his site, vladgonzales.net_. One of them is entitled “Mga Tala ng
Buhay ni Edward Elric, Dating State Alchemist, bilang State University Instructor 1.” A work of fan fiction, the story
features Edward Elric from the Japanese manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Elric is the youngest alchemist working for the
state of Amestris. In Gonzales’s story he has come to the Philippines through a magical portal.

Access to parts of the story is through the embedded hyperlinks on the human transmutation circle, which is used by
Elric in the original story to resurrect his mother. The hyperlinks are signs of metals in alchemy. To begin reading the
story, one clicks on the hyperlink of Tin and goes clockwise.

The hyperlinks lead to these portions:

Example: Ang Transmutation Circle (An Excerpt)

By Vladimeir Gonzales
Hindi kaagad naalala ni Ed ang mga huling naganap bago siya mapunta sa Pilipinas. Lumipas pa ang ilang araw
bago magkaroon ng saysay ang mga naganap sa kanya. Oo, napunta na siya sa kabilang panig ng lagusan upang
muling mabuhay ang kapatid niyang si Al sa orihinal nitong katawan, at hindi ang katawang bakal na matagal nitong
pinaglagian bilang kapalit sa pagtatangkang resureksyon ng kanilang ina. Wala nang alchemy sa mundong nakita
niya
pagkagising. Si Edward Elric na dati’y isang alchemist ay si Edward Aquino na, isang estudyante ng Fine Arts sa
Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. Sa pamilyang Aquino, siya lang daw ang nalinya sa kursong may kaugnayan sa Sining. Ito
ang nakuha niya mula sa mga pira-pirasong sermon ng kanyang ina sa mundong napuntahan niya. Ang kanyang ama,
tulad ng sa mundong pinanggalingan niya ay nawawala. Kapag tinatanong niya sa kanyang ina kung nasaan ang
kanyang ama, lagi lang siyang minumura nito. Malayo sa inang nakagisnan niya’t tinangkang buhayin.

Naging katulad siya ng maraming mag-aaral. Mas nakaaangat nga lang ang hilig sa pag-aaral lalo na sa kanyang
mga major. Sa mga lumipas na taon ng kanyang buhay undergrad, nakilala siya sa kanilang kolehiyo sa kanyang mga
eskultura’t installation pieces. Pinakapopular ang ginawa niyang serye ng mga installation art na gumagamit ng mga
sipilyo, kubyertos at picture frames na nakapaloob sa iba’t ibang baryasyon ng transmutation circles. Para sa mga
kritiko, ang kanyang mga piyesa’y isang dekonstruksyon ng kalikasan ng tao, isang paghihimay ng mga batayang
pagpapahalaga, ng mabuti’t masama, ng liwanag at dilim, sa isang dinamikong mundong hinahati ng noon, ng
ngayon, ng bukas; para kay Ed, simpleng pagpapaalala lang ito ng mundong kanyang iniwanan, ng mundo kung saan
naroon si Al, ang kaibigang si Winry, ang mga kaibigang state alchemist. Magkaiba man ang mga dahilan, ito ang
nagbigay-daan kay Ed upang makalabas siya ng Pilipinas at makabisita sa iba pang mga bansa sa kanyang bagong
mundo. Naging laman siya ng mga diyaryo’t magasin, ng telebisyon at radyo. Nabansagan siyang isa sa mga
pinakamahusay na artista ng kanyang panahon.

Nagtapos siya ng kanyang undergraduate degree nang walang karangalan. Dahil sa paglibot ng kanyang installation
pieces sa iba’t ibang bansa’y nakatanggap siya ng forced drop sa ibang mga asignatura’t na-underload din nang
ilang beses. Bukod doon ay hindi pa niya maipasa-pasa ang kanyang Math 1 (naiwan din yata sa kabilang dimensyon
ang kanyang husay at interes dito). Pero kahit na walang anumang ‘laude’ na natanggap, nakapasok naman siya sa
kanilang kolehiyo bilang isang university instructor. Isang taon pa lang siyang nagtuturo’y nagkaasawa na siya’t
nagkaroon ng anak. Co-teacher niya sa departamento’t isang fresh grad din ang kanyang naging kabiyak. Sa puntong
ito’y nakaramdam nang kaunting kapanatagan si Ed, halos katumbas ng ligayang naramdaman niya noong
nagawaran siya ng titulong state alchemist. (Reproduced by permission of Vladimeir Gonzales)

Frank Rivera
Frank Rivera, a playwright, received recognition for a number of his plays like Ambon, Ulan, Baha: Sarsuwelang
Pinoy (2003) and Oyayi, Ang Zarzuela (2004). Also, he received awards for the Makata sa Cellphone (2005), a
collection of poetry which includes his popular textula. For his works of textula, he was dubbed as the “makata sa cell
phone.”

A Textula (2013)
by Frank G. Rivera
Bayang mahilig sa ganda May dala sanang asenso
Inuuna ang postura Magkakapag-asa tayo.
Walang laman ang bituka
Kundi gasgas na pag-asa. Nagkagyera sa Mindanao
Kaban ng bayan ninakaw
Si MEGAN YOUNG nang manalo Sa Bagyo’y daming pumanaw
Nagbunyi ang Pilipino MISS WORLD, salamat sa araw.
(Reproduced by permission of Frank Rivera)

Explanation: This textula has three stanzas, each of which has four lines. Each line has eight syllables, which set a
regular rhythm.
The poem uses what is called in Tagalog poetry as “tugmang karaniwan,” wherein the last word of each line
has the same sound. Also, the poem uses “tugmang patinig,” wherein the last words of the lines have the same vowel
sound, and “tugmang katinig,” wherein the last words of the lines have the same consonant sound.
Electronic literature refers to works commonly published and shared on the Web. Such works have features that
could only be presented through multimedia. Examples of those works are hyperpoetry, hyperfiction, photo poems,
silent comics, textula, and blogs.
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 name some well-known English writers and their works as well as the body of English literature to which
they belong; and
 analyze a few selected literary works representative of English literature.

Who are some of the important writers in the English literature?

Why are they important?
What literary forms are prominent in English literature?

 Epic poem - This is a long narrative poem usually about a hero and his deeds. A well-known example
is Beowulf.
 Sonnet - This poem has fourteen lines that follow a rhyme scheme. A well-known example is Sonnet
18of William Shakespeare. It starts with the famous line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
 Drama - This piece of writing tells a story through dialogue, and it is performed on stage. A well-known
example is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
 Novel - This is a long prose narrative usually about fictional characters and events, which are told in a
particular sequence.

English Literature
English literature is one of the richest, most developed, and most important bodies of literature in the world. It
encompasses both written and spoken works by writers from the United Kingdom.

Old English Literature (600 - 1100)

Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic tribe living
in Britain during the fifth century. One significant work written in Old English is Beowulf, the longest epic poem in
Old English. It is known for its use of kennings, which are phrases or compound words used to name persons,
places, and things indirectly.

Middle English Literature (1100 - 1500)

Middle English is a blend Old English and Norman French, the French dialect spoken by the Normans (people of
Normandy). The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature, is a fine example of
literature written in Middle English.
Elizabethan Literature (1558 - 1603)
The Elizabethan period is the golden age of English literature. Also, it is the golden age of drama. Known as the
“Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare wrote his plays during the period. His best plays include Hamlet, King
Lear, Macbeth, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice. Also, he wrote 154 sonnets, many of which are the best
loved and the most widely-read poems in the English literature.

Twentieth Century (1900 - 2000)

William Butler Yeats and Thomas Stearns Eliot wrote Modernist poems during the period. Yeats wrote The
Tower, The Winding Stair, and New Poems, all of which are known to have potent images. Eliot’s masterpieces
are “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land.”

Virginia Woolf in her story Mrs. Dalloway and James Joyce in his work Ulysses use stream of consciousness, a
literary technique in which the flow of thoughts of a character is described in words.

English literature is a very large body of diverse literature that encompasses works by writers from the United
Kingdom.