Objectives

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

 identify the Filipino dramatists or playwrights in English during the Postwar Period in the
Philippines (1946–1960); and
 analyze a Filipino drama or play in English published during that period.

What is a drama?
What are the elements of a drama?
Who are the Filipino dramatists in English that emerged during the Postwar Years?

Drama
Drama is a literary work that tells a story through actions and dialogues. It is usually performed on
stage.

Elements
Characters – These actors set the scene and flow of the story.

Dialogues – These are conversations between the characters.

Plot – This is the series of events that take place.

Stage directions – These statements tell the actors how they should look, move, and speak. They
also give the director a picture of how the setting looks like, and what music and other sounds would
set the mood of the play.

Philippine Drama in English During the Postwar Period (1946–1960)

By the 1940s and 1950s, dramas in English had been performed on stage in the Philippines. During
that time, three notable Filipino dramatists emerged. They were Severino Montano, Wilfrido Ma.
Guerrero, and Alberto S. Florentino.

Severino Montano (1915–1980) established the Arena Theatre at the Philippine Normal College in
1952. Almost two hundred performances were staged there from 1953 to 1964. Among those
performances were the staging of Montano’s four major dramas, namely, Parting at
Calamba (1953), Sabina (1953), The Ladies and the Senator (1953), and The Love of Leonor
Rivera (1954).

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero (1910–1995) was a prolific playwright. He wrote over a hundred plays; most
of them were staged. His plays portray the educated middle class. Among his popular works
are Wanted: A Chaperone (1940), The Three Rats (1948), and Condemned (1943).

Alberto S. Florentino (1931– ) became known for his drama The World Is An Apple. It won first
prize in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1954 and was published in the Sunday
Times Magazine that same year. The play as well as the others like Cavort with Angels (1959) and
Oli Impan (1959) is set in Tondo slums.
During the period, the theater was moribund in the cities, however. One reason is that the language
used, which was English, made the plays only accessible to the educated Filipinos.

"The World Is an Apple" by Alberto S. Florentino is a one-act play. As the term suggests, a one-act
play is composed of only one act or part. Its story has a few characters; it is condensed and has a
single effect.

Florentino’s play only has three characters, namely, Gloria, Mario, and Pablo. The story takes place
one evening in an improvised home in Intramuros. Gloria and Mario are a poor couple. Their poverty
forces Mario’s hand both literally and figuratively. So, he returns to his old life of stealing and joins
his old friend Pablo for a heist.

The World Is An Apple: A Synopsis

It is payday, and Mario comes home without any money to give his wife Gloria for their sick daughter
named Tita. At first, he tells his wife that he spent all of his money on a few drinks with his friends.
However, Gloria does not believe him because he does not look intoxicated. Then Mario attempts to
lie the second time by telling her that he spent it all on a woman. Once again, Gloria does not
believe him because she knows Mario loves their daughter very much that he could not have done it.
Finally, Mario tells her that he lost his job a week ago and that he has been looking for a new one
ever since. Gloria is shocked to hear the news and worried that Mario would not be able to find a job
soon. Mario, however, assures her that it will not take long for him to get a new job.

Gloria then asks Mario why he lost his job. Mario relates that he was accused of pilfering (stealing a
small amount of something) at work. He took an apple that rolled out of a broken crate and thought
of giving it to their child. The people at his work kept the apple, though, for evidence. Gloria wants
Mario to ask those people for a second chance, but Mario is convinced that they want to throw him
out so that they could bring their own men into the job. When Gloria suggests that Mario complain,
he does not want to do so for fear of those people finding out about his police record. Then he tells
Gloria that he has found a good job. He is to be a night watchman for a company. Gloria is thankful
to God, though she feels uncertain because she will be alone at night without Mario by her side.

Then comes Pablo, Mario’s friend. Mario becomes nervous, and Gloria is not very happy to see him.
Pablo asks about their child’s condition and offers money to Gloria so that she can take her to a
doctor, but Gloria refuses it. She is convinced that Pablo has come to lead Mario back to his old
ways. Soon enough, she discovers that Mario has indeed decided to go back to stealing for their
sake. She tries to stop him from going, but Mario leaves with Pablo anyway. Before he leaves, he
tells Gloria to take care of their daughter and herself, and he will take care of himself. The story ends
with Gloria shouting Mario’s name as she watches him walk away with Pablo.

Summary
The three notable Filipino dramatists in English of the Postwar Years are Severino Montano, Wilfrido
Ma. Guerrero, and Alberto Florentino. They produced relevant dramas during the period. However,
because their works were written in English, they could only reach out to the educated class.

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
  identify some Filipino writers of creative nonfiction and their works; and
 analyze a few selected Filipino works of creative nonfiction.

What makes a work of creative nonfiction?

What are the different kinds of creative nonfiction?

In this lesson, you will learn more about creative nonfiction in general and the Philippine creative
nonfiction. Also, you will read a few selected works by Filipino writers.

Creative Nonfiction
It is a major genre of literature. It refers to narratives of real events told in a literary style.

Kinds of Creative Nonfiction

 Memoir - This account is narrowly focused on a single event in a person’s life.

 Biography - This is a detailed account of a person’s life written by another person.
 Autobiography - This is a written account of the life of a person written by the subject
himself or herself.
 Diary - This is a collection of discrete accounts of a person’s experiences and thoughts each
day.
 Essay - This writing features any subject that the writer personally comments about or
describes.

Philippine Creative Nonfiction

The American Occupation (1898–1940)
The essay in English proved to be an influential medium. The first volume of essays was Life and
Success (1921) by Zoilo Galang. The earliest travel writing was Notas de Viaje (1930) by Maria Paz
Mendoza-Guazon. The essay “Literature and Society” by Salvador Lopez sparked a debate on
socially relevant literature versus aesthetic value. It won in the first Commonwealth Literary Awards
in 1940.

The Japanese Occupation (1941–1945)

Because of censorship, only a few essays in English were published. Horizons from My Nipa Hut,
published in 1941, is a collection of humorous essays by Francisco B. Icasiano. I Am a Filipino, the
most famous essay of Carlos P. Romulo, was published the same year.

1960s and 1970s

Literary journalism came into its own. It appeared in some publications like the Philippines Free
Press and the Philippine Graphic. It attracted some of the best Filipino writers. Nick Joaquin, who
sometimes used the pen name Quijano de Manila, was the most prolific among those writers.

1990s
A few autobiographies and memoirs were published like Memory’s Fictions: A Personal
History (1993) and Postscript to a Saintly Life(1994) by Bienvenido Santos. Also, there were works
on wars like Living With the Enemy: A Diary of the Japanese Occupation (1999) by Pacita Pestaño-
Jacinto, and Breaking the Silence (1996) by Lourdes Reyes Montinola.

Also, published in this period were travel writings by Filipino women like Sylvia Mayuga’s Earth, Fire
& Air (1992) and Kerima Polotan’s Adventures in a Forgotten Country (1999).

Early 21st Century

This period saw the publication of collections of short essays and narratives of young writers. Their
works were Wala Lang (2004) by Bud Tomas; Love, Desire, Children, Etc.: Reflections of a Young
Wife (2005) by Rica Bolipata-Santos; The King of Nothing To Do(2006) by Luis Katigbak;
and Stressed in the City (2007) by April T. Yap.

Summary
Creative nonfiction refers to narratives of real events told using a literary style of writing. Some of
its forms are the memoir, the biography, the autobiography, the diary, and the essay. In Philippine
Literature, the essay is the most common form of creative nonfiction.

Popular Fiction

Objective
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to name some genres of the popular fiction.

What makes a piece of fiction popular?

What are the different genres of the popular fiction?

In this lesson, you will learn about popular fiction and three of its genres, namely, the science fiction,
chick literature, and ghost stories.

Popular fiction, also called genre fiction, refers to works of literature that are intended for the
masses or large audience. Its main purpose is to appeal to the general public. Below are a few
features of popular fiction:

 Its story is plot-driven.

 Its characters are mostly stock figures.
 Its setting is either familiar or exotic.
 Its language is closer to everyday spoken language.
 It contains a lot of dialogues.
 Science fiction, also called sci-fi, at its core, deals with science and technology. It is often
lumped with the fantasy and horror genres under the broader term “speculative fiction.” As
this term suggests, sci-fi writers are often preoccupied by the question “what if.”
 Pocholo Goitia’s short story “An Introduction to the Luminescent” is an example of science
fiction. It was published in Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 1 in 2005. The story is set in
the year 2105 in a mall described as an “ultrasaur,” a massive structure that towers at two
kilometers and stretches at half kilometer. Magenta, one of the characters, is a member of La
Luminosa, a group of biogenetically engineered people that live in the mall. This mall is
protected by “clone warriors” that hover in the air using devices called gravity disruptors.
  Chick literature, or chick lit, is written by women who write for women. The usual target
readers are young and single women, especially in their 20s or 30s. The stories deal with
real life, usually love and relationships, and they are written in a light-hearted tone.
 Tara Sering’s Getting Better is an example of chick literature. The novella was published in
the October 2002 issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines, a magazine that targets contemporary
women and that mostly features topics regarding relationships, beauty, fashion, and health.
Told in the second person point of view, the story tackles the life of a single woman named
Karen—how she was as a girlfriend, how she dealt with cheating, and how she moved on.
 Ghost stories are part of Filipino pop culture. They are a specific kind of stories in the horror
fiction genre. As the name suggests, a ghost story features a ghost as one of its characters.
Like any story in the horror fiction genre, a ghost story is meant to scare its reader.
 Joel P. Salud’s “The Haunting at Concha Cruz Drive” is an example of a ghost story. It was
published in True Philippine Ghost Stories Book 1 in 2002. It tells the story of three friends
driving along a road named Concha Cruz Drive which is known to be haunted by ghosts of a
young couple who were victims of drag racing accident.

Summary
Popular fiction refers to works of literature whose main purpose is to appeal to the general public. It
includes the science fiction genre, chick literature, and ghost stories.

New and Emerging Literary Forms in the 21st Century

Objectives
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.

Summary
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.