When asked to characterize
literature in the Philippine context, the most conventional way to do so would
be to gather them thematically and just describe them by the topics they are
about. And because of that, A lot of people would hold no regard for the correlation
between the time these literary works were written and their themes. If they
had looked more closely at how certain times bring about certain issues, then
they would have found that it was more sensible to categorize literary works of
art, whether here or abroad, by the time they were written. I did so myself,
although not as in-depth as most historians, and I found out that not only were
these works time of composition and subject matter correlated, but also the way
they were written.
Let’s take for example, the
pre-colonial era. Where datus and barangays were all over the place. Their
main concern was NOT how they had to live under the oppression of the Spanish
friars---simply because these issues were non-existent and more certainly, not
their business. They wrote about their biggest issues at that time, their
day-to-day lives. They had songs about fishing, poems about childbirth and
stories about activities that you might consider today as “extremely mundane”.
"Where's the bloodshed? There's no bloodshed?"
They
had little problems, or more appropriately, problems that had a smaller range
of influence. They were concerned with their own villages and so, had a very
limited variation of topics they could write about. This constrained
environment also affected HOW they wrote these works. Since they had their own
villages to mind, they never found it feasible to interact with distant
villages and share customs with them (except when their fighting against each
other). Which lead to them enjoying their own little ways of expressing their
creativity in their most conventional method---which, unfortunately for us,
tended to be in ORAL form.
That, and a whole lot of booty shaking.
And so, the Spaniards came. They
came and colonized our country, took over our government, mistreated our
people, and engaged in constant war with us. Along with this came 333 years of
angst-y writing, despising the Spanish rule and vowing that one day, we shall
indeed be free from the “fell clutch of circumstance” (well that was from a
Victorian poem, but you get my point). This actually was good for us Filipinos.
We were introduced to new forms of literature, new ways to write things, and
new things to write about. So, in a way, that Spanish colonization became
beneficial for us---although in aspects not many Filipinos have learned to
appreciate.
Well, depends on your definition of "Appreciate".
After the Spaniards, came the
Americans. And they gave us English and the works that come with it. And that
was mainly their biggest contribution in terms of literature in the Philippine
context. We were taught how to speak and write in English and in return, we
gave them works of art written in English And aside from that, we also got to
write about the many American exploits our people witnessed. Such as:
...well, I think it'd best if we move on.
And so, here we are,
post-colonial Philippines. We have our government back, we finally have been
recognized as an independent country and have gotten rid of our colonial roots,
or have we? We have gone up from having such a limited variety of topics to
talk about to having history records worthy of an Oscar for “Best
Screenplay”. We can endlessly talk about
our country and still catch some attention. We cannot bear to leave our colonial
roots behind as it was what opened our eyes and our imaginary brain-doors to
what the world wants to read about. These bloody invasions MADE us who we are.
And I believe THAT is something worth writing about.
