We can enumerate many reasons for studying literature.
Here are but a few:
We study literature so that we can better appreciate our literary heritage.
We cannot appreciate something that we do not understand.
Through a study of our literature, we can trace the rich heritage of ideas handed down to us from our forefathers. Then we can understand ourselves better and take pride in being a Filipino. Like other races of the world, we need to understand that we have a great and noble tradition which can serve as the means to assimilate other cultures.
Through such a study, we will realize our literary limitations conditioned by certain historical factors and we can take steps to overcome them. Above all, as Filipinos, who truly love and take pride in our own culture, we have to manifest our deep concern for our own literature and this we can do by studying the literature of our country.
Of Philippine Literature in English and Time Frames...
It can be said that Philippine literature in English has achieved a stature that is, in a way, phenomenal since the inception of English in our culture. Our written literature, which is about four hundred years old, is one of slow and evolutionary growth.
Our writers strove to express their sentiments while struggling with a foreign medium. The great mass of literature in English that we have today is, indeed, a tribute to what our writers have achieved in a short span of time. What they have written can compare with some of the best works in the world. Much is still to be achieved.
Our writers have yet to write their OPUS MAGNUMS. Meanwhile, history and literature are slowly unfolding before us and we are as witnesses in the assembly lines to an evolving literary life. Time frames may not be necessary in a study of literature, but since literature and history are inescapably related it has become facilitative to map up a system which will aid us in delineating certain time boundaries.
These time boundaries are not exactly well-defined; very often, time frames blend into another in a seeming continuum. For a systematic discussion of the traditions, customs, and feelings of our people that can be traced in our literature, we shall adopt certain delimitations.
ime Frames of Philippine Literature in English
Different opinions prevail regarding the stages that mark the development of Philippine literature in English.
Let us take the following time frames for purpose of discussion:
1. The Period of Re-orientation: 1898-1910
2. Period of Imitation: 1910-1925
3. Period of Self-Discovery: 1925-1941
4. Japanese Period: 1941-1945
5. The Rebirth of Freedom: 1946-1970
6. Period of Activism: 1970-1972
7. Period of the New Society: 1972-1981
8. Period of the Third Republic: 1981-1985
9. Contemporary Period: 1986.
Literature and History
Literature and history are closely interrelated. In discovering the history of a race, the feelings, aspirations, customs, and traditions of a people are sure to be included . . . and these feelings, aspirations, customs, and traditions that are written is literature. History can also be written and this too is literature. Events that can be written down are part of true literature. Literature, therefore, is part of history. Literature and history, however, also have differences. Literature may be figments of the imagination or events devoid of truth that have been written down, while history is made up of events that really happened.