Maria Luisa Torres Reyes Modernity/Modernism in Philippine Literature Maria Luisa Torres Reyes The Ateneo de Manila University Abstract When the American colonial regime set up the Philippine public school system in the first decade of 1900s, it installed a curriculum that was heavily based on the American educational system. The English literature and humanities curriculum, in particular, was heavily Anglo-American notwithstanding the Filipinos’ lack of proficiency in the English language in the early years. By the third decade of the American occupation, the Filipinos who had been able to attend the university in the country and abroad and had developed a higher level of competence in the English language, began to produce writers and critics who had been trained formally in the Anglo-American literary and critical modes. This generation produced the first Filipino “modernist” writers, who would later constitute the canon of Philippine Literature. Soon after, Filipino writers in Tagalog and the other Philippine languages began to develop a taste for modernist writing as well and soon produced their own kind of “modernistas.” Ironically, as Americanization in literature developed inroads in Philippine letters in the major languages, Filipino writers in English and Philippine languages, specifically, were to be split into two camps, the “art for arts’ sake” camp (the modernists), led by Jose Garcia Villa, and the socially oriented camp (the socially oriented writers) led by Salvador P. Lopez. The first claimed to be heir to Anglo-American- modernist writers whose works they had read; the second were said to be heir to the local tradition of socially-oriented writings in Philippine literature which tradition they ostensibly wished to keep alive. Numerous polemical exchanges would ensue from the 1900s to the 1940s shortly before World War II, which were published in the daily newspapers and weekly magazines. The polemics would embody the contradictions as well as the ambivalences of the Filipino writers’ reception of Anglo- American literary “modernism,” outline the contours of “modernism” in Philippine literature, and underscore the continuing unease that Filipino writers today, especially those writing in Philippine languages, about “western” modernism, and the desire to go past it, resulting in the development of a complex if contradictory kind of modernism and a sense of modernity and the role of language in this development. Key words: modernity, modernism, Philippine literature Introduction First, it is said that as a result of “modern” western European and Anglo- In the Philippines, often referred to as the American hegemonic imperatives upon first “modern” nation in Southeast Asia, and postcolonial societies, dominantly through the only former Asian colony of the United the setting up of the colonial public States, modernism and modernity are educational system, “modernity” - as a social inextricably linked and loosely and historical phenomenon – has weakened interchangeable yet are distinctly and or destroyed traditional beliefs and practices diversely inflected in incommensurably of non-western societies as the people uneven, overlapping and contradictory ways. themselves are decimated by colonialism. However, historically, such imperatives have had to deal with existing local traditions, 20 Vol. 14 No. 1 – April 2014 languages and practices, nonetheless literary convention, and commitment for producing “modernities” and “modernisms” individualist, avant-garde sensibility in art of differentiated characteristics and uneven and knowledge paved the way for the release development across the different Philippine of new aesthetic energies among Tagalog languages. This is exemplified by the diverse poets. Panitikan was development of “modern” genres in the Philippines like the Filipino novel written in …determined to be “modern,” in the sense the different local languages which ranges that it was to diverge from traditional from the integrative classic realist “modern” along lines being pursued by the writers of types to the discrepant hybrid varieties of Philippine English literature. (Lumbera, pre-moden (traiditonal) to postmodern 2007: 97) (contemporary) varieties. , The poem, “Ako ang Daigdig,” is said to have Second, it is posited that as a cultural and declared a kind of poetic mutiny and social artistic response to modernity, “modernism” insurrection in protest of protest of embodies cultural practices which are hypocrisies in conventional society that had disjunctive of practices that fetter and habits made a as he stripped his verse of rime and that bridle. However, to “make new” is not meter of the dominant conventional Tagalog simply an aesthetic response but a deeper versification. and more sweeping reaction to the experience of modernity, embodying Abadilla was arguably a crusader for appropriative, as well as abrogative or freedom, like Villa, who resisted all aesthetically transgressive in Philippine conventional social and artistic restrictions literature. This is exemplified by such writers like a personal war. Assuming a mythical as Alejandro G. Abadilla (Tagalog) and Jose “real self,” he believed that individual Garcia Villa (English) freedom could be achieved through disengaging himself from other men. Abadilla Individualistic in temper, he was obsessed by the self only because he believed individuals In 1935, the Tagalog writers’ group true to themselves would usher a better called Kapisanang Panitikan, organized as a society. Later on, his experimentation with reaction to Ilaw at Panitik, an earlier writers’ free verse would prepare the way for its group, published a literary magazine, acceptance by younger poets, who would Panitikan, in 1938. Its members staged a then go beyond his theme of individualism revolt against the worsening commercialism while acknowledging his formalist of local magazines, rampant use of clichés and innovations formulaic repetition of old literary forms and worn-out conventions. They demanded AKO ANG DAIGDIG artistic freedom to innovate in theme and Ni Alejandro G. Abadilla technique and led the efforts for artistic experimentation in Tagalog writing. The i. group, which included Alejandro G. Abadilla, ako Teodoro Agoncillo, Clodualdo del Mundo, ang daigdig Brigido Batungbakal, Jesus Arceo, Salvador ako Barros, and Genoveva Edroza-Matute, ang tula publicized its cause with a book-burning rally ako at Plaza Moriones in Tondo on 02 Mar 1940, ang daigdig referring to themselves as “radical but ang tula aristocratic.” The group threw into the flames ako literary works they considered “unfit to be ang daigdig passed on to posterity.” ng tula ang tula The leader of the “literary rebels” was ng daigdig Abadilla, whose use of free verse, defiance of ako 21 Maria Luisa Torres Reyes ang walang maliw na ako ako. ang walang kamatayang ako ang tula ng daigdig (1940) ii. ako I AM THE UNIVERSE ang daigdig ng tula By Alejandro G. Abadilla ako ang tula ng daigdig i. ako ang malayang ako i am matapat sa sarili the universe sa aking daigdig i am ng tula the poem ako i am ang tula the universe sa daigdig the poem ako i am ang daigdig the universe ng tula of the poem ako the poem ang daigdig of the universe i am iii. the unending I am ako the undying I am ang damdaming the poem of the universe malaya ako ii. ang larawang i am buhay the universe of the poem ako i am ang buhay the poem of the universe na walang hanggan i am ako the free I am ang damdamin true to myself ang larawan to my universe ang buhay of the poem damdamin I am larawan the poem buhay in the universe tula i am ako the universe of the poem iv. i am ang daigdig the universe ako sa tula iii. ako i am ang daigdig the feeling ng tula free ako i am ang daigdig the image ako alive ang tula i am daigdig the life tula without end 22 Vol. 14 No. 1 – April 2014 i am A powerful voice as a avant-garde artist, the feeling critic, modernist poet, fictionist, Jose Garcia the image Villa is known for his technical innovations of the life “reversed consonance” in Have Come, Am feeling Here (1942), for example, and “comma image poems” in The Anchored Angel. His poems life deal with angelic rebellion, the solitary poem genius, and artistic exceptionality i am reminiscent of Wallace Stevens, or e.e. cummings. It had been said that Villa was iv. able to do “much to establish Philippine the universe writing alongside Tagalog and Spanish i am literatures” which had obviously longer in the poem histories behind them. i am the universe He introduced a new rhyming scheme of the poem called ”reversed consonance" wherein, i am according to Villa: "The last sounded the universe consonants of the last syllable, or the last i am principal consonant of a word, are reversed The poem for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme universe for near would be run; or rain, green, reign." poem In 1949, Villa presented a poetic style he i am. called "comma poems," wherein commas are placed after every word. (1940) Translation: Bienvenido Lumbera First, A Poem Must Be Magical Jose Garcia Villa Villa First, a poem must be magical, But among English writers, unrest was Then musical as a seagull. pervading the literary atmosphere as well. On It must be a brightness moving one side, there were the Veronicans – also And hold secret a bird’s flowering organized in 1935 by those who were It must be slender as a bell, believed to have stood for art for art’s sake, And it must hold fire as well. like Jose Garcia Villa, forming another avant- It must have the wisdom of bows garde group of Filipino writers. On the other And it must kneel like a rose. hand, there were those who urged their It must be able to hear fellow writers in English to create a more The luminance of dove and deer. socially engaged art, like writers Salvador P. It must be able to hide Lopez, Federico Mangahas, Arturo Rotor, and What it seeks, like a bride.