philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Traditions and Themes in the Tagalog Novel Soledad S. Reyes Philippine Studies vol. 23, no. 3 (1975) 243–292 Copyright © Ateneo de Manila University Philippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom- mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at
[email protected]. http://www.philippinestudies.net Fri June 27 13:30:20 2008 Philippine Studies 23 (19 75): 243-92 Traditions and Themes in the Tagalog Novel SOLEDAD S. REYES To students trained in Western modes of criticism, especially the American dominated school of New Criticism, and armed with the necessary tools for judging Western works, the Tagalog novel will only evoke an uncomprehending stare. Given a novel like Lope K. Santos's Banaag at Sikat (1906),the student's patience will be tried severely by such a loosely structured and episodic plot, a gallery of vaguely defined characters, an abundance of authorial intrusion and apparently aimless discussions and other "flaws" which modem critics frown upon. Other Tagalog novels show fondness for "telling" rather than "rendering," coincidences and discoveries rather than causation in the development of the plot, explicit didacticism rather than the use of such techniques as "stream of consciousness" or complex point of view, and overly "sentimental" scenes rather than understatement, tension, or ironical treatment.