What do you think?
Rate this book
Emergent Literature: Essays on Philippine Writing
The essays in Emergent Literature: Essays on Philippine Writing vividly recreate the dizzying ferment in the literary scene of the late 1960s and subsequent years for students born too late to have experienced the tremors and jolts that shook the academe all over Metro Manila during those critical years. The year 1968 was when the Communist Party of the Philippines was reestablished and activists of the national democratic movement disseminated the political and cultural essays of Mao Zedong. The subject matter of the essays suggests that cumulative impact of the ideas of the great Chinese leader on the literary scene. Ideas on art and literature developed during China's revolutionary struggle introduced Filipino teachers and writers to a literary theory they could pit against the tenets of the New Criticism which, under the political conditions prevailing in the 1960s, was proving itself to be reactionary....Dr. Ordoñez upon his return from Canada threw himself into the thick of the struggle and found himself in the company of fellow professors in the forefront of the movement.
- Bienvenido Lumbera
- Bienvenido Lumbera
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Elmer A. Ordóñez
16 books2 followersElmer Alindugan Ordóñez was born on December 15, 1929 in Juban, Sorsogon. He obtained his BA and MA in English from the University of the Philippines, his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1963, and post doctoral studies from Oxford University-London in 1966. He has been professor of English, associate for literary criticism at the UP Creative Writing Center, and chairperson for projects of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Ordóñez edited Introduction to Literature (1974) and Festschriften: Leopoldo Y. Yabes: A Memorial Volume (1985). He has also published a number of books, including Early Joseph Conrad (1969) and The Other View: Notes on Philippine Writing and Culture (1989).
Ordóñez edited Introduction to Literature (1974) and Festschriften: Leopoldo Y. Yabes: A Memorial Volume (1985). He has also published a number of books, including Early Joseph Conrad (1969) and The Other View: Notes on Philippine Writing and Culture (1989).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Read
September 21, 2012Elmer Ordoñez’s Emergent Literature: Essays on Philippine Writing is a collection of essays that traces the growth and development of revolutionary literature in the late 1960’s, termed “Emergent Literature” that aimed to write back against the literature of the colonizers and the elites. The earliest essays in the collections were written in 1986 (during the aftermath of the Marcos dictatorship and the year of the EDSA Revolution) and the last in the 1990’s; they include short papers read for seminars and conferences, book reviews and introductions, and periodical articles. Bienvenido Lumbera writes in his Foreword that the book aims to “vividly recreate the dizzying ferment in the literary scene of the late 1960s and subsequent years for students born too late to have experienced the tremors and jolts that shook the academe all over Metro Manila during those critical years.” Furthermore, Lumbera writes that these years saw the birth of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Second Propaganda Movement that challenged the “art for art’s sake” viewpoint of the times. It goes back to the question posed by Mao Zedong in his Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art the question of “For whom do you write?” which is a central question in the production of art and literature and in itself a political question. (viii)
Some of the essays present a broad survey of the field of emergent literature such as “Literature and Social Change”, “An Overview of Philippine Literature” and “Nationalist Literature”, wherein Ordoñez claims that the Philippines has a long history of revolutionary literature that started during the Spanish colonial period and continues up to the present day. He also shows that the writers could come from the intellectual bourgeoisie or the proletariat, since the inception of protest literature during the Spanish and American colonial period up to the Martial Law period. He also presents a definition of terms in his essay “Emergent Literature” as an “alternative hegemony”, which struggles against the dominant ruling class ideas. Ordonez also becomes more specific and scrutinizes the sub-genres of emergent literature such as “prison literature”, the “testimonio” (testimonial literature), and literature during the Marcos dictatorship. Finally, Ordoñez pays homage to influential thinkers who paved the path and shaped emergent literature particularly in the 1960’s and the 1970’s such as S.P. Lopez, who presented one of the earliest arguments for his “committed literature” in his Literature and Society, written during the American Commonwealth period; and Mao Zedong, whose Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art have created a movement in Philippine letters that would use literature as a weapon for social change.
By showing the long history of Philippine revolutionary literature since the Spanish colonial period, Ordoñez shows that literature is integral in the anticolonial and nationalist struggles in the past, which continues in the present neo-colonial system. By doing so, he situates the intelligentsia in society and history and argues that they too were part of the anti-colonial struggle and that art and literature were not divorced from society. He also goes against the New Criticism or the “art for art’s sake” school propounded by Jose Garcia Villa, which sees that art and literature should be seen by its intrinsic beauty, judged according to formalist standards and not necessarily to depict the social realities. Ordoñez argues that there must be a revaluation of standards, and that art has become richer because of the politicization of the writer: “Has their literary art suffered because of their involvement in what appears to be a political activity? I doubt it. On the contrary, they have become better writers because they forge their art working and identifying with the people, the oppressed, and the marginalized[….] This is a gain rather than a diminution of their literary art” (18). Furthermore, Ordoñez writes that the centennial of the Philippine revolution of 1896 should make us reflect not only on the evolution and growth of emergent literature but also its “[pursuit of ] its logical end: the realization of a sovereign and just society” (59).
Ordoñez draws from Marxist and early postcolonial literary and cultural theorists to expound his views and apply it to the Philippine setting. To frame his study, Ordoñez uses Raymond Williams who defined in his book Marxism and Literature the terms “dominant”, as the culture of the ruling class, “residual” as the culture of the past but which can still be found in the present, and “emergent” as the culture of a new class that is in direct opposition to the ruling class. Thus, of emergent literature could be grassroots, peasant and workers’ literature that imagine a new social order and whose writers actively fight for the realization of that social order. He also uses Franz Fanon “stages of colonial experience”, namely “conquest”, “assimilation”, “alienation” and “resistance towards liberation”, and applies these to Philippine history and its subsequent literary production; and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of the “organic intellectual” to show that intellectuals can be produced even within the community (and not schooled in the academe) who will articulate their own class consciousness and not that of the elite. Ordoñez also has a lot of references to Bienvenido Lumbera, who traces the history of Philippine literature since the early times up to the present and argues that the nationalist literary tradition began with Francisco Baltazar and Jose Rizal during the Spanish colonial period. Odoñez also locates the Maoist influence in Philippine revolutionary art and literature during the Marcos dictatorship, since the National Democratic movement which mostly produces revolutionary art and literature subscribes to Maoist thought.
While this book gives valuable insight to the history of emergent literature, some of the essays seem simplistic and repetitive. But that is forgivable since, as written in the Foreword, this book is a gathering of individual pieces and not as chapters dependent upon each other. In addition, some of the pieces are short introductions and forewords to other books. This book provides only a cursory view of the definition and history of emergent literature; it needs more textual analysis and in-depth discussion of the ideas. Furthermore, it needs to be more concrete and more detailed in describing the literary processes that happen in the production of emergent literature. Nonetheless, this book is successful in pointing out that, Philippine revolutionary literature has a long tradition in the Philippines and that some of our heroes, among them Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio, have used literature to further their ant-colonial struggles and quest for social justice. Writing revolutionary literature would then be the continuation of this historical narrative.
Some of the essays present a broad survey of the field of emergent literature such as “Literature and Social Change”, “An Overview of Philippine Literature” and “Nationalist Literature”, wherein Ordoñez claims that the Philippines has a long history of revolutionary literature that started during the Spanish colonial period and continues up to the present day. He also shows that the writers could come from the intellectual bourgeoisie or the proletariat, since the inception of protest literature during the Spanish and American colonial period up to the Martial Law period. He also presents a definition of terms in his essay “Emergent Literature” as an “alternative hegemony”, which struggles against the dominant ruling class ideas. Ordonez also becomes more specific and scrutinizes the sub-genres of emergent literature such as “prison literature”, the “testimonio” (testimonial literature), and literature during the Marcos dictatorship. Finally, Ordoñez pays homage to influential thinkers who paved the path and shaped emergent literature particularly in the 1960’s and the 1970’s such as S.P. Lopez, who presented one of the earliest arguments for his “committed literature” in his Literature and Society, written during the American Commonwealth period; and Mao Zedong, whose Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art have created a movement in Philippine letters that would use literature as a weapon for social change.
By showing the long history of Philippine revolutionary literature since the Spanish colonial period, Ordoñez shows that literature is integral in the anticolonial and nationalist struggles in the past, which continues in the present neo-colonial system. By doing so, he situates the intelligentsia in society and history and argues that they too were part of the anti-colonial struggle and that art and literature were not divorced from society. He also goes against the New Criticism or the “art for art’s sake” school propounded by Jose Garcia Villa, which sees that art and literature should be seen by its intrinsic beauty, judged according to formalist standards and not necessarily to depict the social realities. Ordoñez argues that there must be a revaluation of standards, and that art has become richer because of the politicization of the writer: “Has their literary art suffered because of their involvement in what appears to be a political activity? I doubt it. On the contrary, they have become better writers because they forge their art working and identifying with the people, the oppressed, and the marginalized[….] This is a gain rather than a diminution of their literary art” (18). Furthermore, Ordoñez writes that the centennial of the Philippine revolution of 1896 should make us reflect not only on the evolution and growth of emergent literature but also its “[pursuit of ] its logical end: the realization of a sovereign and just society” (59).
Ordoñez draws from Marxist and early postcolonial literary and cultural theorists to expound his views and apply it to the Philippine setting. To frame his study, Ordoñez uses Raymond Williams who defined in his book Marxism and Literature the terms “dominant”, as the culture of the ruling class, “residual” as the culture of the past but which can still be found in the present, and “emergent” as the culture of a new class that is in direct opposition to the ruling class. Thus, of emergent literature could be grassroots, peasant and workers’ literature that imagine a new social order and whose writers actively fight for the realization of that social order. He also uses Franz Fanon “stages of colonial experience”, namely “conquest”, “assimilation”, “alienation” and “resistance towards liberation”, and applies these to Philippine history and its subsequent literary production; and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of the “organic intellectual” to show that intellectuals can be produced even within the community (and not schooled in the academe) who will articulate their own class consciousness and not that of the elite. Ordoñez also has a lot of references to Bienvenido Lumbera, who traces the history of Philippine literature since the early times up to the present and argues that the nationalist literary tradition began with Francisco Baltazar and Jose Rizal during the Spanish colonial period. Odoñez also locates the Maoist influence in Philippine revolutionary art and literature during the Marcos dictatorship, since the National Democratic movement which mostly produces revolutionary art and literature subscribes to Maoist thought.
While this book gives valuable insight to the history of emergent literature, some of the essays seem simplistic and repetitive. But that is forgivable since, as written in the Foreword, this book is a gathering of individual pieces and not as chapters dependent upon each other. In addition, some of the pieces are short introductions and forewords to other books. This book provides only a cursory view of the definition and history of emergent literature; it needs more textual analysis and in-depth discussion of the ideas. Furthermore, it needs to be more concrete and more detailed in describing the literary processes that happen in the production of emergent literature. Nonetheless, this book is successful in pointing out that, Philippine revolutionary literature has a long tradition in the Philippines and that some of our heroes, among them Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio, have used literature to further their ant-colonial struggles and quest for social justice. Writing revolutionary literature would then be the continuation of this historical narrative.
Displaying 1 of 1 review