literature

Jose Rizal is the undisputed hero of the Philippines. National poet and hero of the liberation struggle of anti-Spanish,Iberian executed for involvement in the liberation movement, the main novel - "Noli me tangere" written in Spanish as a bedside book of Philippine literature.

I would say it's heavily influenced by our "conquerors's" literature. First off when the Spaniards came, they brought all those catholic materials including the bible and much of their art forms. Of course it almost wiped out most of our ethnic literature including our own fables and epic poetry. Spaniards thought that our literature was simply barbaric and heavily influenced by paganism. But because of this, and the prevailing inhumanities that our forefathers went through, a form of "protest" literature also cropped up. Because the Spaniards were a bit heavy on the "might and sword" side, writers learned to put subliminal messages even into Catholic writings. Remember our zarzuelas (stage plays) and the Filipino version of the "passion of Christ". When the Americans came, they also brought with them their own literature and most of their culture. This eventually got imbibed in our own literature. Until now we are still under this influence. Our literature's history is a history of protest. At least I think so. Even during the martial law we have protest literature. Maybe that's because we've been trying to finf the Filipino personality under all these foreign influence. As the say, our culture is a hotpot of foreign influences. Literature is an art form that represents the current culture.