Philippine Literature in English - The Commonwealth Period

The Commonwealth Period

The founding of Silliman University by Presbyterian missionaries and the Philippine Normal School (PNS) in 1901 and the University of the Philippines (U.P.) in 1908, as well as of English newspapers like the Daily Bulletin 1900, The Cablenews 1902, and the Philippines Free Press 1905, helped boost the spread of English. The first ten years of the century witnessed the first verse and prose efforts of Filipinos in student publications such as The Filipino Students’ Magazine first issue, 1905, a short-lived quarterly published in Berkeley, California, by Filipino pensionados (or government scholars); the U.P. College Folio (first issue, 1910); The Coconut of the Manila High School (first issue, 1912); and The Torch of the PNS (first issue, 1913).

However, the beginnings of anything resembling a professional market for writing in English would not be realized until the 1920s with the founding of other newspapers and magazines like the Philippines Herald in 1920, the Philippine Education Magazine in 1924 (renamed Philippine Magazine in 1928), and later the Manila Tribune, the Graphic, Woman’s Outlook, and Woman’s Home Journal. The publications helped introduce the reading public to the works of Paz Marquez Benitez, (Jose Garcia Villa), Loreto Paras, and Casiano Calalang, among others. Cash incentives were given to writers in 1921 when the Free Press started to pay for published contributions and awarded P1,000 for the best stories. The organization in 1925 of the Philippine Writers Association and in 1927 of the University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop, which put out the Literary Apprentice, also helped encourage literary production. In 1939, the Philippine Writers League was put up by politically conscious writers, intensifying their debate with those in the "art for art’s sake" school of Villa.

Among the significant publications of this fertile period were:

• Filipino Poetry (1924) by Rodolfo Dato;
• English-German Anthology of Filipino Poets (1934) by Pablo Laslo;
• Jose Garcia Villa’s Many Voices (1939) and Poems of Doveglion (1941);
• Poems (1940) by Angela Manalang-Gloria;
• Chorus for America: Six Philippine Poets (1942) by Carlos Bulosan;
• Zoilo Galang’s A Child of Sorrow (1921), the first Filipino novel in English, and Box of Ashes and Other Stories (1925), the first collection of stories in book form;
• Villa’s Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others (1933);
• "The Wound and the Scar" (1937) by Arturo Rotor, a collection of stories;
• "Winds of April" (1940) by N. V. M. Gonzalez;
• "His Native Soil" (1941) by Juan C. Laya;
• Manuel Arguilla’s "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Stories" (1941);
• Galang’s "Life and Success" (1921), the first volume of essays in English; and
• the influential "Literature and Society" (1940) by Salvador P. López.

Dramatic writing took a backseat due to the popularity of Filipino vaudeville (bodabil) and Tagalog movies, although it was kept alive by the playwright Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero.