The Path to Emergence: The Advocacy of Legasto in Philippine Literature (Other (Not Listed) Sample)

Charlene Ann Mildred Barroga HUM203B Paper 3 4ABHUM The Path to Emergence: The Advocacy of Legasto in Philippine Literature Perhaps one of the biggest issues that serve as a barrier to any country’s literary movement is its ability to own itself and move forward. This is because, as literature evolves when it comes to form, content, or even the structure critics, and theorists find it difficult to judge whether such written piece could be considered a work of Literature or While there are no easy answers to this issue, I propose that the ideas of Legasto becomes a potential gate opener to Emergent Literature as her ideas reflect on the flexibility of works that are to be called Literature in the Philippine setting. The first idea I would like to highlight is what Legasto opens up her thesis concerning the field of Literature - which is structuralism and post-structuralist viewpoints being less suitable for analyzing Philippine literature as it is more attuned to a Western context. To quote her introductory sentence as she says: “There has been a crisis in the humanities and the human sciences during the past few decades resulting from challenges posed by structuralism and post structuralism.” (Legasto, p. 40) Due to this, the ongoing developments in the study of humanism and the Humanities, there effected changes when it came to the view of man as such the definition of man who was the source and originator of all knowledge and history became deconstructed. In addition, the view of literature changed from the definition of literature as “reflective of/expressive of ‘full central immediate human experience'” (Legato p. 40) was changed by the challenges of the structuralist and the post structuralist— resulting the view of literature with no human experience which is “not mediated by language, ideology, or discourse” (Legato, p. 40-41). The relevance of the shift from structuralism to post structuralism is to learn how to analyze and look at our own works from Filipinos, hence a more contextually-appropriate lens. The second idea of Legasto's that I would like to emphasize are the three categories of discourse she mentioned - major, minor and minority. In looking at Major Literature—Legasto defines Major as something constituted by writings that is “perpetuated in spite of or perhaps as a response to the multiplicity of resistant culture emerging from those located in the margins of our society.” (Legasto, p. 48). In looking at some literary texts, one example of what would constitute as major literature in this case is the Legend of Maria Makiling. This is because, as the text has been written ever since the pre-colonial period, it has been passed on even up until this present day. In addition, the Legend highlights the ancient beliefs of Filipinos that seem to be mainstays in the united consciousness of the Filipino. This is evident in the example that Dr. Jose Rizal gave as he translated the Legend of Maria Makiling in quoting the introducing sentence: “In my town there is preserved a legend... inhabited the beautitul mountain which separates the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas'' (Rizal, p. 1) Here Rizal notes a geography in terms of the location where the legend lies today which mountain is now called Mount Makiling. Aside from this, Jose Rizal as well notes down the look of Maria Makiling and relates it to the original Filipino where he emphasizes the “kayumangging-kaligatan.” as the skin tone and the eye description (Rizal p. 1). Now people just focus on summaries concerning the Legend of Maria Makiling like different accredited sources thus making it being valued today. Next, we look at Minor Literature which talks about literature that is associated with topics such as Nationalism and literature that may still be relevant from that particular period. One of these is the Mi Ultimo Adios of Dr. Jose Rizal where the content shows love for the country and fellowmen. As to quote his first stanza: “Farewell, beloved Country, treasured region of the sun, Pearl of the sea of the Orient, our lost Eden!...”(Rizal, line 1-4). Then in the middle points of the poem he emphasizes the beauty of his own homeland. Lastly, as he bids farewell he emphasizes the purpose of his death. With this, we get to see the speaker’s utmost dedication with his works for the country. Today though it still may be considered under this category because it is still being discussed in classes related to Rizal as a highlight work of that time period, or talks related to him as people still try to promote the value of Philippine Nationalism which also spurned in that time period’s context. Lastly, in looking at the minority literature it is defined as literature that is excluded from the Philippine Literary canon because it is political or economic, and is often found within the works of the academe. My personal example here is Walang Sugat which is a play written by Severino Reyes which is no longer being valued as significant but discussed in academic settings, but as Legasto mentions there are a good number of these minority works found especially among the academe of the country. This brings me to the last idea, and perhaps the crux of Legasto as to why this type of categorization is quite relevant in our society: her call to emphasize and highlight minority works in banne...