The Twentieth-Century Philippines in Ten Novels: Literature as History (1913–1975)

The Twentieth-Century Philippines in Ten Novels
Literature as History (1913–1975)

SOLEDAD S. REYES

The Twentieth-Century Philippines in Ten Novels: Literature as History (1913–1975) by the distinguished critic, scholar, writer, and translator, Soledad S. Reyes, analyzes and interprets ten Tagalog novels, providing fresh insights while also explaining the significance behind their historical and cultural contexts.

The book is composed of ten essays, one essay per novel, published between the periods of American colonialism, the Commonwealth Era, freedom and reconstruction after World War II, and Ferdinand E. Marcos’s dictatorship. It shows the power of literature to depict narratives, experiences, and points of view that are difficult—if not impossible to achieve, in straight historical accounts. The novels presented in this book are not just mere reenactments of important historical moments, but magnificent works that show the storytelling brilliance and personal interpretations of the novelists about certain important events in the country’s history.

In shedding light on ten Tagalog novels, Reyes has succeeded in providing an interpretation of Philippine history based, in part, on the perspectives, insights, experiences, struggles, and imagination of the novelists as well as the characters present in each of the novels. The book is yet again a testament to Reyes’s vast knowledge and erudition about Philippine literature and culture, a result of her decades of scholarly dedication.

This anthology of well-written and thought-provoking analyses of ten Tagalog novels written between 1913 and 1975, by premier scholar and critic Soledad Reyes, explores how the events in Philippine history impacted, inspired, and influenced the works of fiction of their time. It also reveals how novelists did not only reflect historical events but instead crafted narratives and characters embodying their understanding and personal interpretations of the nation’s cardinal moments.

–Nicanor G. Tiongson, PhD
Professor Emeritus, UP Film Institute,
College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines Diliman

 

Everyone familiar with Soledad S. Reyes’s monumental study, Ang Nobelang Tagalog (1905–1975): Tradisyon at Modernismo (1982), will welcome, with elation, this new volume by the same author, which focuses on ten of the original 300 volumes. These essays, in effect, constitute a history of the Tagalog novel, while representing a re-examination and re-evaluation of the novels, from the perspective of the twenty-first century.

–Dr. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo
Director of the Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies,
University of Santo Tomas

 

A literary criticism like no other, Soledad S. Reyes’s The Twentieth-Century Philippines in Ten Novels: Literature as History (1913–1975) is the most expansive, brilliant, and restless critiques of the societies that produced the men and women who created these fictional worlds and the cast of characters who inhabit them. The light shifts from memory to wisdom, from imagination to truth, and from recognition to tribute. With her impressive 15 translations, Reyes has no parallel in literary criticism and translation.

–Karina Africa Bolasco
Publisher and Book Industry Consultant

CONTENTS

Foreword
Preface 

Class, Power, and Love in Patricio Mariano’s Ang Tala sa Panghulo (1913) 

Love in the Time of the Revolution in Precioso Palma’s Ipaghiganti Mo Ako! (1914) 

Antonio Sempio’s Ang Punyal na Ginto: A Woman’s Vengeance in Patriarchy (1933) 

Power, Politics and Dissent in Servando de los Angeles’s Ang Huling Timawa (1936) 

The Past in the Present in Macario Pineda’s Ang Ginto sa Makiling (1947) 

Race, Class, Masculinity, and War in A. C. Fabian’s Timawa (1951) 

Rosario de Guzman Lingat’s Kung Wala Na ang Tag-araw: “Gather Ye Roses While Ye May!” (1969) 

Rosario de Guzman Lingat’s Ano Ngayon, Ricky?: The Tortuous Path to Liberation (1971) 

Liwayway Arceo’s Canal de la Reina: The Calm after the Apocalypse (1972) 

Rosario de Guzman Lingat’s Ang Balabal ng Diyos: “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the Glory” (1975) 

Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

About the Author 

Soledad S. Reyes is professor emeritus of interdisciplinary studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. Some of her published works are Nobelang Tagalog, 1905–1975: Tradisyon at Modernismo (1982); The Romance Mode in Philippine Popular Literature and Other Essays (1991); Pagbasa ng Panitikan at Kulturang Popular: Piling Sanaysay, 1976–1999 (1997); Teller of Tales, Singers of Songs (2001); Rosario de Guzman Lingat, 1924–1997: The Burden of Self and History (2003); A Dark Tinge to the World: Selected Essays 1987–2005 (2005); Salungat: A Soledad S. Reyes Reader (2012); Narratives of Note: Studies of Popular Forms in the 20th Century (2012); Retrieving the Past/Recuperating the Voice (2017); and Balik-Tanaw: The Road Taken, A Memoir (2022). She was also the editor of several notable anthologies such as Reading Popular Culture (1991); Katha (1992); Ang Silid na Mahiwaga: Kalipunan ng Kuwento’t Tula ng mga Babaeng Manunulat (1994); Aliw: Selected Essays on Popular Culture (2000); Lina Flor: Collected Works (2000); and Horacio de la Costa, SJ: Views From the Twentieth Century (2017).

© 2024 by Soledad S. Reyes and Vibal Foundation, Inc.
240 pages; 15.24 x 22.86 cm