Exploration of Philippine Literature a Corpus-Based Study Framework

Abstract

The literature of the Philippines shows the European, North American and Asian colonial legacy of the country, hence the diverse and richness of the written works that it contains. These literary pieces could be interpreted in various ways that could help understand how those influences shaped Philippine literature and contributed to the nation’s history and traditions over the years. The study sought to explore the literary works of the Philippines, particularly short stories. Narrative Analysis, specifically Gerard Genette’s theory of Narratology with four analytical categories — narrative mood, narrative instance, narrative levels, and narrative time was used in interpreting the selected 32 short stories from the American to the Contemporary period. After a thorough analysis of the selected pieces, the study was able to determine that predominantly, Filipino writers from the time specified followed a varied manner in the act of narrating, employed a heterodiegetic voice, extradiegetic in its embedded narratives and a fair incorporation of singulative, repetitive and iterative components. Through the analysis, it was found that the narrative mood, instance, time, and level that were found in each literary piece were represented in both distinct and relative manner. The researchers recommend to the administrators in education to utilize studies as means to structure other similar studies to help provide more evaluation and inquiries to the Philippine literary works and for future researchers to produce more credible and generous sources about the interpretation, survey and analysis of the different literary pieces in the Philippines from the previous eras to the Contemporary time.