Literary genres

The second half of the standard expected of every high school graduate needs explanation: “The learner demonstrates literary and communicative competence through his/her understanding of the different genres of literature and other text types for a deeper appreciation of Philippine culture and those of other countries.”

Because the new English curriculum is literature-based, the genres of literature take center stage. What are these genres or types? The English Concept Matrix developed by the Bureau of Secondary Education of DepEd lists them as Narrative, Drama, Poetry, and Essay, to be taught in that order every year for four years.

It is easy to see why the matrix starts with narrative. Children grow up listening to stories. As adults, we continue to listen to stories. These stories (some of them factual, most of them mere products of fertile imaginations) are about politicians, movie stars, neighbors, and so on. Narrative is easy to understand and easy to create.

Drama is also something very familiar to children and even adults. It is not only television dramatic series (teleplays or telenovelas) that are based on drama, but even news stories and talk shows, that invariably appeal to our sense of the dramatic. Feature films, of course, are plays on screen. The transition from narrative to drama is natural.

Poetry is the heart of literature. Even if stories and dramatic situations are all around us, it is rare for us to create or to listen to poems. Of course, the lyrics of songs are also verses and even occasionally rise to the level of poetry. But by and large, poetry is not something we experience in our daily lives, the way we thrive on narrative and drama. After two quarters or grading periods tackling narrative and drama, students in high school are ready to tackle what most likely appears to them as the formidable task of understanding poetry. But it is in poetry that language achieves its finest form; this is the reason for studying poetry.

Finally, towards the end of the academic year, students will study essays. The essay is usually unjustly seen as mere expository prose, the kind that we can read in newspapers or hear in speeches. The essay as a literary form, however, is special. It consists of formal essays, familiar essays, and what today is known as Creative Nonfiction (factual texts that read like fictional texts).

The student will learn language through literary texts that are arranged according to genre and ease of reading. This is a significant departure from the older way of dealing with literature, namely, chronologically. It is easier for a student to appreciate literature if there is no attempt made to start from the beginning of literature and to work towards the present. In such an educationally unsound approach, we would have to start with epic poetry and end with film, violating the cardinal rule that learning should proceed from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

The matrix specifies that, in the first year, the texts will come from Philippine literature. In the second year, the texts will come from Afro-Asian literature, including Philippine literature because we are an Asian country. In the third year, the texts will come from British-American literature, including Philippine literature because we used to be an American colony. In the fourth year, the texts will come from World Literature, including Philippine literature because we are in the world.

In short, all throughout high school, students will be reading Philippine literary texts. This is an important component of the new curriculum. We privilege our own literature, not just because it is familiar (following the educational rule) but because it is our own (we want our children to love our country). (To be continued)

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: July 13 Monday: 1. but/ahas, 2. growth/agad, 3. branch/akala, 4. print/alangan, 5. who/alak, 6. learning/anino; July 14 Tuesday: 1. dry/alay, 2. guide/akyat, 3. part/alon, 4. safe/bakal, 5. wine/alagad, 6. limit/alamang; July 15 Wednesday: 1. how/alat, 2. cough/agaw, 3. of/anak, 4. range/ani, 5. when/alaala, 6. married/ampaw; July 16 Thursday: 1. box/alam, 2. cloth/akay, 3. at/akma, 4. rate/ahon, 5. why/ampon, 6. army/alamat; July 17 Friday: 1. let/bahay, 2. drain/baba [chin], 3. if/bakod, 4. ray/baboy, 5. will/balita, 6. attack/babala. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.