By TERENCE REPELENTE
- Noli Me Tangere
Noli Me Tángere (Latin for “Don’t Touch Me”) is a novel written by José Rizal, one of the national heroes of the Philippines, during the colonization of the country by Spain to describe perceived inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government.
Originally written in Spanish, the book is more commonly published and read in the Philippines in either Tagalog or English.Together wi th its sequel, El Filibusterismo, the reading of Noli is obligatory for high school students throughout the country. The two novels are widely considered as the national epic of the Philippines and are performed in non-musical operas throughout the country.
- The Woman Who Had Two Navels
The Woman Who Had Two Navels is a 1961 historical novel by Nick Joaquin, a National Artist for Literature and leading English-language writer from the Philippines. It is considered a classic in Philippine literature. It was the recipient of the first Harry Stonehill award. It tells the story of a Filipino elite woman who is hallucinating, and is preoccupied with the notion that she has two navels or belly buttons in order to be treated as an extraordinary person.
The novel is a literary assessment of the influence of the past to the time encompassing events in the Philippines after World War II, an examination of an assortment of legacy and heritage and the questions of how can an individual exercise free will and how to deal with the “shock” after experiencing “epiphanic recognition.”
- Po-on
Po-on is the beginning of the Rosales Saga of National Artist F. Sionil José. The saga is a series of novels about Rosales, Pangasinan in the Philippines. The Rosales Saga has five parts, all of them individual but interrelated novels, composed namely of the following titles in terms of historical chronology: Po-on, Tree, My Brother, My Executioner, The Pretenders, and Mass. Alive in the novel were the concepts and the events that emanated during peace time and wartime, even the status of the poor and the affluent, of the privileged and the powerful, and of those who have privileges, freedoms, and rights.
- Banaag at Sikat
Banaag at Sikat or From Early Dawn to Full Light is one of the first literary novels written by Filipino author Lope K. Santos in the Tagalog language in 1906. As a book that was considered as the “Bible of working-class Filipinos,” the pages of the novel revolve around the life of Delfin, his love for a daughter of a rich landlord, while Lope K. Santos also discusses the social issues such as socialism, capitalism, and the works of the united associations of laborers.
- State of War
State of War is the first novel written in 1988 by American Book Award recipient, feminist, author, journalist, human rights activist, and Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It was described as a political novel that recreated the diverse culture of the Philippines through the presentation of an allegorical Philippine history.
- Mga Ibong Mandaragit
Mga Ibong Mandaragit or Mga Ibong Mandaragit: NobelangSosyo-Politikal is a novel written by the Filipino writer and social activist Amado V. Hernandez in 1969. Mga Ibong Mandaragit, hailed as Hernandez’s masterpiece, focuses on the neocolonial dependency and revolt in the Philippines. The novel reflects Hernandez’s experience as a guerrilla intelligence officer when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945. The narrative, illustrates Hernandez’s yearning for change and the elevation of the status of Philippine society and living conditions of Filipinos. The setting is in the middle of 1944, when the armed forces of the Japanese Empire were losing.
- Ang Tundo Man Ay Langit Din
Ang Tundo Man May Langit Din is a 1986 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Andres Cristobal Cruz. The 324-page novel was published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. The novel involves love and romance occurring between individuals that are residing in a poverty-stricken area in Tondo, Manila in the Philippines. The social background of the individuals produces a “dramatizing effect” in presenting the Philippine experience laid out in contemporary context and setting.
- Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag
Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag is a 1986 Tagalog language novel written by Filipino author Edgardo M. Reyes, originally serialized in Liwayway Magazine from 1966 to 1967. Julio, a poor fisherman, goes to Manila to search for his betrothed named Ligaya. Sometime before Julio’s trip, Ligaya had left with a lady named Mrs. Cruz in order to study and work in the city. Now in Manila, Julio becomes a victim to some of the city’s scums. Julio experiences abuses while working in a construction site. He eventually loses his job and desperately looks for a decent place where he can sleep. Slowly, Julio develops a cynical demeanor as he gradually loses hope of ever finding Ligaya. The story became the basis for the award-winning Filipino film, Manila in the Claws of Lightdirected by National Artist for Film Lino Brocka.
- America Is in the Heart
America Is in the Heart is a 1946 semi-autobiographical novel written by Filipino American immigrant poet, fiction writer, short story teller, and activist Carlos Bulosan. The novel was one of the earliest published books that presented the experiences of the immigrant and working class based on an Asian American point of view and has been regarded as “The premier text of the Filipino-American experience.” In his introduction, journalist Carey McWilliams, who wrote a 1939 study about migrant farm labor in California (Factories in the Field), described America Is in the Heart as a “social classic” that reflected on the experiences of Filipino immigrants in America who were searching for the “promises of a better life.”
- My Sad Republic
My Sad Republic is a 2000 Philippine English-language novel written by Filipino novelist Eric Gamalinda. The novel won for Gamalinda a Philippine Centennial Literary Prize in 1998. The novel was published by the Philippine Centennial Commission, the University of the Philippines Press, and the UP Creative Writing Center. My Sad Republic is the fourth novel written by Gamalinda. The theme of the novel is “love, obsession, and loss” occurring during the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish colonial regime of the Philippines, and during the Philippine–American War.