What Are the Characteristics of Philippine Literature?
Philippine literature is typified by Ladino poems and the religious and secular dramas held on various religious holidays or following someone’s death. It is heavily influenced by the arrival of the Spanish in 1565.
Philippine literature was primarily oral in nature as most written literature was destroyed. After the destruction of the Philippine written literature by the Spanish during their conquest of the region, Spanish became the predominant language. The promotion of the Spanish language throughout the more accessible parts of the Philippines led to the development of the devotional poetry of the ladinos in the 1700s.
Other languages used in Philippine literature include English to a slight degree, the native Tagalog and other languages native to the Philippines.
