Philippine E-Journals

Florante and Bayang Malaya: Shouts for Freedom from External Restraints

Eduardo T. Deveza

Discipline: Cultural Studies

 

Abstract:

Bayang Malaya is the Florante at Laura of our time, as some writers, have observed. This writer has, therefore, deemed it worthwhile to make a comparative study of Francisco Baltazar's Florante at Laura and Amado V. Hernandez's Bayang Malaya. In as much as the two works were written in two separate periods of Tagalog poetry -the Florante during the Period of the Dalit ("Panahon ng Dalit") in the nineteenth century while the Bayang Malaya during the Period of Imprisonments and Barricades ("Panahon sa Bartolina at Barikada") in the twentieth century - this writer has sought recourse to certain timeless qualities as instruments of comparison, qualities that may serve as tests or standards by which we may know the best. Thus, the writer will point out the similarities and differences of both works as far as the following fundamental elements are concerned: formalistic, intellectual, imaginative, and emotional elements which should be embodied in any literary work.