Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
Division of Taguig City and Pateros
SENATOR RENATO "COMPAÑERO" CAYETANO
MEMORIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL
31st cor 51st Sts. Pamayanang Diego Silang, BCDA, Ususan, Taguig City
21st Century Literature
ABM 101
SHS Grade 11
1st Semester
TOPIC: Urbana and Felisa, Literary Styles and Themes
SUBMITTED BY: Villaueva, Stephanie Nicole N.
DATE: Nov. 27, 2017
SUBMITTED TO: Sir Judd Lawrence Guy-joco
Urbana at Felisa, a novel written in 1938 by Modesto de Castro was tremendously
popular from the 19th-century to the first half of the 20th-century.The story relates
the importance of purity and ideal virtues that married people should practice and
enrich. The whole title of the story is Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si
Urabana at ni Felisa.
Characters:
A. Urbana- the eldest sister of Feliza, who studies in Manila and who always
gives advices on how to act on certain occasions, how to properly write a
letter and things about love. She mentioned on her letter that Feliza should
be careful and do not be gullible. Her name symbolizes “Urbanidad” or good
manners in English.
B. Feliza- the younger sister of Urbana. She writes to her sister about her
worries and ask advices on how to properly act on her surroundings in
college and matters about love. Her name came from the Spanish word
“Feliz” meaning maligaya.
C. Honesto- youngest brother of Urbana whom she always advices to stay away
from vices and fights.
Written in Tagalog by a priest famous for his powerful sermons, Urbana at Felisa is
an example of the book of conduct that emerged in Europe during the Renaissance.
Its author used the epistolary style wherein a series of thirty-four letters, members
of a family in Paombong, Bulacan gave each other advice on the ideal conduct and
behavior expected of a middle-class and Christian family. Thus in her letters to her
younger siblings Felisa and Honesto, who remained in Paombong, Urbana, who left
for Manila to study, wrote not only of the need to follow the values and norms
found in Christian teaching, but as importantly, to observe the proper mode of
conduct as one dealt with people in society. The series of correspondences,
including a letter from a priest on the duties and responsibilities of married life,
touched on various facets of experience that a person underwent from birth to
death both in the secular and spiritual realms. In retrospect, Urbana at Felisa
should be perceived as a text not only meant to regulate conduct and behavior, but
as a discourse to contain the moral excesses of the period and affirm basic
Christian tenets.
About the Author:
Modesto de Castro (b. Early 19th c. – d. Beginning of 20th c.) was a Filipino
literary priest born in Biñan, Laguna. His first assignment was at the Manila
Cathedral, then to Naic, Cavite. He was an excellent orator, eloquent preacher and
a prolific writer in Tagalog. Among his well known works are the following: Urbana at
Felisa (1864) – book of golden rules, good manners, and right conduct; Platicas
Doctrinales (1855) – reprinted four times in 1877, 1907, 1905, and 1938; and Novena of St.
Isidro . He also wrote a collection of sermons and prose. Most critics called him the
“King of Prose.”
Colonial Period Literary Styles and Themes:
The Spanish colonial strategy was to undermine the native oral tradition by
substituting for it the story of the Passion of Christ (Lumbera, p. 14).
Although Christ was by no means war-like or sexually attractive as many of
the heroes of the oral epic tradition, the appeal of the Jesus myth inhered in
the protagonist’s superior magic: by promising eternal life for everyone, he
democratized the power to rise above death. It is to be emphasized,
however, that the native tradition survived and even flourished in areas
inaccessible to the colonial power. Moreover, the tardiness and the lack of
assiduity of the colonial administration in making a public educational
system work meant the survival of oral tradition, or what was left of it,
among the conquered tribes.
The church authorities adopted a policy of spreading the Church doctrines
by communicating to the native (pejoratively called Indio) in his own
language. Doctrina Christiana (1593), the first book to be printed in the
Philippines, was a prayerbook written in Spanish with an accompanying
Tagalog translation. It was, however, for the exclusive use of the
missionaries who invariably read them aloud to the unlettered Indio
catechumens (Medina), who were to rely mainly on their memory. But the
task of translating religious instructional materials obliged the Spanish
missionaries to take a most practical step, that of employing native speakers
as translators. Eventually, the native translator learned to read and write
both in Spanish and his native language.
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
Division of Taguig City and Pateros
SENATOR RENATO "COMPAÑERO" CAYETANO
MEMORIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL
31st cor 51st Sts. Pamayanang Diego Silang, BCDA, Ususan, Taguig City
21st Century Literature
ABM 101
SHS Grade 11
1st Semester
ORAL PRESENTATION
TOPIC:
DATE:
WRITTE
CONTEN CREATIVIT
MASTERY DELIVERY N TOTAL
NAME T Y
10% 10% REPORT 50%
10% 10%
10%
