Bienvenido L.

Lumbera
Bienvenido L. Lumbera was born on April 11, 1932. He spent most of his youth in Batangas until he
entered the University of Santo Tomas in 1950 to pursue a degree in journalism. He completed his M.A.
and then his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Indiana University in 1967. Lumbera writes in English
and Filipino, and has produced works in both languages.
He has a poetry collection entitled Likhang Dila, Likhang Diwa (1993), and Balaybay: Mga Tulang Lunot
at Manibalang, a collection of new poems in Filipino and those from Likhang Dila. He has several critical
works, including Abot-Tanaw: Sulyap at Suri sa Nagbabagong Kultura at Lipunan (1987) and Writing the
Nation/Pag-akda ng Bansa (2000). He has also done several librettos, among them Tales of the Manuvu
(1977) and Rama Hari (1980). Sa Sariling Bayan: Apat na Dulang May Musika (DLSU, 2003) collects
the four historical musicals Nasa Puso ang Amerika, Bayani, Noli Me Tangere: The Musical, and Hibik at
Himagsik Nina Victoria Laktaw.
Dr. Lumbera has been a recipient of numerous awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1993, the Gawad CCP, Gawad Pambansang
Alagad ni Balagtas, Manila Critics' Circle and the Palanca. He has also gained Professor Emeritus status
in the University of the Philippines. He also serves in the Board of Advisers of the UP Institute of
Creative Writing. This 2006, for his creative and critical work directed towards a literature rooted in the
search for nationhood, Dr. Lumbera received the much-coveted title of National Artist for Literature.
Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology
Through the years, this book on Philippine Literature has helped students understand the pressures which
shaped Philippine writing, and how writers and their audience responded to those pressures. Philippine
Literature: A History and Anthology gives direction to the study of Philippine Literature and provides an
interpretation of literary development in the Philippines.
Writing the Nation/Pag-akda ng Bansa
The book gathers into a single volume scattered writings on Philippine art and culture by Bienvenido
Lumbera. The cultural phenomena that generated comment and discussion—literary works, theatrical
performances, films, conferences, book launches, etc.—have been viewed within a framework spelled out
by the first two sections of the book: “Culture and Politics” and “Language and Culture.” Lumbera has
always made culture and nationalism the advocacy of his teaching and writing, and in this book, he
elaborates on these intertwining themes.
Tagalog Poetry, 1570-1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development
This book provides the perspective that allows readers and critics to read Tagalog poetry with
understanding. In his analysis of Tagalog poetry from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, the
author finds tradition being continually modified by a dialectic which eventually results in the
reconciliation of tradition and outside influences. Since it was first written as a doctoral dissertation in
1967, this book has been a strong seminal influence. As the first historico-critical study of Philippine
literature, it has pioneered in disovering methods and setting norms for the study of literature in Tagalog
and other Philippine literature. It has opened the door to continuing research in Philippine literature,
encouraging scholars to retrieve and libraries to preserve documents of native literature. The study has
become both model and inspiration for a generation of scholars and works in literary history and
criticism.
Mula Tore Patungong Palengke: Neoliberal Education in the Philippines
The present education system clearly curtails the development of a genuine nationalist consciousness
among the youth and students. It continues to shape the thinking and consciousness of students towards
an orientation which reflects the country's long history of foreign colonization and exploitation.
Instead of achieving sovereignty in our political life, economy and culture, education is used as a tool for
perpetuating a slave mentally and a social system that protect the interests of US imperialism —even if
these result in the country's economic perdition and involvement in meaningless wars. The violent and
exploitative character of the current world order is masked by the rhetoric of neoliberal globalization
which is peddled as the solution to all the problems of the world.
In addition to these, the neoliberal educational system promotes a selfish and individualist ideology that
weakens the feeling of a shared nationalist interest. It stamps in the student’s mind the notion that
education is only for their own self-interest; that it is mainly a tool for social mobility in a globalized
world. It is these two tendencies, a colonial consciousness and individualist ideology, that immensely
weakens the formation of a genuine nationalist consciousness among our youth and students.
Revaluation 1997: Essays on Philippine Literature, Cinema, and Popular Culture
Long out of print, Revaluation is a compilation of Bienvenido Lumbera’s critical essays on Philippine
literature, cinema, and popular culture between 1962 and 1984. The 1997 edition adds 22 new articles and
an interview to the original 13 essays of the 1984 edition, all of them hallmarks of Lumbera’s consistent
nationalist and democratic outlook. The result is an impressive survey of Philippine culture as
reinterpreted—and revaluated—by an important critic and teacher who has exercised a strong influence
on the directions Philippine cultural scholarship has been taking for nearly three decades now.
Salita ng Sandata: Bonifacio's Legacies to the People's Struggles
The real and urgent task of national democratic scholars and intellectuals is to go back to Andres
Bonifacio and connect his revolutionary aspiration to the current movement of the masses. It is therefore
the duty of all the patriotic and revolutionary forces to explain Bonifacio's role and accord him his proper
place not only in history, but more important, in the continuing armed movement for national liberation.
Scholars and intellectuals have much to learn from the experience of Andres Bonifacio and how to
succeed and seize the moment where Bonifacio and his contemporaries failed. Repeating Bonifacio
means, without discomfiture, embracing the necessity of armed revolution as the main form of struggle
for national liberation, while building alliances with all progressive movements of society to bring about
drastic social change.
Suri: Pag-arok sa Likhang-Panitik/Probing the Literary Text
Ang salitang “sori” (matandang baybay ng salitang “suri” sa Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala nina
Noceda at Sanlucar) ay tumutukoy sa espesipikong paraan ng manghahabi sa pagtiyak na may pare-
parehong nipis/gaspang ang mga hiblang hahabihin upang maging tela. Ipinahihiwatig samakatwid ng
salita na pinararaan sa pamimili ang mga hiblang magiging tela. Sa librong itong pinamagatan kong Suri,
layuning maglinaw sa mga usaping kaugnay ng pagbabasa ng panitikan.
Bagama’t ang mga sanaysay ay nauna nang nalathala sa ibang aklat na aking inakda, sa pagkakataong ito
tinipon ang mga nasulat ko tungkol sa panitikan sa iisang koleksiyon upang mabigyan ang mga guro at
mananaliksik ng ganap na pagkaunawa sa mga puntong pinalitaw ng aking panunuring pampanitikan
tungkol sa pagbasa at interpretasyon ng mga malikhaing akda.
– Mula sa Introduksiyon
Ang Pambansa, Alagad, Sining, at Panitikan: Mga Piling Sanaysay
National Artist for Literature and lifelong activist-scholar-public intellectual Bienvenido Lumbera's Ang
Pambansa, Alagad, Sining, At Panitikan: Mga Piling Sanaysay (The National, Artist, Art, and Literature:
Selected Essays) is a slim yet intellectually packed volume. It republishes four essays in Filipino, derived
from the national artist's public lectures from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. In this "changeless land,"
to borrow David Timberman's description of the Philippines, the decision of Ateneo de Naga University
Press to reproduce Lumbera's lectures today serves to highlight the tragic perpetuation of First World-
leaning "globalization" (3, 63–65) in the politics, economy, and culture of a country that is still in the
process of decolonization (3). In our archipelago further blighted by the pandemic-era failings of a
seemingly loan-addicted autocratic regime presiding over slow vaccination drives and insufficient
emergency aid (ayuda), Lumbera's subtle tirades against transnational financial institutions (3, 64) and
their local partners (1–2)—in eloquent lectures on Filipino/Philippine aesthetics—remain powerful and
relevant.
In 1986 Lumbera's landmark dissertation, "Tagalog Poetry, 1570–1898: Tradition and Influences in its
Development," was published (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1986). Most of his other publications
are in Filipino, ranging from staples in the reading lists of many Filipino graduate classes today such as
Writing the Nation/Pag-akda ng Bansa (University of the Philippines Press, 2000) and Suri: Pag-arok sa
Likhang-Panitik/Probing the Literary Text (University of the Philippines Press, 2017) to literary
collections like Likhang Dila, Likhang Diwa (Crafted Tongue, Crafted Consciousness; Anvil, 1993),
Poetika/Politika: Tinipong mga Tula (Poetics/Politics: Collected Poems; University of the Philippines
Press, 2008), and Sa Sariling Bayan: Apat na Dulang May Musika (In One's Own Land: Four Musical
Plays; De La Salle University Press, 2003).

References:
Juan, D. M. M. S. (2021, October 9). Ang Pambansa, Alagad, Sining, at Panitikan: Mga Piling
Sanaysay by Bienvenido Lumbera (review). Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic
Viewpoints. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/810901/summary
Goodreads. (n.d.). Books by Bienvenido L. Lumbera (author of Philippine literature). Goodreads.
Retrieved September 16, 2022, from
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5156421.Bienvenido_L_Lumbera