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Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Keywords

crisis, archipelagic, Philippine literature, National Artist, ecocriticism, Cirilo F. Bautista, empathy, ecocriticism

Abstract

Contemporary crises continue to confront Filipinos. These include the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic corruption within the Philippine government, the red-tagging of activists, the deterioration of institutional integrity and public confidence in the Philippine government, and the US war against Iran, together with its global repercussions such as rising oil prices and displacement. This paper proposes that individuals turn to literature, beyond the fields of science or policymaking, during times of crisis and distress. Specifically, the lyric poems of National Artist for Literature Cirilo F. Bautista, distinguished by their evident relevance, form, and capacity to influence readers both emotionally and intellectually, could help readers acquire and practice values, skills, and mindsets essential for them to have more effective responses to, or awareness of, crises. The study advances this objective by stressing that Bautista’s poetics mediate hope, allow empathy practice, assist active environmental awareness, and cultivate the imagination. The study reasserts the value of literature amid universities’ growing preference for profit-driven, income-generating programs. It also affirms the visionary and indisputable contributions of National Artists for Literature as their works continue to engage with and inform human efforts to address the contemporary world’s experience of crises, even beyond the writer’s own time.

First Page

26

Last Page

42

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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