CAHSS Faculty Articles

The Art of Paz Márquez-Benítez

Publication Title

Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society

ISSN

0115-0243

Publication Date

3-1991

Abstract

Excerpt

Paz Márquez-Benítez thought of herself principally as a teacher, but to historians of Philippine literature in English she is a pivotal literary figure.1 Yabes rhapsodizes that "One has reason to say that the Filipino short story in English, Athena-like, was born full-grown.... In the year it was born, 1925, appeared 'Dead Stars', by Paz Marquez Benitez, a story whose quiet beauty cannot be denied even by the most discriminating" (xx).2 The story's impact was so great that, for decades after its publication, 1925 was almost universally regarded as the year that Filipino short fiction in English moved from its "Age of Imitation" to its "Age of Adaptation and Experimentation."3 As Hosillos (54) puts it, "American influence crystallized in the short story which arose Venus-like with Paz Marquez Benitez' 'Dead Stars', published in the Philippines Herald of September 20,1925. The abler writers immediately recognized the story as incomparably superior to all the Filipino short stories published so far."

Volume

19

Issue

1

Link to Full Text
Peer Reviewed

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