Urbana at Feliza: A Cultural Analysis of Women Oppression in the Philippines During the Spanish Period

Abstract

Literature is viewed as a reflection on culture and society that uses popular ideas from the moment to illustrate and support cultural improvements. Literature is moreover commonly recognized as a trustworthy source for historical and cultural depiction. In order to recognize the ethics and values of Filipino women that were prevalent during the Spanish Period, Modesto de Castro's fictional epistolary book Urbana at Feliza, which centers on the various experiences, values, behavior, and attitudes of two sisters during the Spanish Period, fits to such a cultural study. By looking at a few scenes of Modesto de Castro's Urbana at Feliza, this paper analyzes the Cultural Values and Ethics of the Philippines that show injustice toward Filipino women during the Spanish Period. The study focuses on the episodes and main characters from the aforementioned epistolary work and is supported by Mead's Symbolic Interactionism Theory and Wollstonecraft's Liberal Feminism Theory. This study employs a qualitative methodology, particularly discourse analysis. The process of acquiring information is also divided into two phases: Phase 1 analyzes the selected episodes, and Phase 2 looks at characters. Modesto de Castro's epistolary and exemplary fictional novel Urbana at Feliza contains information on the cultural influences on Filipino women's morals and ethics during the Spanish Period that continue to have an impact on Filipino women today. This information can be found in the study's objective, which is to disseminate the data gathered to support both the main problem and the sub-problems. The results imply that Modesto de Castro's book exposes the cultural standards and ethics that subjected Filipino women to oppression throughout the Spanish Period.