A critical edition of R. Zulueta Da Costa

• Main Author: Banez, Lourdes Gatmaitan
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1990
• Subjects: Zulueta, Rafael da Costa, 1915-
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/1314
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study aims to compile all the extant works of R. Zulueta da Costa. A critical edition of Zulueta's works has never been done before and this study aims to preserve the works of a Filipino poet who won the Commonwealth Award in Poetry in 1940. The writer limits the study to the published and unpublished works of only one poet, R. Zulueta da Costa. These are: 1. Like the Molave and Other Poems, 25 poems 2. First Leaves, 50 poems 3. My First Attempts at Verse Writing, 1933 (holograph), 23 poems 4. Translations (5) of the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca 5. Collections (2) of columns written for Philippine Women's Magazine on poetic theories, music, art and other diverse subject matter Notations, 37 columns and Mountains and Molehills, 135 columns. This critical compilation edition of all the works of Zulueta, including Mountains and Molehills published under a pen name, Mang Kihote, hopes to preserve his writings for posterity. Like the Molave, in typescript form, was adjudged best among 31 entries in the 1940 Philippine Commonwealth Literary Contests. Estrellita Gruenberg in her 1985 dissertation, A Proposed Canon of Philippine Literature classifies the poem Like the Molave as the best read poem in English. The survey conclusion also confirms the importance of a study of Zulueta, the poet. Further, the study hopes to precipitate other critical editions and initiate more studies on Philippine poetry in the interest of scholarship.The research design involved the typing and compilation of all extant works of Zulueta in usable form. Interviews were conducted with the poet himself and with all those who knew him and were still alive. Records published or unpublished both here and abroad and contemporaneous with Zulueta, were explored. The study is divided into two parts. Part One consists of the introduction, a literary biography and overview of the Commonwealth period, a thematic analysis of the works of Zulueta, and a recapitulation. Part Two anthologizes his works. The anthology is annotated and arranged chronologically.