Nov. 12 2016, 4:58 p.m. – NATIONAL Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera has urged aspiring writers to continue writing about the horrors of Martial Law to help prevent the return of authoritarian rule.
“The young writers should have better knowledge on the history and literary movements during the Martial law to prevent the culture of forgetting,” Lumbera told the Varsitarian at the sidelines of a literary festival at the Ateneo de Manila on Nov. 11.
Lumbera, a Thomasian alumnus, advised writers to relate Martial Law to contemporary issues.
National Artist for Literature and Thomasian alumnus Bienvenido Lumbera reads before an audience at the Ateneo de Manila University for Taboan 2016, a literary and cultural festival. (Photo by Ma. Alyssa Adrienne T. Samonte)
Nov. 12 2016, 4:58 p.m. – NATIONAL Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera has urged aspiring writers to continue writing about the horrors of Martial Law to help prevent the return of authoritarian rule.
“The young writers should have better knowledge on the history and literary movements during the Martial law to prevent the culture of forgetting,” Lumbera told the Varsitarian at the sidelines of a literary festival at the Ateneo de Manila on Nov. 11.
Lumbera, a Thomasian alumnus, advised writers to relate Martial Law to contemporary issues.
“The writer will have to use contemporary events and relate them to what happened during Martial Law,” he said. “What is important is for the young writer to know how it affected the writers during dreadful era.”
The event, titled “Mga Sigwa ng Mata,” aimed to recall the atrocities committed under the one-man rule of former president Ferdinand Marcos, by revisiting literary works produced during the period.
READ: ‘Study history, oppose hero’s burial of Marcos’ – Martial Law victim
It was one of the “satellite initiatives” of Taboan 2016, a cultural and literary festival organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Winona S. Sadia and Neil Jayson N. Servallos
