Dual responsibility of creative writers
Ranjan Amarasinghe
CREATIVE WRITING:The 17th annual Susan George Pulimood memorial
oration organized by Visakha Vidyalaya Old Girls’ Association was
delivered on July 22 by Sita Kulathunga who is a well-known writer in
Sri Lanka.
Her oration was on “The Creative Writer And Social Change” which was
both stimulating and thought provoking and it was well-received by the
captivating audience consisting of past and present students of the
Visakha Vidyalaya, and a large number of distinguished and literary
minded guests.
At the preamble she showered her heart felt gratitude to Ms. Susan
George Pulimood, a Past-Principal of Visakha Vidyalaya, who not only
made great strides in developing the school but also with unbound
dedication moulded its students to be useful citizens imbibing them with
high values.
In her discourse she stressed on the creative writers’ social
responsibility as their creations can be both literary and political at
the same time.
She reiterated that a creative writer must be able to enhance the
perception of the readers with greater awareness of their environment.
In this endeavour he must be a revolutionary in breaking down
barriers such as superstitions prevailing in society. Furthermore, as a
committed creative writer he should have a single minded purpose in his
pursuit, that is to use his inborn talent of creativity for the
betterment of society.
Therefore it is imperative that creative writer must be able to take
a firm stand against social discrimination, corruption, nepotism,
inequality etc. without merely being a propagandist.
She said that the spectrum of creative writing is boundless, and some
of the subjects such as beauty, suffering and complex human mind have
always been the gist to writers from perennial times. Mrs. Kulathunga
emphasized that creative writing can be compartmentalized as emotional,
moral, symbolic or intellectual which is moulded into fine shape by the
writer’s imaginative usage of language as his chosen arsenal.
However, she lamented that some contemporary writers rather than
illuminating their readers through their literary work, try to confuse
them, thus it loses its very purpose of conveying a strong message to
their readers.
She stressed that even our folklore, which may not qualify as work of
much literary value, served a valuable social purpose. She also said
that epics such as Mahabaratha and Ramayanaya are legendary for their
heroism and violent persuasion.
She pointed out that Journalists even in the past, such as Charles
Dickens and, Earnest Hemingway got their experience and knowledge in
writing about social issues engaged in their profession which gave them
an acute awareness of their social responsibility.
Hence they were able to use their welter of experience in a creative
and subtle manner in their chosen genre of creative writing such as
poetry, drama, short story or novel. The influence of leftist thinking
is very much evident in the field of creative writing in its annals.
The fruition of this social task was facilitated by the pioneering
efforts made by a crop of great Russian writers who have gained
immortality in the process such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy,
Anton Chekov and Gogol who took a firm and clear stand against the
forces of oppression, social discrimination and exploitation.
In the contemporary literary scene, she mentioned some of the Indian
creative writers who have become literary icons or celebrities overnight
throughout the world such as Booker Prize Winner Arundhati Roy and
Vikram Seth who continue to make a vociferous protest against social
injustice and inequality through their excellent creative work.
In the field of Sri Lankan writing, the doyen of contemporary Sinhala
literature Martin Wikramasinghe, who himself was a committed socialist,
with a humane outlook, espoused social evils prevailing in the social
fabric of that time such as labour exploitation, erosion of our
traditional social values, and gradual transformation of our society
from feudal to capitalist economic system through his novels such as
“Gamperiaiya” and “Kaliugaya”
The eminent writer in her oration did not fail to hail profusely the
literary efforts of some of our modern writers, who have enriched the
corpus of Sri Lankan literature such as Gunadasa Amarasekera, K.
Jayatilake, Simon Navegattegama, PunyaKante Wijenaike, Manel Ranathunga,
Carl Muller, Asok Ferry etc. who are either using their mother-tongue
Sinhala Language or English Language as their medium of communication.
To sum up, it was a magical spell, in which the writer, Sita
Kulathunga was in her element, conjuring up rich ideas in abundance, a
rare-feat indeed, keeping the large and distinguished audience
enthralled, nearly for one hour, manifesting in no uncertain manner her
oratory and teaching skills, which was amply rewarded by the thunderous
ovation she received at the conclusion of her stimulating and very
comprehensive talk.
Finally it was a kind of a strident cry, propagating our true values,
cultural norms and more importantly wafting us with a rare fragrance of
refinement to dispel the dark and gloomy clouds of philistinism
spreading its wings tenaciously, like a cankerous cell, which if not
challenged fiercely and mercilessly by all right-thinking people
inclusive of intellectuals, it would certainly chime the death-knell of
our very civilization.
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