Eminent writer pushes for a Center for Pangasinan Studies
DAGUPAN CITY, Feb 17, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Eminent writer Francisco Sionil Jose, one of the Philippine's national artists for literature, has called for the establishment of a Center for Pangasinan Studies and expressed hope that the University of Pangasinan (UPang) here will spearhead it.
The 84-year-old Jose, a native of Rosales, Pangasinan, spoke on Thursday at UPang where he was conferred a doctorate degree in humanities, honoris causa, by the school's board of regents.
After the conferment, he shared his rich experience in writing before academicians and members of the Pangasinan media in a lecture forum at the UPang conference room.
Jose, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1980, said the center can record the culture and contribution of Pangasinenes to the national trove.
Even as he expressed sadness that Pangasinan is waning as a literary language, he hailed efforts to revive local literature through the works of Santiago Villafania who just published a book of sonnets in Pangasinan.
Jose, whose five-novel series called the Rosales Saga which has been translated in more than 20 languages, said Pangasinan province "occupies a niche in our country's history".
At the same time, Jose rationalized the importance of literature, saying that it is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their past are found.
"Most Filipinos, our leaders included, do not consider literature important, it is only story telling and, therefore, mere entertainment. Moreover, although our national hero (Jose Rizal) was a novelist, Filipinos do not read novels," he said.
Jose stressed that writing is a vocation and writers serve as historians too.
He said perceptive scholars read the literatures of societies they are studying, adding that a people?s culture is best dredged and understood from their literature.
Jose said writers are also ultimate teachers for it is only in literature "that we learn ethics -- not in classes in religion or theology".
"The literary depiction of life and its moral dilemmas compels us to use our conscience, to make those infallible distinctions between right or wrong," he said. (PNA)
Source: http://education.tmcnet.com/news/2009/02/18/3998034.htm
The 84-year-old Jose, a native of Rosales, Pangasinan, spoke on Thursday at UPang where he was conferred a doctorate degree in humanities, honoris causa, by the school's board of regents.
After the conferment, he shared his rich experience in writing before academicians and members of the Pangasinan media in a lecture forum at the UPang conference room.
Jose, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1980, said the center can record the culture and contribution of Pangasinenes to the national trove.
Even as he expressed sadness that Pangasinan is waning as a literary language, he hailed efforts to revive local literature through the works of Santiago Villafania who just published a book of sonnets in Pangasinan.
Jose, whose five-novel series called the Rosales Saga which has been translated in more than 20 languages, said Pangasinan province "occupies a niche in our country's history".
At the same time, Jose rationalized the importance of literature, saying that it is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their past are found.
"Most Filipinos, our leaders included, do not consider literature important, it is only story telling and, therefore, mere entertainment. Moreover, although our national hero (Jose Rizal) was a novelist, Filipinos do not read novels," he said.
Jose stressed that writing is a vocation and writers serve as historians too.
He said perceptive scholars read the literatures of societies they are studying, adding that a people?s culture is best dredged and understood from their literature.
Jose said writers are also ultimate teachers for it is only in literature "that we learn ethics -- not in classes in religion or theology".
"The literary depiction of life and its moral dilemmas compels us to use our conscience, to make those infallible distinctions between right or wrong," he said. (PNA)
Source: http://education.tmcnet.com/news/2009/02/18/3998034.htm
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