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Panhidaka Sanhida:
Enhancing of women writers’ skills through education
by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE
Panhidaka Sanhida, a one day - literary workshop for amature writers
was held recently at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Apart from the
women writers representing diverse parts of Sri Lanka, majority of them
were from rural areas. The literary workshop, among other things, proved
the fact that Sri Lanka possesses a pool of talents which is blunt and
needed to be nurtured with infusion of knowledge and skills. As a
vulnerable group of society, women’s social status and obligations have
made them most inaccessible segment of the society to knowledge and
opportunities. The workshop, though in a minuscule way, attempted
imparting basic knowledge of the latest literary theory and to give an
overview on the development of novel, short story and finer craft of
poetry writing.
Given the sheer diversity of participants which represented all
segments of society and three major linguistic groups; Sinhala, English
and Tamil, one of the important facts that drew attention was the need
to conduct separate sessions in three languages. However, for want of
space and time, the workshop was conducted in the Sinhala medium while
Tamil and English scripts were given to the participants.
It has been stressed that at least, each subject area should be given
a day and the topics may be divided among a couple of resource persons
so that somewhat comprehensive knowledge be given to the participants.
For instance, eight hours can be divided into three sessions together
with practical exercises so as to give a practical ferver to the
seminars. For instance, if scriptwriting is the day’s topic, a kind of
an analysis on the craft of scriptwriting and the technical aspects that
can be looked into can be cited with a couple of exercises.
In expanding the workshop, the organisers were of the view that, at
the next stage, a day will be allocated to one subject. Depending on the
outcome, three days would be allocated to featuring one subject areas
such as the novel and the short story, poetry and scriptwriting. For
instance, if the novel is the subject of discussion, the novel as a
medium of literature would be analysed with extracts from novels and
techniques such as first person narrative will be explained citing
examples. The academic components of the seminar would also be improved
expanding a subject area into three days. A resource person would
deliver a lecture, for instance, analysing the minutest details from the
evolution of poetry, genres and the latest trends in literary landscape.
The scope of the subjects would be expanded to include subjects such as
appreciation, criticism and lyric writing.
Over the years lyric writing has become one of the most lucrative
arts in Sri Lanka especially against the backdrop of developing song as
a principal mode of entertainment. Although the sheer demand for lyric
writers is good for the growth and sustenance of the music industry, the
question arises whether these mushrooming lyricists are delivering
qualitative goods. Though waves of new trends in the arena of music
would add different flavours to the range of music, and contemporary
traditions in the country, it is doubtful whether songs of lasting value
have been produced by these so called lyricists. The majority of
listeners are still enjoying the songs made in the 1970s and 1980s.
Except for a couple of lyricists such as Ratna Sri Wijesinghe,
Kularathne Ariyawansa, Sunil Ariyarathne Bandula Nanayakkarawasam and
Wasantha Kumara Kobawaka etc., there are few lyrists who have written
lyrics of lasting value.
Though song is an important art form, the workshop could not allocate
a session for want of time. However, two songs written by women
lyricists who had won awards were played at the opening session
dedicated to poignant poet Gajaman Nona. Women lyricists such as Yamuna
Malani Perera and Pushpa Ramlani have not won any awards. For instance,
the first ever song which won an award in teledrama was the song written
by Sumithra Rahubadde for the teledrama ‘Agapipi Mal’ and in films, the
theme song written by Enokaa Satyangani for the film ‘Sulag Kirilli’.
Among the resource persons were Liyanage Amarakeethi, Saman
Wickremarachchi, Buddadasa Galapaththi, Namel Weeramuni and Wasantha
Obeysekara who represented diverse schools of thinking. Of them,
Liyanage Amerakeerthi and Saman Wickremarachchi who have a thorough
grasp of modern trends in literature rendered a flavour to the workshop.
In fact, their lecturers were among the most liked lecturers in terms of
feedback. Another segments of women writers preferred Namel Weeramuni’s
lecture.
The resource personnel drawn from diverse backgrounds would have been
a strength rather than a weakness of the workshop. Participants were
from diverse social and class backgrounds. Most of the senior lecturers
and writers highly appreciated the attempts made by the organisers.
However, there were bouquets and brickbats. One of the shortcomings was
that time had not been allocated for interaction between mature women
writers and senior women writers. The organisers were of the opinion
that the committee of resource personnel should have been drawn from
those who are actually in the field so as to represent the current
trends in the field of writing. Subjects such as journalism which has
now become public opinion moulders should be included in the range of
subjects for the workshops. The organisers hope to conduct separate
sessions in Tamil and English in order to break the language barrier.
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