Suri

Ang salitang “sori” (matandang baybay ng salitang “suri” sa Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala nina Noceda at Sanlucar) ay tumutukoy sa espesipikong paraan ng manghahabi sa pagtiyak na may pare-parehong nipis/gaspang ang mga hiblang hahabihin upang maging tela. Ipinahihiwatig samakatwid ng salita na pinararaan sa pamimili ang mga hiblang magiging tela. Sa librong itong pinamagatan kong Suri, layuning maglinaw sa mga usaping kaugnay ng pagbabasa ng panitikan.
Bagama’t ang mga sanaysay ay nauna nang nalathala sa ibang aklat na aking inakda, sa pagkakataong ito tinipon ang mga nasulat ko tungkol sa panitikan sa iisang koleksiyon upang mabigyan ang mga guro at mananaliksik ng ganap na pagkaunawa sa mga puntong pinalitaw ng aking panunuring pampanitikan tungkol sa pagbasa at interpretasyon ng mga malikhaing akda.
– Mula sa Introduksiyon

THE AUTHOR
BIENVENIDO LUMBERA
National Artist for Literature (2006)

Poet, critic, librettist, writer, scholar, and educator, Bienvenido “Bien” Lumbera is a multitalented auteur who, together with close friend Rolando Tinio, introduced to Tagalog literature what is known as bagay poetry—a landmark aesthetic tendency that has helped to change the vernacular poetic tradition. He uses everyday speech in unfamiliar ways and infuses his poems with the concreteness of objects, sounds, and experiences. His critically acclaimed musicals have, across the decades, thematized the story of the Filipino nation. During the Marcosian period, he played a key role in organizing socially committed artists into the group Panulat para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan (PAKSA). Using a nationalist perspective, PAKSA drafted a nationalist critique of the state of Philippine arts, and with Lumbera as founding chair, drew up an agenda that emphasized the role of artists as cultural workers in the movement for social change. A discerning and rigorous critic and scholar, Lumbera is widely acknowledged as one of the pillars of contemporary Philippine literature, cultural studies, and film, having written and edited numerous books on cinematic and literary history and criticism.