Abstract
Introduction
The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies held its second major conference in consecutive years, something that had not happened for a considerable period of time. On this occasion, once again after a long lapse, it was held in the capital, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, which hosted the major ACLALS triennial in 1995. The conference theme “The 21st Century Postcolonial: Issues and Challenges in Literature and Language” attracted plenary speakers from within and outside the country. The first plenary by Ashely Halpé, the former Chair of the Association, covered Sri Lankan writing in English from its beginnings to the present. On the second day, Pramod Nayar of the University of Hyderabad, who was unable to be present, spoke via a Skype video link on the topic “The Postcolonial Bildungsroman: Knowing Subalternity and the Culture of Human Rights”. It so happened that the conference coincided with the visit to Sri Lanka of one of the pioneers of what was at one time called “Commonwealth Literature”: Edwin Thumboo, the Singaporean academic, poet and much more besides. His joint paper with Thiru Kandiah (a linguist) who had himself worked in the University of Singapore for years before returning to his alma mater, the University of Peradeniya, as Professor of English, was one of the highlights of the conference. Whereas other papers treated language and literature separately, theirs focused on the inextricable link between the two and why this should be borne in mind when research is undertaken in these fields. As Kandiah says in his part of the paper,
the study of literary creativity in English in such contexts of its nature makes inescapable an explicit engagement with matters of language. What is more, it appears that that engagement, going far beyond a mere cursory nod in the direction of language, needs to be fully as rigorous and sophisticated as the engagement with the familiar literary matters that the study of that creativity in any event equally inescapably entails.
The other international participants included Carol Leon from the University of Malaya who read a paper on “The 21st Century Postcolonial: Issues and Challenges Faced by the Diasporic Self and Community”. Among the papers by local participants, one which stood out was Sumathy Sivamohan’s “‘It Is Not about Race’: Reading Shehan Karunatilaka’s Novel Chinaman against the Grain”. That “against the grain” refers to a subaltern reading is plain but, more importantly, hers was perhaps a rare criticism of a text which had been unreservedly commended on in Sri Lanka and abroad as one of the best novels ever written by a Sri Lankan.
The Gratiaen prize winning novel was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in English before the year’s end. The Gratiaen Prize for 2011 was won by Madhubhashini Dissanayake-Ratnayaka for her manuscript “There’s Something I Have to Tell You”. The judges’ citation declares it
A considered and critical chronicling of the complex socio-politics of contemporary Sri Lanka through the interconnected lives of youth from contrasting social and cultural backgrounds. Though divided by class, they are united in their idealism for reimagining the country. The eventual failure of their politics becomes the focus of a critique of Sri Lankan society – especially of its politically ascendant Sinhala upper middle class and its turn to a puritanical Sinhala Buddhist nationalism and a leftist movement overwhelmed by violence and ethno-nationalism. A skillfully written novel which interweaves the personal with the political through a poignant, emotionally and morally compelling cast of characters placed in exigent circumstances.
The other shortlisted entries were Charulatha Abeysekara Thewarathanthri, “Autumn Leaves”; Lucky de Chickera, Sarasu: Amidst Slums of Terror; Mariam Riza, Cry For Me a Little and Malinda Seneviratne, “Some Texts are Made of Leaves”. The last is a collection of poems; all others are works of fiction. Malinda Seneviratne sent in an entry for the HAI Goonetileke Prize for Translation as well (also offered by the Gratiaen Trust, usually once in two years) and he won this prize for his translation of Sansare Dadayakkaraya by Simon Navagattegama into an English novel “The Hunter in the Wilderness of Sansara”.
Only three of the shortlisted works submitted for the Gratiaen have been published. The judges found Sarasu: Amidst Slums of Terror,
A fast paced and readable text that works within the conventions of the thriller genre while striving for social commentary and critique. Replete with romance, suspense and action, the hallmarks of the thriller, Sarasu is an engaging read — a page turner in colloquial terms. The grittiness of the lives of the urban poor is almost cinematically invoked and in a unique move the text chronicles the lives of a family as it is displaced from the slums of India to the slums of Sri Lanka. Constantly shifting between two locations and time frames, the text effectively maintains its swift momentum.
Mariam Riza’s book was described as a
… well crafted collection of short stories which confronts a range of controversial topics from homophobia to ethnic conflict and exploitation of women to patriarchy. Told in a terse and succinct style, the stories have the ability to immerse the reader in their life-worlds. Pervaded by a heightened sense of drama, these stories compel the reader to confront the harsh realities of our society and demand we take notice of the injustices and prejudices around us that complacency allows us to ignore.
Malinda Seneviratne was praised for bringing out a
… finely crafted collection of verse conveyed in a fresh and innovative style. The collection is characterized by a unique poetic diction capable of addressing a range of eclectic topics with sensitivity. While some of the poetry addresses the minutiae of everyday existence, other pieces are more philosophically reflective or politically and socially conscious. What unifies the collection is a sense of poetic understatement which provides it with a tone of controlled reflection which rarely spills over into melodrama.
Finally, A moving and lyrical piece of writing that appears to adopt the form of a fictionalized memoir. ‘Autumn Leaves’ assumes an intensely personal narrative perspective which effectively conveys the emotional bond between a daughter and her father and their unconventional relationship with passionate intensity in a style that is able to evoke emotion and place with vividness. The story is simply told, but the sense of melancholy that accompanies this telling lends emotional depth to the narrative.
This prize has attracted controversy ever since Michael Ondaatje instituted it in Sri Lanka nineteen years ago, but nothing which has appeared previously can compete with the vitriolic abuse levelled at the Trust which administers the prize and the judges selected for the panel that followed the announcement of the 2010 winner in 2011. Journalists who have made it a fetish of berating the institution went to the extent of focusing on the judges’ private lives and in taking the extracts from the Chair’s speech, quoting the same out of context and then berating him for “intellectual dishonesty”. One of the writers actually prayed for the day when this prize would cease to be and another, more fitting to the needs of a different generation, would be constituted. Despite such entreaties, submissions sent each year remain constant and some of its sternest critics continue to submit entries for the prize.
Orhan Pamuk’s and Kiran Desai’s pulling out of the Galle Literary Festival under pressure from two Human Rights groups brought yet more controversy to the Festival. They were followed by Damon Galgut for apparently the same reasons. Despite the calls for a boycott, this year’s festival once again brought in a host of writers from overseas. One who proved most popular was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, which she spoke about at length, had resonances for those who remembered the Biafran war and also for a younger generation of Sri Lankans who had grown up during the ethnic conflict on the island. Ayathurai Santhan, Liyanage Amarakeerthi, Prashani Rambukwella, Chamalie Jirasinghe and Vivimarie VanderPoorten were notable Sri Lankan participants in a festival that also featured panels on translations and space for writers with Sri Lankan connections living overseas, like Rushi Fernando and Randy Boyagoda.
The prolific Vihanga Perera came out with another work of fiction in the year under review. On his latest creation, The Fear of Gambling, the author comments in a personal note to the compiler of this bibliography,
The narrative, set between 2009 [and the] present, deals with the ‘national space’ of Sri Lanka and the personal life of the protagonist. The protagonist is in search for his ‘self’ as well as a woman he once claimed to love, while meandering among nostalgic memories of old. Simultaneously, the government of the country is pressing for a military defeat of the rebel LTTE, stimulating various responses among the protagonist’s milieu. The book is experimental in its handling of time, space and history.
Shortlisted for the 2010 Gratiaen Prize, Shirani Rajapakse’s Breaking News is an uneven work. Many recent books that focused on the ethnic conflict (The Road from Elephant Pass is a supreme example) have tried to capture the perspectives of the two communities without appearing to favour one side. Breaking News appears to be unapologetically rendered from the perspective of the Sinhala majority. This is not to say that she valorizes the Sri Lankan government or the army but, for the most part in these stories, the reader sees, for instance, how a Tamil girl “repays” her kind Sinhalese landlord who has taken a risk by keeping her as lodger by becoming a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber (“The Boarder”), or how, in “Border Village”, a woman who lives in a village that straddles Tiger and Sri Lankan government areas has been traumatized by an LTTE massacre in which her infant sister was killed. There are some stories (including the title story) which focus on other themes, but the conflict predominates. Descriptions of massacres appear to be gratuitious on occasion and the tendency to use stereotypical characters is another drawback. Nevertheless, Breaking News is a fair first effort overall.
The Sri Lankan campus novel had another notable addition with the publication of Neluka Silva’s The Iron Fence. Over the years, the University of Peradeniya has inspired the bulk of the literature that belongs to this sub-genre but, in the recent past, Nihal de Silva’s The Ginirella Conspiracy focused on the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, and Neluka Silva, for her part, locates her novel in the University of Colombo. Like de Silva’s novel, The Iron Fence is situated in the late 1980s when the second JVP uprising was to bring the country to a standstill. Once again, like the previous work, it shows how people from different backgrounds interact on campus. While The Ginirella Conspiracy was largely rendered from the point of view of a student who had entered university from a village, the narrators in The Iron Fence are mostly from the Colombo upper middle class. Her novel is also reminiscent of Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy, as it shows how patriarchy, ethnic divisions, class boundaries and other elements make it impossible for people who are attracted to those outside their circle to become partners and achieve fulfilment. The writer has made a considerbale effort in drawing her characters, especially her two principal female protagonists, Roshini and Deepthi. The narrative flows without too many distractions and the language is generally suited to the cultural milieu of the characters. Her ability to capture the actions of and conversations among young university students is impressive. However, in her anxiety to explore the manner in which people from contrasting backgrounds interact, she presents contrived situations that vitiate the novel. To cite two examples, Rohini, who defers a studentship at Oxford, returns to Sri Lanka with her parents and enters the University of Colombo’s English Department, falls for Senaka, a senior from the Sinhala medium batch whose poverty-stricken background and Leftist leanings would have normally ruled him out as a candidate for her affections and vice versa. Then again, Deepthi, the seemingly dutiful daughter of an overprotective, chauvinist of a father who hates Tamils, maintains a clandestine relationship with Mano who has fled Jaffna for Colombo with his parents after the IPKF soldiers have begun to harrass the locals in the region. Mano’s father distrusts the Sinhalese as well. Both relationships flatter but then fail for predictable reasons. These and other minor blemishes notwithstanding, The Iron Fence is a very readable book.
Kamala Wijeratne has traversed a considerable distance as a writer. When her collection, The Smell of Araliya, appeared in 1983, an academic wrote a review entitled “A Smell Too Sweet”, suggesting that the poems were hyper-sentimental and florid. Wijeratne, the poet, subsequently began to write fiction as well. Her latest collection Ten Stories shows a marked difference from the kind of writing for which she was justifiably critiqued many years ago. Nihal Fernando, in his preface to the book, opines that it focuses on the island’s Sinhala Buddhist middle class which is the milieu that she is most preoccupied with in her fiction. He concludes,
… the stories in this collection feature a range of authoritatively and convincingly sketched figures from this class: teachers, students, landholders as well as those that serve them: domestics, servants, nannies, etc. Wijeratne’s account of this class recognizes both its strengths and weaknesses. The latter, particularly the problematic status occupied by women, perhaps dominate the stories, but the stories also dramatize the resilience, fortitude and compassion of which members of this class are capable.
One hesitates to include Randy Boyagoda’s The Beggar’s Feast in this introduction, or indeed the bibliography. He was born in Canada, so the label “expatriate writer” does not fit. However, his parents lived in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, his invitation to the Galle Literary Festival as a Canadian writer because of his Sri Lankan background was not taken too kindly by some Sri Lankan journalists and critics. This is a novel that needs to be read at least twice. The style is not the easiest; however, it becomes more accessible as the narrative progresses. This is a story of a man who is practically abandoned as a child, victimized by those who are supposedly morally upright, rebels against his lot and utimately becomes a successful, if cynical, man-of-the-world but one who is never able to shake off his rejection as a child. Sam, who was left by a temple door, is taken in as a novice priest but is not willing to allow himself to be molested by the chief priest as do others of his ilk. His lashing out at the old priest is what first marks him out as a rebel. One of the most poignant scenes in the novel is when he returns to his village as a powerful man, not wanting anyone to recognise him for anything but as the man he has become — not as the unwanted child he once was. As many commentators have pointed out, this is a rivetting tale but it does have infelicities. Take, for instance, the interactions with crows at the beginning of the book, the significance of which is lost on most readers, or his tendency to introduce characters and then abandon them once they have outlived their usefulness and his compiling of several lists, which is perhaps brought in as a postmodernist device, but which ultimately tires the reader. Despite such quibbles, there is no gainsaying that this is one of the better Bildungsroman novels about “a no one from nowhere” that has been located in Sri Lanka.
In a year in which the output of poetry was meagre, the debut publication of an “angry young Sri Lankan poet”, Marlon Ariyasinghe, was very welcome. As a graduate from the Department of English, University of Peradeniya, Marlon Ariyasinghe shares the sensitivity to political issues that has characterized others who have been educated there; however, his tone and style are completely different from those of his predecessors. His collection Frotestology (a deliberate coinage based on the fact that Sinhala speakers without a formal English education find it difficult to distinguish between “f” and “p” in certain phonetic combinations) is experimental in nature, with several photos and illustrations interspersed with the poetry. The following is an edited account of the author’s own views on the collection which looks in general at how politicians
… have drained the country dry and reduced it into one in which journalists disappear, civil servants are tied to trees as punishment or as an example by ministers on public television, movie stars, sport celebrities, models and divas fill the parliament and some Buddhists fight for a “jihad”. “I Am a Racist” is a poem that brings out the futility of war and how the ethnic conflict has influenced Sri Lankans’ perceptions of each other. To claim that one is a racist is to be in denial. All are racists in essence. “Swim Sink Drown and Die” makes use of a real incident in which a woman threw her baby into the Kelaniya river to explore the mother’s possible motives — to save the child from a heartless society, or (as the public would opine) because she was an anti-mother. “Angelina I’m Up for Adoption” reacts to the trend set by Hollywood celebrities to “waltz” into Africa or Asia and buy children for millions of dollars as if they are buying something at a grocery shop.
Ariyasinghe’s experiences at university have also influenced his poetry: “‘The Imposter(s), Le Café, Intellectual Mafia’ focuses on the incestuous nature of an academe in which students are ‘misled’ into taking ‘theory’ too seriously, without informing that that there is a totally different life taking place outside the university”. Finally, in what appears to be the title poem in the collection, “I is wanting to Frotezt” critiques some radical Sri Lankan academics on their attempts to standardize English in Sri Lanka.
In drama, Tracy Holsiger and the The Mind Adventures Theatre Company’s “Rondo” and Jake Oorloff’s “My Other History” were two significant plays that were staged in the year under review. Both were brought out under the auspices of the Sunethra Foundation and dealt with the theme of reconciliation. Such a theme may seem predictable, even hackneyed in a post-war Sri Lanka, but neither play was prescriptive in trying to show how reconciliation could be achieved; rather, as Smriti Daniel suggests, “[i]n their own ways, both plays make room for multiple voices and alternate perspectives and thereby seem to suggest that reconciliation can begin once these differences are acknowledged”.
In previous years, this bibliographical introduction has suggested that drama in English was to a large extent dependent on the University of Peradeniya since the University of Colombo, which is also the heir to a rich culture of English drama, was to a large extent hampered; it is situated too close to a high-security zone, which meant that too many student activities could not take place at night. Although the war has ended, drama in English has not yet returned to previous levels in this and other universities in Colombo. Five plays were staged at DramSoc 2011 in Peradeniya. The parody of “Cinderella” performed by the Faculty of Science appealed to those who have a penchant for slapstick. The standard of acting was poor, vis-à-vis some of the other plays performed that evening, but “Cinderella” won the award for Best Stage-Management.
The Faculty of Arts performed “Behind Closed Doors” which was an adaptation of Senaka Abeyratne’s “Three Star K”. A deeply intellectual play, which was a major challenge to the performers, it dramatized the problematic inter-relationships among a mother, her son and his wife. It also depicted the effects of drug-addiction and unsanctioned sexual behaviour. There was not a single “weak link” among the performers who maintained a high level of acting throughout in playing out a modern tragedy. This group won the awards for Best Drama along with Best Actress (Crystal Baines), Best Supporting Actress (Namali Premawardana) and Best Lights and Sounds.
The Faculty of Engineering presented “Welikada ’71”, a play that questioned truth and justice. A man is in jail for a crime he did not commit and a dedicated lawyer tries her best to bring justice to him. The plot was extremely effective and the tension that was built up among the audience as the “verdict” approached was an index to the success of the play which won the awards for Best Director (Nalika Ulapane and Wazim Akram), Best Actor (Gihan Edirisinghe) and Special Performance (Pamuditha Perera).
The comedy “Lost Souls” by the faculty of Medicine was an intense, lively performance that kept the audience enthralled. The play shed light on the soul-destroying complexities of modern living that damage relationships, especially among those who belong to a supposedly “sophisticated” community. The play highlights the hypocrisy, moral degeneration and cynicism that create scandals among these families and utimately destroy them. The play won the awards for Best Supporting Actor (Channa Munasinghe), Best Props and Best Costumes.
The final performance of the evening was by the First Years of the Faculty of Arts. The play “Thawath Ekthara Drama Ekak” performed by Isuru Samarasinghe and Akira Wijekoon presented a perspective on the politics of language and this made a great impact on the audience, even though it was the last play on the agenda. This play, which was an “extra”, performed in Sinhala, and was not part of the competition for this reason, nevertheless led to much controversy, given the themes it explored. My thanks to Muditha Dharmasiri, President of Dramsoc in 2011 for her considerable input into this account.
One should, perhaps, end this introduction with reference to a play that was published by one of the playrights mentioned above. Seneka Abeyratne has been involved in theatre for years, winning the Gratiaen for 3 Star K some years ago. In 2011, he published a play for the screen, entitled Temptation, which is based on his novel Fragments on a Fugue. The play is set in Scandinavia and is indebted to the techniques of the Theatre of the Absurd. A self-confessed student of psychoanalysis, Abeyratne draws copiously on this interest in a play which focuses on the traumas and inner conflicts of Maria Grishkin, a ballerina, as she tries to reconcile the kind of life she desires with that the kind she actually lives. Rather predictably, he has his chief protagonist flirt with suicide and other self-destructive moods. One hopes that Abeyratne and other practitioners of Sri Lankan drama will decide to publish plays situated in Sri Lanka or dealing with Sri Lankan concerns. As this bibliography has shown over the years, published drama in English in Sri Lanka is meagre at best.
Bibliography
Bibliographies and Study Aids
General Bibliogaphies and Research Aids
Sri Lanka National Bibliography 49 (2–5 2011) 60pp; 71pp; 60; 59pp; National Library of Sri Lanka (Colombo) pa annual sub Rs. 1200, US $50, or £ 32.
Index to Research Reports in Sri Lanka 2005-2009 Vol 1 National Library & Documentation Centre (Colombo) v+162p pa $ 40.00 (US) [2010].
Index to Postgraduate Theses 2001-2006 Vol.3 National Library & Documentation Centre (Colombo) X269pp pa $40.00 (US).
“Cumulative Author Index to Volumes XXVI (2008) – XXXIII (2011)” S.W. Perera The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXVII pp169-71.
Poetry
Anuuddhika, D.W. Lilani The Story of a Palmyrah Tree viii+16p pa Rs150 [privately pub].
Ariyasinghe, Marlon Froteztology 88pp Sri Serendipity (Galle).
Govinnage, Sunil Perth: My Village Down Under—A Collection of Australian Poetry Sarasavi (Nugegoda) pa Rs650.
Gunawardena, Yvonne Harbour Lights: More Collected Poems 82pp Bay Owl (Colombo) pa US$17.
Drama
Abeyratne, Seneka Temptation: A Screenplay 201pp [privately publ] pa Rs500.
Fiction
Attygalle, Upatissa The Girl on the Billboard and Other Stories 148pp [privately publ] pa Rs430.
Boange, Dilshan Hola El Che!: Three Fictions Probably a Tad Improbable 171pp Samaranayake (Colombo) pa US$18.
Boyagoda, Randy Beggar’s Feast 311pp Perera Hussein (Colombo) pa Rs1200.
Bunny, Sam Estuary 267pp Bay Owl (Colombo) pa Rs1100.
de Chickera, Lucky Poseidon’s Wrath 310pp [privately publ] pa Rs700 [2010].
— Sarasu . . . Amidst Slums of Terror 372pp [privately publ] pa Rs750.
Fernando, Nirushi Perseverance [privately pub].
Fernando, Roshi Homesick 293pp Impress (London) [2010].
Gunawardena, Lakmali Graffiti Writer 203pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda) pa Rs500.
Jayewardene, Prasanna Return to Heritage 262pp General Printing (Colombo) pa Rs950 [2010].
Liyanage, Ananda The Vengeance 448pp Foremost (Maharaja) pa Rs800.
Mahawela, Sunanda Vengeance of a Snake Woman viii+137pp Sterling (Negombo) pa Rs200.
Mendis, Jayantha The Married Bachelor 220pp Stamford Lake (Pannipitiya).
Muller, Carl City of the Lion xi+117pp Penguin (New Delhi) pa Rs656.
Nissanka, Aruna Shantha A Roadside Saga 189pp Sanghida (Nugegoda).
Peiris, Diyath Sony Metholog: The Case of the Blue Phantom XII+113pp Kandy Books (Kandy) pa US$10.
Perera, Vihanga The Fear of Gambling 306pp [privately pub].
Rajapakse, Shirani Breaking News 80pp Vijitha Yapa (Colombo).
Samaranayake, Janidu The Mystery of the 35th Floor 306pp [privately pub].
Silva, Neluka The Iron Fence 221pp Bay Owl Press (Colombo) pa US$20.
Sugunasiri, Suwanda H.J. Untouchable Woman’s Odyssey: A Novel x+366pp Nalanda Publishing (Canada) pa US$14.95 [2010].
Vijayaratne, Piyasiri Sacred Story of a Temple Rebel 500pp FastPublishing (Colombo) pa Rs1000.
Wickramarathne, J Sheela A Blind Society (Pin Nati Ganadevi): A Novel 112pp Godage International (Colombo) pa $15.00.
Wijeratne, Kamala Ten Stories 114pp [privately publ]pa Rs 275.
Translations
Jayawardene, Kathleen Circles of Fire trans from Sinhala by Ranga Chandrarathne 226pp Samaranayake (Colombo) pa Rs800.
Perera, Tennyson Of Terror and Trials trans from Sinhala by Vijitha Fernando 132pp Godage International (Colombo) pa Rs600.
Perera, Vihanga The Fear of Gambling 306pp [privately publ] pa Rs650.
Ponnuthurai, S. Ritual trans from Tamil by Chelva Kanaganayakam viii+139pp Three Wheeler (Colombo) pa Rs450.
Rajakarunanayake, Sunethra Metta trans from Sinhala by Carmen Wickramagamage ix+298pp Three Wheeler (Colombo) pa Rs650.
Samarasinghe, Natasha The Thrilling Threes 36pp [privately pub] pa Rs100.
Wijayasinghe, Samaraweera Sivanyanjatha trans from Sinhala by Daya Dissanayake 278pp Serenity (Nugegoda) pa Rs490.
Interviews
Abayaratne, Seneka “Nothing Beats Offbeat” Sajitha Prematunge Daily News 17 August <www.dailynews.lk/2011/08/17/art01.asp>.
Karunatilaka, Shehan “Waterstones Bowled over by Shehan’s Chinaman” Smriti Daniel The Sunday Times Plus 23 January http://sundaytimes.lk/110123/Plus/plus_14.html; “Cricket and Sri Lankan Author Shehan Karunatilaka” Rufreeman.com <rufreeman.com/2011/04/cricket-and-sri-lankan-author-shehan-karunatilaka>.
Muller, Carl “Wordsmith for All Seasons” Ruvini Jayawardana Daily News: Artscope 1 June <www.dailynews.lk/2011/06/01/art01.asp>.
Sachithanandan, Sakuntala “I Wrote for Myself Now the Poems Are a Winner” Smriti Daniel The Sunday Times Plus 29 May <www.sundaytimes.lk/110529/Plus/plus_07.html>; “Sakuntala’s Gratiaen Moment” Amalshan Gunerathne Daily News 25 May <www.dailynews.lk/2011/05/25/art01.asp>.
Miscellaneous
Cooke, Michael Colin Rebellion, Represenatation and the Struggle for Justice in Sri Lanka: The Lionel Bopage Story 566pp Agahas Publishers (Colombo) pa Rs 1600.
Devendra, Tissa Quest for Shangrila: Stories and Diversions xii+202pp Vijitha Yapa (Colombo) pa Rs 590.
Gunaratne, Mahasara A Rupee in My Pocket: Memoirs 328pp [privately publ] $30 (US).
Nanayakkara, Rohini What Glass Ceiling: A Memoir 164pp Bay Owl (Colombo).
Ratnatunga, Manel Stolen Sunset vi+328pp Vijitha Yapa (Colombo) pa $18.
Wijeratne, Neil Batting on a Matting Wicket 200pp [privately pub].
Criticism
General Studies
“Anxious Nationals and Others: The Nations Unwanted—A Discourse on Homi Bhabha, Paul Gilroy and Ambalavaner Sivanandan” Gayathri Hewagama SLJH XXXVII pp136-48.
“Authors and Others: A Note for a Sri Lankan English Reader” VK [Vihanga Perera] 7 April http://slwakes.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/authors-and-others-the-case-of-sri-lankan-english-literature/
“Contesting Sovereignty: (Post)Modern Nations and Postcolonial Narratives” Sivamohan Sumathy Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp13-22.
Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran ix+165pp Vijtha Yapa (Colombo).
“Is There War in Your ‘Ur’: Jaffna Is in the Heart” Sumathy Sivamohan Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp116-136.
“Lankan English or Not? Lexical Choices and Negotiations in Postcolonial Women’s Writing in English” Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp28-62.
“Michael Ondaatje and the Gratiaen Prize” Indeewara Thilakarathne Sunday Observer 27 March http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/03/27/mon03.asp.
“Outside the Frames: Sight-Reading from the Ian and Roslin Goonetileke Collection” Aparna Halpé Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp31-39.
“Poetry Conveying Sadness of Parting” Rajiva Wijesinha Sunday Observer 1 May http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/05/01/mon12.asp.
Sri Lanka: Literary Essays and Sketches Charles Sarvan x+214pp Sterling Publishers (New Delhi) pa $ 18.95, £9.99 Rs 300 (Indian).
Step Down Shakespeare: The Stone Angel Is Here: Essays on Literature Suwanda H.J. Suganasiri xii+154pp S. Godage (Colombo) pa Rs. 480.
The Cultural Scene Thus Far Indeewari Thilakarathne 402pp Samaranayake (Colombo) $ 29.50 (US).
“The Curtain Opens on Reconciliation” Smriti Daniel The Sunday Times Plus 27 March http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110327/Plus/plus_17.html [on the productions“Rondo” and “My Other History”].
“The ‘Diasporic Writer’ As a Resonance of the ‘Colonial Middle Class’ in the Neo-Colonialist Programme of Asia: A Case Study of Select Writers of the ‘Sri Lankan Diaspora’ Writing of ‘Home’” Vihanga Perera Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp53-59.
“The Male South Asian Domestic Servant: Master Servant Relationships, Class Chasms and Systematic Emasculation” Lisa Lau SLJH XXXVII pp35-48.
“The Politics of Representation in the Representation of Politics” Nayomi Abayasekara Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp105-115.
“The Possibilities and Challenges of Postcolonial Standpoints: Maithree Wickramasinghe Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp137-162.
“Time for the Gratiaen, Time for Chinaman” Richard Boyle The Sunday Times Plus 27 March http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110327/Plus/plus_17.html [on the Gratiaen Award and the former Gratiaen winning entry Chinaman].
“You’ve Taken Your Mouth from Your Foot Yet, Richard? Gratiaen Gaffes” Rajpal Abeynayake Lakbima News 3 April <www.lakbimanews.lk/portal/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1040:youve-taken-your-mouth-away-from-your-foot-yet-richard&catid=39:lounge&Itemid=11>.
Studies on Individual Writers
Abeyesekera, Tissa “A New Mode and Model for Sri Lankan Fiction: The Mythicisation of History in Tissa Abeysekera’s My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak” Ashley Halpé Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp23-29.
Boyagoda, Randy “A Sprawling Novel of the Great Gatsby Type” Mark Anthony Jarman The Sunday Times: Plus 11 December http://sundaytimes.lk/111211/Plus/plus_18.html.
De Chickera, Ruwanthie “Shattering Silence: An Examination of the Work of Sri Lankan Playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera, Her Place in and Contribution to the English Theatre in Sri Lanka 2005-2008” Ruhanie Perera Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp100-115.
Gunaratne, Herman “A Reading Of Herman Gunaratne’s The Suicide Club: A Virgin Tea Planter’s Journey” Charles Sarvan The Sunday Leader 28 March http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/02/06/a-reading-of-herman-gunaratne%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cthe-suicide-club-a-virgin-tea-planter%E2%80%99s-journey%E2%80%9D/.
Jirasinghe, Ramya Chamalie “A Fine Blend of Medium and Meaning” Lynn Ockersz The Island 13 April http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=18121 [review of There’s an Island in the Bone].
Karunatilaka, Shehan “The Legend of Pradeep Mathew” Indi Samarajiva The Sunday Leader 4 April http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/08/01/book-review-3/; “Chinaman by Karunatilaka—Review” Kamila Shamsie The Guardian (UK) 7 May http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/07/chinaman-shehan-karunatilaka-review; “Shehan Karunatilaka Blunders into Ethnicity in Sri Lankan Cricket” Michael Roberts Island Cricket http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/109850208/shehan-karunatilaka-blunders-into-ethnicity-in-sri-lankan-cricket; “Books: Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew” Hasan Zaidi Dawn.com Entertainment http://dawn.com/2011/05/15/cover-story-spinning-an-intricate-yarn/; “Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew: Review” Tishani Doshi The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/01/the-chinaman-shehan-karunatilaka-review; “Chinaman, by Shehan Karunatilaka” Salil Thripathi The Independent 29 April http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/chinaman-by-shehan-karunatilaka-2276043.html;
Lokugé, Chandani “Fractured Selves/Conflicting Identities: Sri Lankan Female Migrants in Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled” Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp63-75.
Muller, Carl “Saga Richly Embedded in Myth and Legend” Darren S. Ryle David Sunday Observer 27 February http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2011/02/27/mon07.asp [review of City of the Lion].
Ondaatje, Michael “Returning to Imaginary Homelands in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost” Manikya Kodithuwakku Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp45-51.
— “A Voyage with Michael and the People of Table 76” Ernest Macintyre The Sunday Times: Plus 25 September p5 [review of Cat’s Table ].
Rajapakse, Shirani “‘Breaking News’ by Shirani Rajapakse” Luke Sherwood Basso Profundo: Book Reviews that Sound a Deeper Note http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2011/11/breaking-news-by-shirani-rajapakse.html; “Nine Stories of Crackling Cruelty” Carl Muller http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/12/19/fea23.asp [reviews of Breaking News].
“A Critique on “On the Street [s] and Other Revelations: Loose Prose and Feeble Signs of Poetry” Ranga Chandrarathne Sunday Observer 29 May http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2011/05/29/mon01.asp [review of On the Streets and Other Revelations].
Spittel, R.L “Spittel’s Savage Sanctuary: A Postcolonial Postscript” Chandana Dissanayake Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp23-29.
Vanderpoorten, Vivimarie “Metaphors of Childhood: Love and Death in the Poetry of Vivimarie Vanderpoorten” Dushyanthi Mendis Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp15-27.
Wijenaike, Punyakante “A Book that Cries Out, Heals the Wounds” Lucky de Chickera The Sunday Times: Plus 20 March p7; “When Guns Fall Silent Listen to the Koha Birds’ Plaintive Cry” Lucky de Silva The Sunday Leader: Arts 20 March pp26-27 [reviews of When Guns Fall Silent];
— “(Mad) Women in Attics: A Comparison of Punyakante Wijenaike’s Giraya, Amulet and The Unbinding with Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea Ashanthi Ekanayake Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII pp61-72.
— “Sexuality, Class and Consumption in Punyakante Wijenaike’s Giraya” Maryse D. Jayasuriya Margins: A Journal of Literature and Culture 1(1) pp147-63.
Wijesinghe, Manuka “The Age of Venus, the Age of Woman: Monsoons and Potholes as a Female Bildungsroman” Tara Senanayake Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English eds Dinithi Karunanayake and Selvy Thiruchandran pp76-99.
Journals
Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth VIII eds Nihal Fernando and Walter Perera pa Rs 300/$10/£6 [revived after the lapse of some years. Journal of the Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. This issue includes the papers presented at the ACLALS conference held in 2010].
The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXVII (1&2) ed. S.W. Perera, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya. Annual sub Rs. 250, US $15.00, or equivalent in convertible currency: a biannual publication which carries articles on all aspects of the Humanities including reviews and critical essays on Literature and Language.