Abstract
Introduction
Creative work has dominated this Sri Lankan bibliography and introduction ever since the current compiler embarked on the project a little under twenty years ago. This year, however, creative writing is challenged by literary criticism. Two important publications should be cited: first, Maryse Jayasuriya’s Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009 and a special issue on Sri Lankan Writing in English of the South Asian Review co-edited by Jayasuriya and Aparna Halpé.
A few years ago, Minoli Salgado blazed a trail for the criticism of Sri Lankan Literature in English with Writing Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya’s Terror and Reconciliation is perhaps the second major book on the subject. Salgado’s book is really meant for higher-level students and professionals, whereas Jayasuriya’s is useful for general readers as well. Her discussions on the implied reader/audience for whom Sri Lankan literature in English is written is perhaps her most useful contribution to the field. Then again, she goes against the modern trend to read expatriate and local literature as one and argues persuasively that there is some justification in maintaining a distinction between the two. That this book has been written from the “outside” becomes apparent when she makes some assertions that are incorrect—the Gratiaen prize is not necessarily given to a “previously unpublished author” as she states. Punyakante Wijenaike had written several books before she won the Gratiaen for Amulet. Also, some of her arguments echo previous critics whom she brings into her book but cites selectively; for example, she refers to one of the earliest articles on A. Sivanandan’s When Memory Dies in discussing an aspect of the novel but gives no credit to it when declaring that Sivanandan “valorizes bastardization,” a point first made in that pioneering article. These glitches notwithstanding, Terror and Reconciliation will prove to be a very valuable text in the West and in Sri Lanka too if some method is found to make this prohibitively expensive book accessible to Sri Lankan students and teachers.
The publication of a special issue of South Asian Review on Sri Lankan Anglophone writing was the other major event in the year under review. The joint editorial by Maryse Jayasuriya and Aparna Halpé provides perhaps the best ever overview on Sri Lankan writing in English to date. The volume includes articles, reviews and interviews that are mostly on contemporary Sri Lankan Literature in English and are generally of a high order. What is striking, however, is that only three of the scholars are permanently resident on the island—the others are either expatriates or citizens of other countries with an interest in Sri Lanka. The compiler of this bibliography is aware that the Editors made considerable attempts to obtain more contributions from Sri Lanka—perhaps those invited could not deliver on time—but the statistic is significant and shows the extent to which Sri Lankan English Studies has been “outsourced,” so to speak. While it is impossible to deal with the many engaging pieces in the collection, one of the articles needs special attention; that is, Chandani Lokugé’s “The Novelist and Censorship” in which she accuses fellow Sri Lankan expatriate in Australia and multiple award winning novelist Michelle de Kretser of levelling a personal attack at Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled in The Hamilton Case through some of the “exotic” passages included therein. Michelle de Kretser stated in a personal communication that these extracts “were intended as a jokey summary of a tendency in fiction set in ‘exotic’ locations, the marketability of this fiction in a West hungry for a pre-packaged version of ‘difference’ and a playful self-reflexion (and self-criticism) of the descriptive passages in THC [The Hamilton Case] itself.” Many critics who identified this feature in the novel which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her region found no connection whatsoever between the novels. To level such accusations about ten years after the fact is puzzling. Another contentious issue is Lokugé’s continuing casual conversation with an academic in Sri Lanka who had apparently criticized the rape scene in her second novel Turtle Next and a comment made by an Indian academic on the same scene after a seminar in India to support her argument on a form of censorship applied to her fiction without disclosing her sources and thus preventing the academics concerned from clarifying their points of view. Surely aficionados of Sri Lankan writing in English should hear both sides of the issue? Lokugé narrated these two incidents during a session given to her at the ACLALS Conference in Cyprus and the exchange with the Sri Lankan academic in an interview with a PhD candidate in the University of Wollongong, Australia, which was brought into the dissertation. In the absence of a countervailing argument, her accounts could be (perhaps wrongly) construed as a mere rhetorical device, or a strategy that has led to a “strawman fallacy.”
An increasingly popular trend among Sri Lankan expatriate writers is to have their books published in Sri Lanka. It is a trend that is beneficial to several. Authors can have their books published more expeditiously, the publisher guaranteed a local and international audience, and the local readers especially able to purchase the book soon after it is out and at an affordable price. Perera-Hussein Publishers could be justly proud of the decision to accept Nayomi Munaweera’s first novel Island of a Thousand Mirrors which was long listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. At one level, Munaweera brings together the best of previous expatriate writers: her near poetic descriptions of the island’s landscape rivals that of Romesh Gunesekera in Reef, her depiction of the manner in which the ethnic conflict affects several generations of Sri Lankans is more economical and focused than A. Sivanandan’s When Memory Dies and her characterisation of expatriate living is far more convincing and detailed than previous efforts by others. The book’s title is extremely appropriate. A mirror connotes fragility, a state which correctly describes that of Sri Lanka today on account of the ethnic crisis: a thousand mirrors splintered into fragments, as the author seems to suggest. Further, the exhilarations, traumas and tragedies in one community are mirrored in another. The author will never be accused of being supportive of the State or the Tigers. The bestiality evident in the manner that Saraswathie is gang raped on account of her being suspected of being an informer for the Tigers is mirrored in Saraswathie’s own brutalizing of others and shooting of a soldier. But perhaps the most poignant “mirroring” takes place on her way to Galle Face Green to blow up a “treacherous” Tamil politician, when she sees a kindred spirit in Lanka (the main protagonist Yashodara’s sister) and wishes to desist in activating the bomb on her person but it is too late. What is so pleasing about this novel is that the motivations for characters to act the way they do is rendered convincingly. To cite one example, the author carefully delineates how the images of the soldiers raping Saraswathie haunt her throughout her life and how she uses them to further her resolve to be a Black Tiger. Nonetheless, the novel has much more to offer. The dynamics between the Sinhala owners of the Welawatte house and their Tamil tenants, specifically how the cultural tensions eventually lead to acceptance, is equally well told. In a crucial scene, the Sinhala landlady, who finds some of the cultural practices and actions of her Tamil tenants objectionable, uses her position as a stately Sinhala woman to prevent the rioters from attacking her tenants. The strategy of having a person from the Sinhala and a person from the Tamil communities falling in love with each other has been employed by many Sri Lankan novelists but Munaweera does it on several occasions in this novel without making these relationships seem contrived. That one of these intercommunal relationships endures at the end is one of the most satisfying elements in this tragic novel. The diasporic aspects of the story are also well depicted. There is no attempt on the part of the author to show that life in the US is superior to that in Sri Lanka. Munaweera deftly demonstrates the vulgar ostentation of the expatriates who have made it in the US, their determination to perpetuate ethnic tensions by sending funds to the government to carry out the war, and the discrimination suffered by recent immigrants. While North America has its attractions, most Sri Lankans dwelling there cannot forget the island that they have come from. This is what prompts Lanka and Yashodara to return to Sri Lanka. Although her novel is one of displacement, alienation and blood-letting, the author shows on numerous occasions her ability to elicit humour, for example, the whole process of trying to secure a good proposal for Yashodara and the initial tensions between the Shivalinghams and Sylvia Sunethra which the author calls the “Upstairs-Downstairs, Linga-Sinha wars.”
Michelle de Kretser’s monumental Questions of Travel is another worthy addition to the Sri Lankan novel of expatriation. Inspired by the many souvenirs she has inherited from her globe-trotting grand aunt, Laura Fraser, an Australian, aches to become such a traveller herself. She eventually succeeds in becoming not only a travel journalist but also a publisher of travel guides. Contrastingly, Ravi Mendis, a computer savvy man in Sri Lanka, who would often think of travel but never really envisages that he would be able to afford such a trip is forced to leave the island after a personal tragedy and threats to his own life during Sri Lanka’s troubled times in the late 1980s and early 1990s. To Laura, travel is a compulsion and undertaken on a frenetic scale because travel is a means to find an identity for herself, a fraught exercise since these travels only deepen her feeling that she does not belong anywhere and that life is devoid of meaning. For Ravi, travel is born out of necessity. De Kretser has claimed in interviews that with Sri Lankan boat people travelling to Australia being in the news, her portrayal of Ravi was a means of showing that every refugee or “traveller” is an individual in her/his own right and not a stereotypical figure as portrayed in the media. Laura and Ravi who meet briefly in Australia are simultaneously different and alike. The novel has much more to offer but suffice it to end this introduction by stating that Questions of Travel is also a wonderful throwback to the time that the World Wide Web was young and many were thrilled at the prospect of borders becoming more porous or disappearing altogether. While acknowledging the many benefits brought to the world on account of such technology, the author also shows how it could isolate people even further.
The Gratiaen Prize for 2012 was won by Lal Meddawattegedara for “Playing Pillow Talk at MGK.” The winning entry and the other shortlisted works are in manuscript form; consequently, one has to rely on the judges’ citations for the purposes of this introduction. The winning entry was described as a thematically and formally innovative work mixing realism with the allegorical. It provides a daring perspective on contemporary urban, social and political realities, through the charting of the lives of working class protagonists in a time of turbulence and change. The language is racy and colloquial while its protagonists live out their lives within the immediate and the intimate, working through stories of love, infatuations, nostalgia and loss. There is magic, there is belief; there is skepticism, there is innocence; cunning and at the same time caring; triumph and defeat. The work is textured and layered with a multiplicity of characters, narratives, perspectives and trajectories. They are held together in a unity of story telling underscored not by harmony but by contention and contradiction.
The citation for Rizvina Morseth’s “It’s Not in the Stars” reads: At one level, this lucidly written, wide-ranging and engaging novel could be considered a chronicling of the key socio-political developments of post July 1983 Sri Lanka, but it is much more than that. It is also an insightful rendering of the distressing impact the seminal events of contemporary Sri Lanka have had on its many communities. Besides, it impresses on the reader that although “ethnicity” entered the lexicon of Sri Lankans in a major way in 1983, with a huge divisive impact, love and affection formed particularly among the younger members of these communities endure over the decades, indicating a triumph of human values over what may be considered the vicissitudes of life and history. The writer makes her characters and the lives they lead come alive vibrantly in the mind’s eye of the reader and relates these most implicitly to the major public events of the times, in a non-schematic, creative way. Several intertwining family “histories” combine to form a colourful mosaic of lived experience.
The 2012 Gratiaen prize also witnessed the shortlisting of a play after some years. “Kalumaali” by Ruwanthie de Chickera and Nadine Kamalaweera was considered an innovatively structured play which, while being described as “a fairy tale for grown-ups”, works at the level of magical story for children and as powerful theatre for adults exploring the identity crisis of a working woman and a mother. The interplay between reality and the imaginary world conjured up by the Kalumaali story, told and retold by different characters with different nuances, maintains the dramatic tension and tautness of the script. There is a rich use of dramatic symbolism, lyrical passages and a visualization of domestic chores and social pressures competing with the world of a professional journalist in this multi-layered play which has English and Sinhala texts juxtaposed.
Malinda Seneviratne has been shortlisted often but has never won although he was successful in winning the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Translation also offered by the Gratiaen Trust the previous year. The judges commented on Malinda’s “Open Words are for Love-Letting” in the following way: If love is about relationships, the demonstration of such love is an engagement with living understood as an intensity of feeling. Love is a motif for making connections with the immediacies of the world around one. An engaging collection of poetry that demonstrates poetry as a word-scape, patterns of tone and images of sound. The tones are muted and at the same time, intense, felt as well as reflective. These are poems that are nuanced for the most part, capturing the strength of feeling of felt moments of loss, death and growing, depicting an observant eye in all of them. It is not just a compelling read but a touching one as well.
The Gratiaen Prize, as was stated in last year’s introduction to the Sri Lankan bibliography, has always attracted controversy and the tradition continues. The writer, who normally uses the pseudonym Ashok Ferrey, on this occasion decided to adopt another pseudonym, Saroj Sinnethamby. As reported in the media, this was done because of alleged “reader bias” on the part of the judges. The debate that followed his shortlisting and subsequent revelation that he was indeed Ashok Ferrey was such that the Gratiaen Trust could very well decide to change the rules for those who wish to enter the competition under a pseudonym. The judges considered his entry, The Professional, a highly engrossing, imaginatively presented novel, focusing, among other things, on the hard choices confronting down-at-heel migrants from mainly the Third World in the impersonal ‘Big Cities’ of the First World. The chief character of the novel, a young Sri Lankan, is forced by circumstances to live by his wits in London but what gives the novel exceptional thematic substance is its essential affirmation of human values, through the occasional but intense emotional conflicts within the character. An interesting structural feature of this work is the telescoping within it, in the most unobtrusive, uncontrived fashion, of the present and the past of the protagonist.
The academic year under review was a turbulent one, with most of the Universities being crippled by a Trade Union action called for by academics for a plethora of reasons including political interference in University administration and the demand that the government spend 8% of the GDP on Education. The three-month long strike disrupted many activities which is why the account of the Ceylon University Dramsoc plays at Peradeniya is not provided in this introduction. However, there were other drama-related events. In the year under review, Ernest Macintyre’s Irangani: A Tragedy of Our Times was published and launched in the Dutch Burgher Union hall in Colombo. The play is freely based on the Greek play Antigone and its title is inspired by Irangani Serasinghe who starred in Jean Anouilh’s version of the play in the 1950s. As happens in one of Macintyre’s previous plays, Rasanayagam’s Last Riot, a great deal of the action takes place off stage, whereas the play proper focuses on discussions among the major characters. The similarity with the Greek play lies in the fact that Irangani’s brother Robert has died in the insurgency of the late 1980s and she is determined to give him a proper burial. However, her uncle, the President of the country, cannot permit it because he had directed that all rebels be buried en masse. The “debates” between uncle and niece seem contrived on occasion but raise major issues such as familial loyalties versus those demanded by the State; the necessity for the State to maintain higher standards on Human Rights than the rebel forces it fights with; idealistic as opposed to pragmatic politics; how intelligent, sensitive individuals can change when confronted with crises, and so on. The author avoids stereotyping the President Sidath Rajakaruna. He is not an egotistical monster but a former professor in physics and loves his niece who is betrothed to his son. The agonies he undergoes as he tries to balance conflicting loyalties are well rendered. The play is complicated by the suggestion that the body that Irangani wishes to bury could very well be that of someone else picked up at random by the police to appease the President’s niece. At one level, then, her determination to give her brother a decent burial could be farcical but at another the corpse could symbolize all the young lives lost on account of the rebellion. The author made it plain at the launch that the play was also inspired by some actual events that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in particular the abduction, torture and murder of Richard de Zoysa.
At about the same time that “Irangani” was launched, the play “Kalumaali,” the script of which was submitted for the Gratiaen Prize and shortlisted, was put on the Boards. The Gratiaen judges’ citation given above is sufficient for the purpose of introduction. What needs to be added is that the play was directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera, presented by the Stages Theatre Group, aided by the Sunethra Bandaranaike trust and based on an extended writing project that involved thirteen women who were involved in the English and Sinhala theatre. The play was performed separately in English and Sinhala.
There were few contributions in published poetry of any significance. An exception to this was Jean Arasanayagam’s Secret Agendas. The poet suggests in her introduction that these poems were written soon after she experienced a serious medical condition and some of the poems do reflect it. “Old Dog” in which she equates the long life and eventual disappearance of a family pet with her own life, ends with the lines “Old dog./Me.” Another poem that deals with such issues is “Primeval Garden.” Here, the poet examines her life in terms of a garden—lush and fecund at one time but sterile in later years. As is usual with any collection by Arasanayagam, she returns to the “ancestral” theme. She is a descendant of Dutch ancestors who arrived at the island during colonial invasions. This knowledge has allowed her to write several poems about identity. The title poem “Secret Agendas,” however, allows her to put a new twist to the commonplace theme—specifically, the role of the women who were associated with these colonizers. She speculates on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the women who accompanied them to the island and the local women they were encouraged to cohabit with at one time. Secret Agendas demonstrates that, notwithstanding Arasanayagam’s state of health, her poetic powers remain healthy.
Bibliography
Bibliographies and Study Aids
General Bibliogaphies and Research Aids
Index to Postgraduate Theses 2007-2010 Vol 1 (Sri Lanka) 361pp National Library and Documentation Centre (Colombo).
Sri Lanka National Bibliography 50 (1–6 2012) 92pp; 52pp; 90pp; 65pp; 85pp; 74pp National Library of Sri Lanka (Colombo) pa annual sub Rs. 1200, US $50, or £32.
Poetry
Amarasuriya, Shelton “Modern Times, So Poetry ***” pp121-23 Channels 17 and 18.
Arasanayagam, Jean Secret Agendas Godage International (Colombo) 168pp pa Rs. 850.
Cooke, George I. H Poetic Pirouettes 104pp Godage International (Colombo) pa Rs. 650.
De Silva, Kumar “Punyakalaya” pp148-49 Channels 17 and 18.
Dream, Nathasha “Dead Poetry” p108 Channels 17 and 18.
Duraiswamy, Sivanandini “Who Takes the Blame?” pp203-209 Channels 17 and 18.
Ebell, M.T.I “Recovery” pp188-89 Channels 17 and 18.
Farook, Nazhad “What If I Was a Fossilized Specimen in Outer Space? Reminiscence of a Childhood Nightmare” pp26-27 Channels 17 and 18.
— “Abstract Thoughts on Life and Destiny” p156 Channels 17 and 18.
Gomez, Mario “The Woman That I Am” pp130-32 Channels 17 and 18.
Gunawardena, Lakmali Graffiti Writer 203pp privately pub pa Rs 500.
Gunerathne, Shashendra Amalshan “Cat Revolution on Thursday” pp167-68 Channels 17 and 18.
Herat, Gwen From a Distance: Mind-Lyrics 104pp privately pub.
Hewawitharana, Chamodi Summer, Wind and Other Poems 39pp privately pub.
Jayasekera, Kamini Golden Cocoon 88pp S. Godage (Colombo) pa Rs 650.
Kaththriarachchi, Jayanthi “Class on the Railway Sleepers” pp37 Channels 17 and 18.
— “Sansaric Footsteps” pp86-87 Channels 17 and 18.
Kumara, Kasun Dinesh Under the Aborted Sky 162pp privately pub.
Moonesinghe, Gnana “I Search” pp57-69 Channels 17 and 18.
Premaratne-Stuiver, Chitra “Rapacity” pp201-202 Channels 17 and 18.
Sachithanandan, Sakuntala M. “My Sister’s Table” pp88-89 Channels 17 and 18.
— “Selvakumari of Hatton” pp169-70 Channels 17 and 18.
— “The Clinic People” pp60-61 Channels 17 and 18.
Samarakoon, Miniruwani “The Saga of a Slave” pp74-75 Channels 17 and 18.
Silva, Namali Ashani “The Only Escape” pp47-48 Channels 17 and 18.
Wanigabaduge, Sonali “Your Facebook Page” pp72-73 Channels 17 and 18.
Wijayasena, Damitha “The High Flyer and the Plodder” p150 Channels 17 and 18.
Yapa, Yomal “The World’s New Season” p161 Channels 17 and 18.
Drama
MacIntyre, Ernest Irangani: A Tragedy of Our Times (After the Antigone of Sophocles) 128pp Vijitha Yapa (Colombo) pa Rs 500.
Fiction
Abeysekera, Dasun The Dons Who Rocked My World: A Novel 386pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda).
Attygalle, Upatissa After All Women Are Human Too and Other Stories 168pp privately pub.
—The Case of the Missing False Teeth and Other Stories 165pp privately pub pa Rs 600.
Bandara, Piyumini “Am I That Invisible?” pp139-40 Channels 17 and 18.
Banu, Dilshy Operation Manik Farm 212pp Stamford Lake (Colombo) pa 925.
de Chickera, Lucky Pink Elephants ‘N Red Roses: Narrations of the Shorter Version 220pp privately pub.
de Kretser, Michelle Questions of Travel 517pp Allen and Unwin (London).
de Silva, Mithma “My Grandfather’s Granddaughters” pp167-60 Channels 17 and 18.
Deivanayagam, Devi Spices Are Sweet 161pp privately pub.
Dissanayake, Aditha “Adhitha” pp124-29 Channels 17 and 18.
Dissanayake, Daya The Clone: A Historical Novel From the Future 1348th Century. 134700 - 134799 CE 254pp Serenity (Colombo).
— Miracle under the Kumbuk Tree 260pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda) pa Rs. 390.
Fernando, Basil “A Lesson Learnt” pp49-54 Channels 17 and 18.
Gomez, Mario “The Saffron Moon” pp141-27 Channels 17 and 18.
Govinnage, Sunil The Black Australian 282pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda) pa Rs. 450.
Gunerathne, Shashendra Amalshan “Interview with a Mimicking Parrot” pp117-21 Channels 17 and 18.
Herath, Ayesha “They Go back to Their Women” pp79-85 Channels 17 and 18.
Herath, Neil “until death do us apart” pp76-78 Channels 17 and 18.
Jayasinghe, Sudara “Her Side of the Story” pp90-99 Channels 17 and 18.
Liyanage, Ananda The Prophecy 437pp Foremost (Colombo).
Lokugé, Chandani Softly, As I Leave You 249pp Arcadia (Victoria) [2011].
Mahendra, Sunanda The Caretakers: A Novel 151pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda).
Moonesinghe, Gnana “Spider’s Web” pp190-200 Channels 17 and 18.
Munaweera, Nayomi Island of a Thousand Mirrors: A Novel 227pp Perera-Hussein (Colombo) pa Rs 1000.
Nanayakkara, Manel “The ‘Look’”pp151-53 Channels 17 and 18.
Perera, Achala Rashmini The Candy Town Sarasavi 276pp (Nugegoda) pa Rs 475.
Perera, Terrence A Sri Lankan Love Story 272pp Vijitha Yapa (Colombo).
Peries, Srini A Three Generation Tale 163pp Stamford Lake (Colombo).
Premaratne-Stuiver, Chitra “The Art History Teacher” pp68-71 Channels 17 and 18.
Ranathunge, Chathurani “The Inspiration” pp13-25 Channels 17 and 18.
Ratnayake, Faith J. “Chains” pp109-12 Channels 17 and 18.
Riza, Mariam “The Silent Deception” pp38-46 Channels 17 and 18.
— “Jaffna” pp176-82 Channels 17 and 18.
Sachithanandan, Sakuntala Mohini “Kusuma’s Triumph at the Samitiya” pp62-67 Channels 17 and 18.
Samaranayake, Janidu The Mystery of the 35th Floor viii+306pp privately pub pa Rs. 390. [2011].
Sanjiva, W “This Is Not Our War” pp133-38 Channels 17 and 18.
Senarathne, Anthea “Weekend Trip” pp183-87 Channels 17 and 18.
Somathilaka, Lalitha The Journey 160pp S Godage (Colombo).
Sotheeswaran, SivaMalar “Desecration in a Temple” pp28-36 Channels 17 and 18.
Thurai, T The Devil Dancers 820pp Hot Monkey Publications (London) [2011].
Wanasundara, Nanda P “A Thousand Rupees and a Pinch of Spice to Life” pp100-107 Channels 17 and 18.
Weeraperuma, Susunaga Muni: An Incredible Buddhist Boyhood 320pp privately pub pa Rs 450.
Weeratunga, Saroja The Legend 272pp S.Godage (Colombo) pa Rs. 850.
Wettasinghe, Sybil “The Wedding Dress” pp171-75 Channels 17 and 18.
Wijenaike, Punyakante “The Sun-God” pp55-56 Channels 17 and 18.
— “The Submarine” p210 Channels 17 and 18.
Yaseen, Azeeza “The Ring” pp162-66 Channels 17 and 18.
Translations
Amarasekara, Gunadasa Death by the Pool trans from Sinhala by Sunil de Silva 97pp Visidunu (Colombo) pa Rs 350.
Jayasena, Henry Lazarus trans from Sinhala by Vijitha Fernando 212pp Sarasavi (Nugegoda) pa Rs. 275.
Kumarihamy, Seetha Beyond the Gray Hill 208pp trans from Sinhala by Vijitha Fernando S. Godage (Colombo).
Wickramasinghe, D.P Folk Tales from the Villages around Kandy 162pp trans from Sinhala by L.B. Herath Dharshana (Colombo) pa Rs. 562.
Interviews
Arasanayagam, Jean “Signifiers and Significance” Chandana Dissanayake Sunday Observer 11 November http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/11/11/mon01.asp
Ganeshananthan, V.V “Drawing Maps of Pain: An Interview with V.V. Ganeshananthan” Dashini Jeyathurai South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp305-314.
Karunatilaka, Shehan “Karunatilaka on Writing and Inspiration” Raisa Wickrematunga The Sunday Leader 6 February
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/02/05/karunatilaka-on-writing-and-inspiration/; “Cricket Seemed a Neat Way of Talking about Sri Lanka” Srijana Mitra Das The Times of India 6 February
Ondaatje, Michael “A Fox’s Wedding: Sitting Down with Michael Ondaatje” Aparna Halpé South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp295-304.
VanderPoorten, Vivimarie “‘Writing is not a unilateral act’: An Interview with Vivimarie VanderPoorten” Maryse Jayasuriya South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp315-326.
Miscellaneous
Gooneratne, Walter R. Golden Memories and Silver Tears ix+206pp Srivedi (Colombo).
Kaththriarachchi, Jayanthi I Remember 72pp S.Godage (Colombo) privately pub.
Menike-Silva, Ransiri Worm’s Eye View 264pp privately pub [author’s childhood experiences illustrated with her own sketches].
Peries, Srini A Three Generation Tale 163pp Stamford Lake (Colombo) pa Rs.500.
Wijesinha, Rajiva Lakmahal Colombo, Sri Lanka: 75 Years of Social Change and Political Flux 228pp International Book House (Colombo) pa Rs.750.
Criticism
General Studies
Cross-Currents: Observations on Literature, Cinema & Culture Wimal Dissanayake 1255pp Serenity (Colombo).
“Contestation, Marginality, and (Trans)nationalism: Considering Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature” Maryse Jayasuriya and Aparna Halpé South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp17-28.
“Deconstructing Language Standards for Effective Language Teaching” Rukshaan Ibrahim Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp123-26.
“Devotees, Dissidents, Sceptics and Romantics in the Sri Lankan Campus Novel in English: A Study of The Days We Wished Would Never End, An English Education and The Ginirälla Conspiracy” S.W. Perera South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp217-38.
“Economics of Language Usage and the Impact of Value Organization” T.L. Gunaruwan and S.T.K. Kulatunga Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka LVII Part 2 pp185-97.
“Enormous Cracks, Towering Mountains”: The Displacement of Migration as Intimate Violence in Sri Lanka-Australia Migration Narratives” Isabel Alonzo-Breto South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp125-38.
“Language Crossing on FM: Remix?” Indira J. Mawella Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka LVII Part 2 pp199-214.
“‘My Teacher Talks of a Sri Lankan English’: Questing the Literary” Sivamohan Sumathy South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp339-348.
“The Novelist and Censorship: A Sri Lankan-Australian Perspective” Chandani Lokugé South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp327-338.
“The Need to Go beyond Linguistics for an Effective and Meaningful Study of Language: The Case of Veddah Language Studies” Maduranga Kalugampitiya Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp103-110.
“‘No Place Called Home?’: Representations of Home in Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled and Roshi Fernando’s Homesick” Neluka Silva South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp109-134.
“Poetry, Prose and Pretension” Imaad Majeed The Sunday Leader 20 June http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/11/27/poetry-prose-and-pretension/
“The Postcolonial Bildungsroman: Knowing Subalternity and the Culture of Human Rights” Pramod Nayar Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp32-52.
“Platform for Budding Writers” Ransiri Menike-Silva Channels 17 and 18 25 November
http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/12808-platform-for-budding-writers.html
“Pumping Iron: The Question of Masculinity in Blue Stories for Adults” Lal Medawattegedera Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp119-22.
“Rebirth of a Nation or The Incomparable Toothbrush: The Origin Story and Narrative Regeneration in Sri Lanka” South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) Minoli Salgado pp239-256.
“Re-Cognising the Linguistics of Postcolonial Literary Creativity in English in Sri Lanka” Edwin Thumboo and Thiru Kandiah Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp1-31.
“Rethinking Translations from a Postcolonial Perspective” Chelva Kanaganayakam South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp349-362.
Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009 Maryse Perera 181pp Lexington Books (Maryland).
“The 21st Century Postcolonial: Issues and Challenges in Syllabus Design” Manique Gunesekera Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp61-72.
“Un/timely Trends in Sri Lankan English Publication of Our Times” Vihanga Perera Lakbima 17 June http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4324:untimely-trends-in-sri-lankan-english-publication-of-our-times&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12.
Studies on Individual Writers
Cheran, R. “You Cannot Turn Away” Indran Amirthanayagam South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp363-366. [Review of You Cannot Turn Away].
de Chickera, Ruwanthie “‘Kalumaali’ Returns to the Wendt” Anon 2 November http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/11/02/fea33.asp.
Fernando, Roshi “Homesick by Roshi Fernando – Review” Sophie Martelli The Observer 11 March http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/11/homesick-roshi-fernando-review; “Homesick, by Roshi Fernando” Leyla Sanai The Independent 10 April http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/homesick-by-roshi-fernando-7628023.html; “Homesick by Roshi Fernando” Francesca Angelini Sunday Times (UK) 18 March http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/fiction/article993590.ece.
Freeman, Ru “A Disobedient Girl” Poornima Ranawana South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp373-375 [review of A Disobedient Girl].
Ganeshananthan, V.V “Uncertainty and the Future: A Reading of V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Love Marriage” Grant Hamilton South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp155-170.
Jayasekera, Kamani “Many Layers of Meaning” Roshan Samarakoon Sunday Observer 4 November http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/11/04/mon12.asp [review of Golden Cocoon].
Karunatilaka, Shehan “Betting on Fiction: Nation, Diaspora, Technology, and Anglophone Literary Networks in Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Legend of Pradeep Mathew” Brian Yothers South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp139-154; “‘It Is Not About Race’: Reading Shehan Karunatilaka’s Novel Chinaman against the Grain” Sumathy Sivamohan Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp73-82.
Lokugé, Chandani “Softly, as I Leave You” Chelva Kanaganayakam South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp370-372 [review of Softly, As I Leave You].
Macintyre, Ernest “A Script Inspired by People the Author Knew or Admired” Smriti Daniel The Sunday Times: Plus 30 September [review of “Irangani: A Tragedy of Our Times”].
Munaweera, Nayomi “Island of a Thousand Mirrors” Stephanie K. Dunning South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp367-369; “Sri Lankan Civil War Refracted in Island of a Thousand Mirrors” Sydney Brownstone The Island 27 October http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=64739; “An Enriching, Yet Gut-Wrenching Debut” Dil Navaz The Sunday Times: Plus 7 October http://www.sundaytimes.lk/121007/plus/an-enriching-yet-gut-wrenching-debut-15173.html; “The Perfect Gift: Island of A Thousand Mirrors – Nayomi Munaweera” Bradman Weerakoon 1 December http://island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=67364;
Ondaatje, Michael “The Cat’s Table” S.W. Perera SARJANA: Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya 26.2 [2011] pp119-20 [review of The Cat’s Table].
— “Michael Ondaatje’s Sri Lanka in The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Marilena Zackheos South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp51-70
— “History as a “Well-Told Lie” in Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family” Saradha Balasubramanian South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp71-88.
Rajapakse, Shiranee “Shirani Rajapakse’s Breaking News” Harshana Rambukwella Cha: An Asian Literary Journal March http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1083/328/.
Santhan, Aiyathurai “Identities, Ideologies and Narrative Fissures: Reading Resistance in The Whirlwind” Mahendran Thiruvarangan Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp127-37.
Selvadurai, Shyam “The Queer ‘Outsider’: Family and Sexuality in Shyam Selvadurai’s Swimming in the Monsoon Sea Kaustav Bakshi South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp171-192.
Silva, Neluka “A Family Narrative in a Time of Historical Upheaval” Morgan Meis The Sunday Times: Plus 4 March http://sundaytimes.lk/120304/Plus/plus_10.html [review of The Iron Fence].
Spittel, R. L. “Spittel’s Vanished Trails-Issues and Challenges in Reinterpreting the Author’s Text” Chandana Dissanayake Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX pp92-102.
Tearne, Roma “I Have Not Painted the War: Art and Abiding in Roma Tearne’s Mosquito” J. Edward Mallot South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp193-216.
Wijenaike, Punyakante “Indigenous Development in Sri Lankan Literature: Punyakante Wijenaike’s The Waiting Earth” Nicola Anne Robinson South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) pp 89-108.
Journals
Channels: Contemporary Sri Lankan Writing [17] & 18 ([2011]-2012) ed Nanda P. Wanasundera [annual journal of creative writing by the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka. Two volumes pub as one with continuous pagination; consequently, all citations in bibliography given as being published in 17 & 18].
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka LVII, ed Hema Goonatilake. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha [annual journal for members of RASSL, which covers research on a range of topics relating to Sri Lanka including Language, Literature and the Arts].
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka LVII Part 2, ed Hema Goonatilake. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha [annual journal for members of RASSL, which covers research on a range of topics relating to Sri Lanka including Language, Literature and the Arts].
Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth IX. ed Nihal Fernando and Walter Perera pa Rs 300/$10/£6 [journal of the Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. This issue includes the papers presented at the ACLALS conference held in 2011].
South Asian Review: Sri Lankan Anglophone Writing 33(3) ed Maryse Jayasuriya and Aparna Halpé [special issue on Sri Lanka].