The Journal of Commonwealth Literature
http://jcl.sagepub.com
Sri Lanka
S. W. Perera
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2001; 36; 215
DOI: 10.1177/002198940103600308
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://jcl.sagepub.com
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
Additional services and information for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature can be found at:
Email Alerts: http://jcl.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts
Subscriptions: http://jcl.sagepub.com/subscriptions
Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav
Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
compiled and introduced by S.W. Perera
Department of English, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Introduction
An important Literary Conference was held in Colombo at the beginning
of the year. Entitled ‘Cross Cultural Identities in Contemporary Sri Lankan
and British Writing’, and organised by the British Council, the conference
attracted Sri Lankan expatriate writers, like Shyam Selvadurai and Romesh
Gunesekera, and British academics, such as Alistair Niven and Shirley
Chew. It by far the largest conference of its kind to be held in the island
after the ACLALS Conference of 1995.
The first quarter of the year witnessed the launching of yet another Sri
Lankan expatriate novel – Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled.
Although called an ‘Australian novel’ on the cover, it gives equal weight to
Sri Lankan and Australian concerns. Lokugé’s is perhaps the first Sri
Lankan novel to deal almost exclusively with the problem of bringing up
children in an expatriate situation. This is preceded, however, by an
engaging first section in which the author focusses on Manthri’s childhood
in rural Sri Lanka. The sights, habits, and rituals of village life are conveyed
effectively. That the language is occasionally turgid it must be said but such
a discourse is perhaps necessary to describe the feelings and actions of a
child on the verge of becoming an adolescent. Some expatriate writers have
been accused of introducing rituals and local scenes for Orientalist purposes.
The early sections in Lokugé’s novel do recapitulate visits to the temple,
exorcist ceremonies and rituals associated with women attaining puberty,
yet many of these are functional. The last for instance is rendered ironic
when Mahendra discovers, on his wedding night, that Manthri is not a
virgin. The greater portion of the novel, however, concentrates on the
manner in which this couple and their children, Nelum and Devake, try to
cope with the demands of adjusting to living in Australia. Given Manthri’s
deep Buddhistic convictions, she is unable to properly settle down in Australia and to phlegmatically accept the children’s acquiring habits and
tendencies that are alien to her. Mahendra’s life, on the other hand, foregrounds the contradictions of a first generation emigrant living in the
‘Developed’ world. He is determined that his son should be successful as a
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
216
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
doctor and that his daughter respond positively to a proposed marriage.
None of these eventuate, however: the son becomes a drug addict, and the
daughter rejects a traditional marriage for a life of casual relationships.
Nelum eventually becomes a very capable surgeon who has little time for
her parents. Manthri ultimately suffers a breakdown and is confined to a
hospital room, while the father lives by himself becoming increasingly
crotchety as the years wear on. If the Moon Smiled is doubtless a depressing
book (it will certainly make prospective immigrants think again before
finalising their plans). But it is depressing because of the author’s candid,
unvarnished account of the traumas of settling down in another country,
an account that still convinces as fiction.
It was the consensus among many Sri Lankan critics that A. Sivanandan’s When Memory Dies which won the best first book award for the
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Eurasia) would be his only venture into
fiction. Sivanandan’s response to such conclusions was to publish Where the
Dance Is: Stories from Two Worlds and Three. These stories show poise
and are generally well constructed even if they lack the commitment and
passion of his novel. The author here shows a willingness to experiment that
allows him to deal with a variety of themes which include the vicissitudes
associated with expatriate living, gender orientation, mental illness, suicide,
betrayal, artistic responsibility/irresponsibility, cultural conflicts between the
East and West and several other concerns.
Eighteen years after publishing Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
has situated another novel in Sri Lanka, the land of his birth. Although
Anil’s Ghost does not depend on photographs, poems, journal entries, and
maps for artistic effect as did its predecessor, it is still postmodernist in
conception. In writing about his father and the demise of the Burgher
community in Sri Lanka, Ondaatje gives Running in the Family its melancholic and pathetic moments, but these episodes are interspersed with
sequences that are comic in the extreme. Anil’s Ghost which is located in
the Sri Lanka of the late 1980s discloses few moments of exhilaration. Anil
Tissera, a forensic anthropologist who was born in Sri Lanka but resides in
England, is sent by an International Human Rights Group to investigate
politically motivated murders that have plagued the country over a period
of time. She works closely with a local archaeologist named Sarath Diyasena
with whom she discovers a body which bears traces of a violent death. The
novel is built on the manner in which the two of them with the help of a
traditional ‘eye painter’ who has himself lost his wife during the upheavals
try to reconstruct the head and identify the victim. The consequences are
fatal for Sarath and although Anil is able to file a report on their findings
she has to undergo considerable humiliation before leaving the country.
Such a summary does injustice to the novel, however. Anil’s Ghost is about
health and disease, broken bodies and their reconstitution, people in and
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
217
out of community, scientists and artisans, the US and Sri Lanka, and
relationships that work and others that fail. To readers who have been
saturated with literature about the bheeshana yugaya, Ondaatje’s descriptions of heads on stakes, the numerous catalogues of bomb victims being
brought to hospitals, and the account of President Katugala’s assassination
(indubitably President Premadasa) is predictable, just as his obsessive focus
on forensic medicine for the greater part of the novel is tedious. Then
again, Ondaatje creates a very sentimentalised picture of Sri Lanka’s
medical fraternity in which doctors, nurses and others ignore all kinds of
hindrances to perform heroics in times of trial. No doubt such acts of selfless
service did (and still do) take place, but the recent history of Sri Lanka’s
medical profession has been punctuated by strikes on account of doctors
making demands that the State was not always able to meet. Their actions
have resulted in much hardship, even death, to patients, conflicts between
doctors and other hospital staff, and allegations that government doctors
are more interested in lucrative ‘consultancies’ rather than their substantive
posts. The strongest aspects of the novel are Anil’s growth from being a
semi-outsider to an insider and the closing images of the book where
Ananda Udugama, the eye painter, is given the task of restoring a historic
Buddha statue that was destroyed by vandals and to paint the eyes of the
new Buddha statue that was built nearby when the old one was destroyed.
He does his work while wearing Sarath’s cotton shirt which demonstrates
not just loyalty to the person who had hired him to undertake honourable
work, but also the correspondence between art and science. The presence
of his nephew by his side indicates that the ancient art will be preserved.
Ondaatje’s clever strategy of making Ananda peruse the variegated landscape of Sri Lanka through the Buddha’s eyes that he had created
foregrounds the crucial role played by artists. Finally, the fact that a new
statue of the Buddha is erected close to the battered, reconstructed one
that has stood for hundreds of years leaves the reader with the positive
message that it is still possible for a new Sri Lanka to be created while
maintaining the best traditions of the past, despite the traumas of the past
twenty years. Ondaatje’s book has led to some controversy with critics
divided between those who rate it highly and others who consider it a
patronising, Orientalist exercise. Be that as it may, it is an important book
in his ouevre.
The Gratiaen Prize which Ondaatje instituted continues to attract
controversy. For the first time the prize was awarded to three individuals –
Ruwanthie de Chickera for her drama ‘Middle of Silence’ (still in manuscript from) and Lakshmi de Silva for her translation of Henry Jayasena’s
Kuveni (the author shares the prize with the translator). The Chairman of
the judges in announcing the winners mentioned that Chickera’s play had
won awards when produced in England two years before which prompted
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
218
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
a renowned newspaper critic to question whether a work that had been
staged two years before could really be considered for an award in 2000.
This critic also queried Jayasena being declared a winner when his name
was not even mentioned in the short-list. Although the Gratiaen Trust
responded to the charges, the critic remained unconvinced. Despite the
controversy, the trustees of the Gratiaen must be pleased that Neil Fernandopulle and Vivakesa Chandrasekaram who shared the 1999 award for
‘Shrapnel’ and ‘Forbidden Area’, respectively, were successful in publishing
their work before the Gratiaen Awards for 2000.
Anybody familiar with the lines ‘And in the Garden secretly / And on
the Cross on High’, which appear in the hymn Praise to the Holiest would
be intrigued to discover whether the title story in Jean Arasanayagam’s
collection In the Garden Secretly demonstrates any thematic parallels with
the popular hymn. The initial sections of the story reveal no such connection; in fact, it would appear to refer very literally to the pilot’s entering
the garden of a bullet scarred, abandoned house in the North – for some
strange reason, the pilot is involved in a land operation. For much of the
time, the pilot ruminates on issues that are commonplace in literature
associated with war: the needless suffering experienced by all parties, the
chances of survival, the anxieties undergone by kith and kin, and the meaninglessness of employing words like ‘victory’ and ‘defeat’ in the context of
a civil war which is effectively destroying the entire country. It is only when
the pilot enters the damaged home that he realises, on seeing a shattered
image of Jesus Christ, that ‘we worship the same god, pray to the same
saints, chant the same litanies’ (p12). The revelation provides him with this
insight:
What shall I do with this icon of Christ? I cannot bear to leave it in this
ruined house. I know suffering was nothing new to Him. They scourged Him
with whips, ridiculed Him. In His time, He was looked upon as a subversive
element who dared to raise his voice against the mighty power of Rome.
Yet today the names we remember Him by say nothing of His stand against
temporal power, do they? (p18)
He decides to take the statue with him out of a sense of solidarity with the
people who have had to abandon this home on the one hand and his
wounded comrades on the other. Significantly, however, his placing the
shattered icon inside his kitbag means that ‘both hands are now free to
hold the gun’ (p18). Some of the other stories have appeared in previous
collections and, as is indicated in the Note to the stories, are concerned
with ‘War and violence, radical political movements, dispossession and
displacement’ (pix)
Having written his first novel The Trousered Harijan in 1949, the eightyfive-year-old Hubert Weerasooriya can justly claim that he is now the most
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
219
senior Sri Lankan novelist. Mud House to Mansion, like Sivanandan’s When
Memory Dies, in situated in a broad time-frame, from the early fifties to
the mid-nineties. It begins when Podi Appu, a cultivator, and his wife Somi
are evicted from their ancestral land. Having no other recourse, they beg
for a piece of land from the Big Master, the most influential and wellendowed landed proprietor in the vicinity. By dint of hard work the couple
prosper and ultimately take over the mansion of the Big Master after the
latter’s violent death at the hands of terrorists. Their son has eloped with
his daughter who eventually inherits the house and property. The novel
deals with much more than social mobility and transition, however. It
touches on the first insurgency of 1971, the Tamil pogrom of 1983, and
focusses in greater detail on the second insurgency of the late 1980s and its
ruthless suppression by the State. In fairness, Weerasooriya takes pains to
show that both sides were guilty of atrocities, unlike some previous writers
who romanticised the rebel cause at the expense of the army, or dismissed
them out of hand. Moreover, his strategy of using conversations among the
customers from various social backgrounds who patronise Somi’s ‘shop cum
restaurant’ to fill in narrative gaps and provide different perspectives on
crucial socio-political issues of the time is a neat structural device. But the
novel is ultimately enervated by his overuse of caricature in portraying
the Big Master and in his insistence on detailing the manner in which
Brigadier Marshal Perera wiped out the insurgents in several major towns
in the South. The accounts ultimately become predictable and tiresome.
This introduction has already established that the year 2000 yielded a
rich harvest in fiction. It would be incomplete, however, without some
reference to Edward Gunawardena’s Blood and Cyanide. If Sivanandan’s
When Memory Dies chronicles the transformation of Sri Lanka from a
comparatively peace loving country to a nation crippled by governmental
mismanagement and ethnic disharmony from the perspective of the ‘lower’
classes, this author attempts something similar from an ‘upper middle class’
perspective. Blood and Cyanide is a flawed, but thought-provoking novel.
In his anxiety to compose realistic dialogue, Gunawardena forgets that not
everything that is uttered in everyday conversation needs to be brought
into a novel. Some of the drawing room exchanges are interminable, unfocussed, and without point. The ‘intercommunal’ love affair between Saliya
and Sabitha, its rupture after the riots of 1983, and their untimely deaths
are sentimentally and sensationally rendered. Moreover, the author is seemingly oblivious that it is no longer ‘proper’ to poke fun at the dress and
English accents of those from another community. Not only is Sabitha’s
cousin Alagan from Jaffna described wearing ‘a bright yellow shirt and a
tight, ill-fitting pair of blue trousers; and black sandals with white socks’
(191) but he also talks in this fashion: ‘Thank you,. Thank you. I no eat
meat. I waant only vegetable. I good man’ (p191). The author makes no
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
220
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
attempt to chastise or ironise the Colombo 7 elite who consider Alagan a
figure to be ridiculed. This jeopardises the integrity of a work which sets
out to treat the intercommunal relationships with candour and sensitivity.
Such lapses are forgotten when he deals with the pogrom against the Tamils
in 1983, however. The author was a Deputy Inspector General of Police in
Colombo during the riots; consequently, he was privy to many of the horrific
actions perpetrated against a people often with official sanction. His searing
account discloses how such irresponsible, dastardly actions allowed anarchy
to prevail. The novel does more than provide an ‘authentic’ picture of the
riots, however. In the stories of the Sinhala and Tamil families who were
once so close but are now rendered suspicious of each other because of
events that have befallen them, he explores the issues involved with the
sensitivity of the true artist.
At least eight collections of poetry appeared in the year under review.
Many of these were privately published and not readily available in bookstores, or first time efforts that reinforced a point made regularly in the Sri
Lankan section of recent issues of the JCL’s annual bibliography which is
that English poetry produced in the island is no longer of any substance.
One work that merits some attention, however, is Jean Arasanayagam’s
Fire in the Village. To those who have read her recent writings, many of the
themes in the collection are predictable (some of the poems, in fact, have
appeared in previous publications). The six-part ‘Dance of Krishna’ displays
her awareness of and fascination for Hindu mythology. The first poem in the
sequence ‘Madyadhira’, however, also contrasts the life of this mythological
figure and the poet-narrator, or the ‘heroines’, of the present day:
Our settings are just very different although our
Epochs often coalesce, moreover heroines no longer await
Their heroes with so much expectation,
They’re too busy paying attention to their own concerns
Their needs and emotions (p20)
The rest of the collection captures the poet’s horror at killings in border
villages in Sri Lanka (‘Goyaesque Etching from the ‘‘Disasters of War’’’)
her fascination with her husband’s culture and history (‘Where Did They
Come From’) and her ambivalent, sometimes troubled, relations with her
husband’s Hindu relatives and ancestors. Nevertheless, none of these poems
prepares the reader for the searing bitterness of ‘The Displaced’. Here,
milk rice that is common fare during festivals in Sri Lanka ‘tastes bitter to
me’, and the buildings that store paddy in villages ‘keep out rats like
myself’. She feels that she has been reduced to the level of a beggar who
‘gather[s] the morsels from the thrown plantain / Leaves of your charity’.
While experiencing these traumas, she remembers the ‘neglected graves’ of
her ancestors. These ancestors were presumably Dutch colonisers who had
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
221
arrived as conquerors and later settled on the island. No doubt, the poet
recalls the many privileges and powers they had enjoyed while she (their
descendant) is dispossessed, despised, and rendered impecunious. Arasanayagam is, of course, entitled to make such vitriolic, bitter denunciations
of her country of birth, residence and (by implication) its majority community that has caused her so much pain. But such paroxysms of hatred
problematise her integrity as an artist when they appear in her poetry. One
wonders whether her future poetry will be similarly affected.
Time has certainly not diminished Anne Ranasinghe’s creativity or the
honours she receives for her work. ‘Holocaust 1994’ was set to music by
Lori Laitmana and performed in Seattle with Eric Parce, Baritone, and
Gary Karr double bass. ‘Mascot and Symbol’ and ‘A Letter to My Daughter’
too were set to music and performed in New York. She was also invited by
UNESCO and the Greek government to read from her poetry in Delphi,
Athens, for World Poetry Day.
A play by Woody Allen which was directed by Kesara Ratnatunga
carried all the prizes in the Peradeniya University’s Inter-Hall drama
competition. The other plays were ‘Options’, ‘Seven Women in Search of
a Husband’, and ‘Be A Man’. It is a pity that the DramSoc does not hold
competitions or festivals that are confined to original scripts. Original scripts
have little chance of success when competing with those written by established playwrights. Those who have the talent to write scripts will sure
become disheartened of this trend continues. Ruwanthie de Chickera’s
second play ‘Two times Two is Two’ was produced at the British Council.
She also directed, edited and dramaturged a collective playwriting effort
by some students which was entitled ‘The Absentee’. It was performed at
the Russian Cultural Centre. Her award-winning first play ‘Middle of
Silence’ was performed in Bangalore and Bombay by an Indian Theatre
company – the Artist’s Repertory Theatre.
Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden which was directed by Tracy
Holsinger with Karen Balthazaar as Paulina Escobar, Mario Gomez as
Gerardo Escobar and Mohamed Adamaly as Roberto Miranda created a
sensation on account of its violent language and some scenes that were
explicit by Sri Lankan standards. The same play was produced in Sinhala
the previous year. The reasons for theatre companies choosing such a play
are patent. Themes like the battle for power between left-wing agitators
and dictatorial rulers, incidence of rape and torture, and the desire for
victims to bring their victimisers to book once democracy is restored would
obviously strike a chord with Sri Lankans who remember the late eighties
when such incidents were common in this island, too. Death and the Maiden
was well produced, on the whole, with Adamaly excellent in his capacity
as the now respectable doctor who is forced to ‘confess’ by his former
victim. Although she tended to overact the scenes depicting Paulina’s desire
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
222
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
for sexual revenge, as it were, Balthazaar sustained a demanding role for
the duration of the play. Gomez, though competent, did not always impress.
What seemed strangely unprofessional was the lighting which paid more
attention to the background rather than the three characters. Facial
expressions and reactions that are important in any drama but especially
in one of this nature did not register because the lighting was inexplicably
poor.
Another theatrical event which generated considerable interest was
Sivamohan Sumathy’s ‘In the Shadow of the Gun’, essentially stories of
several women in the war-torn North of Sri Lanka. This was a veritable
‘one [wo]man show’ with Sumathy performing six or more roles. Methodist
College (‘Normal Life’), Visaka Vidyalaya (‘Progress’), D.S. Senanayaka
Vidyalaya (‘S.O.S’), and Trinity College, Kandy (‘Alarm Clock’) were finalists in the Inter-school Drama competition. Other plays staged in the year
under review included ‘The Night of March 23rd’ which was directed and
produced by Vinodh Senadheera and acted by students of The British
School; ‘Nothing Really Matters’ performed by the Drama Society of St
Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia; H.C.N. de Lanerolle’s and E.M.W. Joseph’s
‘Well, Mudliyar, How?’; directed by Jith Pieris; and A Woman of No
Importance directed by Ruana Rajapakse. To the several experiments in
the theatre this year add ‘The Absentee’, written by eight students from
Methodists’ college and ‘dramaturged’ by Ruwanthie de Chickera.
The compiler notes with regret that The Lanka Guardian which carried
some of the most controversial articles on English Studies in Sri Lanka and
a host of other topics for more than fifteen years is on the verge of
becoming ‘a publication that was’. Though occasionally guilty of sensationalism and iconoclastic writing for its own sake, The Lanka Guardian
provided a forum for those who wished to challenge the status quo. It is
hoped that this newspaper is either given a new lease of life, or that another
journal, periodical, or newspaper can take over the task carried out so
valiantly and for so long by The Lanka Guardian.
Bibliography
Bibliographies and Study Aids
Sri Lanka National Bibliography 38 (1–12) 2000 85pp; 67pp; 53pp; 50pp;
64pp; 63pp; 68pp; 74pp; 64pp; 70pp; 71pp; 71pp. National Library of
Sri Lanka (Colombo) pa annual sub Rs300/£32/US$50.
‘Cumulative Author Index: The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities’ 15–25
D.P.M. Weerakkody The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 26 (1&
2) pp125–39.
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
223
Directory of Government Publications in Sri Lanka [1999] xiv+281pp
National Library and Documentation Centre (Colombo) pa
unpriced.
Sri Lanka Conference Index 1994–1995 [1999] xcii+113pp National Library
Documentation Centre (Colombo) pa unpriced.
Poetry
Amirthanayagam, Indran ‘Un Lamento Para Neelan Tiruchelvam’ (Elegy
for Neelan Tiruchelvam) Nēthrā 4(1) [1999] and (2) pp98–101
[includes original written in Spanish and author’s own translation
into English].
Arasanayagam, Jean ‘Childhood Memory’ Channels 9 (1) pp22–3.
—— ‘An Historical Document’, ‘Beyond History’, ‘Conversation at a
Breakfast Table’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of Sri
Lanka 17 pp100–2; pp102–5; pp106–7.
—— Fire in the Village 88pp P Lal (Calcutta) pa unpriced.
Arasanayagam, Parvathi. ‘Realization’, ‘History’s Dimensions’ Navasilu:
Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17 p70; p71.
De Silva, A. S. Episodes on Reaching Ninety One [1999] viii+62pp privately
published pa unpriced.
De Silva, Manel August in Hembarawa [1999] xi+61pp Vishva Lekha
(Ratmalana) pa Rs200.
Ebell, M.T.L. ‘Horizons’ Channels 9 (1) p23.
Gunawardena, Lakmali Song for the Setting Sun 28pp privately published
pa unpriced.
Halpé, Aparna ‘Mathakada’ Channels 9 (1) p28.
Halpé, Ashley [From] ‘PASAN: A Threnody for Sri Lanka’ Channels 9 (1)
pp19–21 [an amalgam of poetry and prose].
Hewa, S.P. ‘The Office Outing’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association
of Sri Lanka 17 p21.
Lekamge, Sachintha My Sweet Memories [1999] iv+69pp privately published
pa Rs60.
Liyanage, Y. The Way My Heart Beats [1999] viii+32pp privately published
pa unpriced.
Muller, Carl ‘A Going and a Coming’, ‘Hatestrong’, ‘Evolution’ Navasilu:
Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp38; pp38; pp39.
Ranasinghe, Anne ‘Blue’ Nēthrā 4(1) [1999] & (2) p102.
—— ‘Festina Lente’ Nēthrā (4) 3&4 pp112.
Seneviratne, Malinda Epistles 1984–1996 x+52pp privately published pa
unpriced.
Siriwardena, Regi ‘I Am Not What I Am’ Nēthrā (4) 3&4 pp 113.
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
224
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
Sumathy, [Sivamohan] ‘Willow Song for the Year’ Navasilu: Journal of the
English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp94–6.
Wijeratne, Kamala ‘Fledgling’ Channels 9 (1) pp38–9.
Wilson, N.A. Chamal My Heart iv+52pp privately published pa unpriced.
Drama
Chandrasekeram, Visakesa Forbidden Area 41pp Rajah and Sunderam
(Colombo) pa unpriced.
Macintyre, Ernest [Excerpts from] ‘He Still Comes from Jaffna’ CRNLE
JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing pp32–7.
Fiction
Abhayaratne, Manel Gifts of Love 84 pp privately published pa unpriced.
Amunugama, Stanley The Twins and Other Tales from Sri Lanka xv+180pp
Vishva Lekha (Ratmalana) pa Rs290.
Arasanayagam, Jean ‘Phoenix Fire’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp22–37.
—— In the Garden Secretly and Other Stories 153pp Penguin (New Delhi)
pa Rs200 (Indian).
Arasanayagam, Parvathi ‘The Plumaria Tree’ Navasilu: Journal of the
English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp115–20.
Arasanayagam, Thiagaraja ‘The Lonely Rapture’ (Excerpt from a Novel in
Progress) Channels 9 (1) pp29–37.
Cecil, F. Rose’s Fate 119pp privately published pa Rs250.
De Kretser, Michelle The Rose Grower [1999] 303pp Random House
(Australia) pa Aus $24.95.
Dissanayake, Aditha ‘Gravel’ Channels 9 (1) pp53–6.
Fernando, Chitra Cousins [1999] 134pp privately published pa unpriced.
Fernandopulle, Neil Shrapnel: A Collection of Short Stories 128pp Sarasavi
(Colombo) pa Rs200.
Gooneratne, Yasmine ‘In Herbert’s Study’ [Excerpt from Tsunami, a novel
in progress] CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic
Writing pp24–7.
Gunawardena, Edward Blood and Cyanide: A Contemporary Sri Lankan
Tragedy 447pp privately published pa Rs 900 / £9.90.
Jayatailake, Bhadraji Mahinda The Land of the Golden Lion xv+180pp
Vishua Lekha (Ratmalana) pa Rs290.
Jayawardana, Gunasiri Some Walk Tall [1999] vi+146pp privately published
pa Rs250.
Jayawardena, Prasanna M. A Journey Forward vi+286pp M.D. Gunasena
(Colombo) pa Rs375.
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
225
Jayaweera, J.M.K. Bandara Reincarnation [1999] viii+430pp privately published pa Rs200.
Jayaweera, N. Careema ‘The Infidel’ Channels 9 (1) pp9–18.
Jinadasa, Kamini ‘With Love’ Channels 9 (1) pp48–52.
Keerthiratne, Shyani Dewdrops 84pp privately published pa unpriced.
Lokugé, Chandani If the Moon Smiled 223pp Penguin (Ringwood, Victoria)
pa unpriced.
—— ‘Her Deep Red Scarf’ CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian
Diasporic Writing pp39–41.
Maithripala, M.D.S. The Precious Gift viii+125pp M.D. Gunasena
(Colombo) pa Rs180.
Mayadunne, D.S.S. ‘Son’ Nēthrā 4 (3&4) pp108–11.
Muller, Carl ‘God’s Child’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of
Sri Lanka 17 pp121–5.
Nannayakkara, Piyasena My Brother Priest 168pp privately published pa
unpriced.
Ondaatje, Michael Anil’s Ghost 311pp Alfred A. Knopf (New York) pa
unpriced.
Perera, Sydney ‘A Pair of Umbrellas’ Channels 9 (1) pp40–7.
—— ‘My Uncle Ben’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of Sri
Lanka 17 pp50–2.
Perera, W.R.H. Again the Winds: Pol Thel Pahana and Other Stories of
Yore xi+124pp Vishva Lekha (Colombo) pa Rs400.
Raajasuriya, Mahesh ‘The Return’ Channels (9) 1 pp1–8.
Santhan, Ayathurai In Their Own Worlds: A Collection of Short Stories
80pp S.Godage (Colombo) pa Rs100.
Seneviratne, Maureen ‘In Company with Pain’ Channels (9) 1 pp24–7.
Sivanandan, A[mbalavaner] Where the Dance Is: Stories from Two Worlds
and Three 154pp Arcadia Books (London) pa £10.99 / US $12.99.
Weerasooriya, Hubert Mud house to Mansion ix+245pp Vishya Lekha
(Ratmalana) pa Rs375.
White, Maithree ‘Walking Crabs’ Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp147–53.
Wijeratne, Kamala Death by Drowning and Other Stories [1999] xiv+107pp
privately published pa Rs90.
Wilson, Christine I Am the Wings Sooriya (Colombo) 220pp pa Rs350.
Translations
Jayasena, Henry Kuveni trans from Sinhala Lakshmi de Silva 56pp S.
Godage (Colombo) pa Rs80 [play].
Vithana, Gunasena A Bridge to Jaffna trans from Sinhala Tilak Balasuriya
152pp Kurulu Poth (Rajagiriya) pa unpriced [novel].
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
226
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
—— Hanuman Giri trans from Sinhala Padma Basnayake 94pp privately
published pa unpriced [novel].
Criticism
general studies
‘Channels Makes Good Reading’ Carol Aloysius The Sunday Observer:
Review of Books 8 October p35 [review of Channels 9(1)].
‘Exploring New Styles, Genres, and Themes’ Alfreda de Silva The Sunday
Times: Plus 23 April p2 [reviews of the Grataien winners for 2000].
‘Lankan Poetry and Our Life’ Kandiah Sriganeshan The Weekend Express:
Books 6 August pp25–6.
‘Literature and the Politics of Ethnonationalism in Sri Lanka’ Chelva Kanaganayakam The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 26 (1 &
2)pp29–43.
‘Some Responses to Colonial / Neocolonial Education in Funny Boy, Petals
of Blood, and In the Castle of My Skin’ The Sri Lanka Journal of
the Humanities 26(1 & 2)pp62–87.
‘Sri Lanka in the English Language’ Richard W. Bailey Fact and Fable:
Aspects of East–West Interaction Sabaragamuwa University Press
(Sabaragamuwa) pp70–7.
‘Sri Lankan English and the SlnE Speaker: Changing Nature Vs. Changing
Attitudes’ Dinali Fernando Fact and Fable: Aspects of East–West
Interaction Sabaragamuwa University Press (Sabaragamuwa)
pp94–103.
‘Sri Lankan English: Use or Abuse?’ Manique Gunasekera Navasilu:
Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp40–9.
‘The English-Language Novel of Sri Lanka and the Critical Response to
It: An Overview’ Tissa Jayatilaka Navasilu: Journal of the English
Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp1–20.
‘The Phases and Guises of the Twentieth Century Sri Lankan Expatriate
Novel’ S.W. Perera CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian
Diasporic Writing pp52–60.
‘Two Sri Lankans Capture International Headlines’ Nan The Sunday Island:
Features 9 July p5.
‘We Can Be Killed, But We Can Never Be Silenced: Narratives of CoExistence in Recent Sri Lankan Fiction’ Suvendrini Perera CRNLE
JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing 2000pp13–23.
studies of individual authors
Abhayaratna, Manel ‘Gifts of Love’ Renuka Sadanandan The Sunday Times
Plus 27 August p6; ‘Gifts of Love for All Ages’ Goolbai Gunasekera
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
227
The Sunday Observer: Et cetera 13 August p35 [reviews of Gifts of
Love; see fiction above].
Akbar, Siddeeque A. ‘A Laudable Attempt’ Ranjan Amarasinghe The
Sunday Observer: Outlook 13 February p24 [review of The Echo].
Amirthanayagam, Indran ‘It Sings, Dances and Rages’ Alfreda de Silva 30
January p2 [review of The Elephants of Reckoning and The Death
Tree and readings of the same by the author].
Arasanayagam, Jean ‘A Collection of Thirty-Nine Poems Women, All
Women’ Alka Nigam The Island: Saturday Magazine 29 April p17;
‘Memories of Women Both Ordinary and Extraordinary’ Alfreda de
Silva The Sunday Times: Plus 3 September p2; ‘Collection of Poems’
Alka Nigam The Sunday Observer: Review of Books 10 September
p33; ‘It Touches the Mind, Spirit and Heart’ Goolbai Gunasekera
The Sunday Times: Plus 8 October p2 [reviews of Women All
Women]; ‘Woman and Identity, and Other in Jean Arasanayagam’s
Fiction’ Vasuki Walker Navasilu: Journal of the English Association
of Sri Lanka 17 pp126–46.
Boange, Amirun ‘A Winning D.I.N.’ Siromi Fernando The Sunday Times:
Features 23 January p8; ‘Joyous Threading of Emotions’ Siromi Fernando The Sunday Observer: Review of Books 30 January p22
[review of D.I.N.]
Cecil, F. ‘Invitation to a World of Romance’ A.T. Dharmapriya The Sunday
Observer: Features p9; ‘With Simple Style’ Nandana Karunanayake
The Sunday Leader: Review 30 April p6. [reviews of Rose’s Fate; see
fiction above].
Crusz, Hillary ‘Poetry of a Truly Whole Person’ Ashley Halpé The Sunday
Times: Plus 4 June p8 [review of ‘Does the Doctor Sing?’ – Selected
Works of Hillary Crusz Vol.1 ‘Love Poetry’].
Crusz, Rienzie ‘New Life Rolls Out of Old Mountain Tale’ Carl Muller
The Sunday Times: Plus 6 February p2; ‘The Sainted Sinner’ Carl
Muller The Sunday Observer: Outlook 20 February p29 [reviews of
Lord of the Mountain: The Saradiel Poems].
De Kretser, Michelle ‘Novelist in Bloom’ Helen Elliot The Weekend Australian 9–10 October [1999] p10; ‘On Tumult’s Periphery’ Stella Clarke
The Weekend Australian 9–10 October [1999] p10; ‘Roses and
Revolution’ Cath Keneally Brisbane Courier Mail 27 October [1999]
p16; ‘Rose without Thorns’ Peter Pierce Melbourne Herald Sun 11
December [1999] p18; ‘A Poison in Paradise’ Ruth Gorb Guardian,
6 November [1999] p15; ‘The Rose Grower’ Patricia Deevy Image
10 November [1999] p.9; ‘Love and Death in the War of the Roses’
Elizabeth Wells Independent on Sunday 21 November [1999] p14;
‘Love in Old Gascony’ Anon The Washington Post Book World
18–25 June p6; ‘Pruning Season’ Joanne Harris The New York Times
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
228
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
Book Review, 27 August p4; ‘French Revolution Blossoms’ Susan
Lynne Harkins The Orlando Sentinel, 2 September p6; ‘Evocative
and Gently Haunting’ Nick Prescott CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri
Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing pp96–7 [reviews of The Rose
Grower; see fiction above].
Dias, Erika ‘Blissful Emptiness’ Chandrasriya de Silva The Sunday
Observer: Et cetera 8 October p35 [review of Blissful Emptiness].
Fernando, Chitra ‘Chitra Fernando: The Writer, Her Craft, and Her Audience’ Dushyanthi Mendis Navasilu: Journal of the English
Association of Sri Lanka 17 pp108–14.
Fernando, Shavindra ‘A Poetess among Revolutionaries’ Naomie Gunasekerara The Sunday Leader: Review 16 January p26; ‘Glimpses of
University Life: The Vague Poetess’ Darshana Liyanage The Island:
Saturday Magazine 29 April p17; ‘The Vague Poetess: A Battle of
Cultures’ Darshana Liyanage The Sunday Leader: Review 30 April
p26; ‘University Life from a New Perspective’ Dharshana Liyanage
The Weekend Express: Features 1–2 April p26; ‘Class, Campus, and
the Cushy Life’ Rajpal Abenaike The Sunday Times: Plus 14 May p9;
‘New Novel Explores Drama Societies’ Anon The Weekend Express
18–19 December p22 [reviews of The Vague Poetess].
Gooneratne, Brendon and Yasmine Gooneratne ‘Inscrutable, Crooked or
Queer’ Alison Broinowski CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and
Indian Diasporic Writing 2001 pp81–3 [review of This Inscrutable
Englishman].
Gooneratne, Yasmine ‘From ‘‘A Wholesome Synthesis of East and West’’ to
a ‘‘Game of Profitable Mutual Seduction’’ – Two Novels by Yasmine
Gooneratne’ S.W. Perera Navasilu: Journal of the English Association
of Sri Lanka 17 pp75–93; ‘ ‘‘We Must Laugh at One Another, or
Die:’’ Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies and South Asian
Migrant Identities’ Chandani Lokugé Shifting Continents / Colliding
Cultures: Diaspora Writing of the Indian Subcontinent ed. Ralph J.
Crane and Radhika Mohanram Rodopi (Amsterdam) pp17–34.
Gunawardena, Yvonne ‘The Poetry of Yvonne Gunawardena’ Gamini
Seneviratne The Sunday Island: Features 15 October p18.
Jayawardena, Sharmini ‘Words of Love, Loss and Outrage’ Alfreda de Silva
The Sunday Times: Plus 24 September p2 [review of Wet Paint].
Lokugé, Chandani ‘A Story of a Sri Lankan Woman’s Shattered Dreams
in the ‘‘Mystical Land of Opportunity’’’ Kirthie Abeyesekera The
Island: Features 14 May p6 p18; ‘Images that Beget More Images’
Ashley Halpé The Sunday Times: Plus 25 June p6; ‘In the Pale
Moonlight’ Manjit Bhatia The Island: Midweek Review 5 July p18;
S.W. Perera ‘The Family in the Sri Lankan Expatriate Novel: Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled’ CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
229
and Indian Diasporic Writing pp161–9; ‘The Inner Lives of Sri
Lankan Women’ Yasmine Gooneratne The Book Review [India] 24
(10) pp66–7; ‘A Lyrical Tale of Deepening Loss’ Anon The Sunday
Observer: Et cetera 7 May p33; ‘So Fleeting the Smile’ Ashley Halpé
CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing 2000
pp61–3 [reviews of If the Moon Smiled]; ‘Equal and Opposite’ Susan
Hosking CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic
Writing pp98–108 [review of If the Moon Smiled and Vikram Seth’s
An Equal Music].
Macintyre, Ernest ‘Macintyre’s Map of a Close Relationship 1983–2000’
Shelagh Goonewardene CRNLE JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian
Diasporic Writing pp143–6 [review of ‘He Still Comes from Jaffna’
and ‘Rasanayagam’s Last Riot’].
Munasinghe, Flower ‘Stories Derived from the Domesticity of Lankan Life’
Carl Muller The Sunday Observer: Outlook 23 January p27; [review
of Divided Loyalty and Other Stories].
Ondaatje, Michael ‘Murder on the Island’ Michael Gorra Times Literary
Supplement 28 April p23; ‘Anil’s Ghost’ Meg Williams The Sunday
Times: Plus 30 July p10; ‘Hit the Circuit’ Theo Tait London Review
of Books 20 July p39; ‘Anil’s Ghost’ Ranjini Obeyesekere The Island:
Opinion 13 August p16; ‘Search for Identity and a Corpse’ Vinod
Moonesinghe The Sunday Observer: Review of Books 27 August p35
‘Humane Retelling of Terrible Times’ Ernest Macintyre The Sunday
Times: Plus 3 September p2; ‘ ‘‘Anil’s Ghost’’ Begins to Haunt’ The
Sunday Island: Plus 3 September p7; ‘Strong and Gentle Ode to
Horrible Times’ Ashley Halpé The Sunday Times: Plus 17 September
p6; ‘The Truth of a Myriad Skeletons’ Shobana Bhattacharji The
Book Review [India] 24 (10) p72 [reviews of Anil’s Ghost].
—— ‘Unanchored to the World’: Displacement and Alienation in Anil’s
Ghost and the Prose of Michael Ondaatje’ Brenda Glover CRNLE
JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing pp75–80.
Perera, Gaston ‘Fascinating Adventure of the Historical Imagination’
Ashley Halpé The Island: Midweek Review 24 May p16; ‘Re-entering
History’ Ashley Halpé The Sunday Observer: Review of Books 28
May p35 [reviews of The Rebel of Kandy].
Perera, Shyama ‘You’re in for a Rollicking Read’ B. Skanthakumar The
Weekend Express: Books 17 June p25 [review of Haven’t Stopped
Dancing Yet].
Ranasinghe, Anne ‘Not Even Shadows’ Carol Aloysius The Sunday
Observer: Review of Books 23 July p35 [review of Not Even
Shadows].
Roberts, Karen ‘Tender and Nostalgic Love Story’ Carol Aloysius The
Sunday Observer: Review of Books p35 [review of Flower Boy].
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
230
Journal of Commonwealth Literature
Sarvanapava Iyer, M. ‘Unique in Nature’ Kandiah Shriganeshan The
Weekend Express: Features 5–6 February p23 [review of Butterfly:
Poetry for Children].
Selvadurai, Shyam ‘A Fish Without a Bicycle’?: Annalukshmi’s Choice in
Selvadurai’s Cinnamon Gardens’ Carmen Wickramagamage CRNLE
JOURNAL: Sri Lankan and Indian Diasporic Writing 2000 pp130–40
[review of Cinnamon Gardens].
Seneviratne, Maureen ‘Big Ideas and Deep Emotions’ Goolbai Gunasekara
The Sunday Times: Plus 25 June p2 [review of The Collected Short
Stories].
Sivanandan, Ambalavaner ‘Multifarious Concerns’ S.W. Perera The Book
Review [India] XXIV (10) pp60–1 [review of Where the Dance Is];
‘(Where) Language Acts in When Memory Dies’ Sonali Perera
Nēthrā 4 (3&4) pp101–7 [review of When Memory Dies].
Wilson, Christine ‘Tension and Promise’ Carl Muller The Sunday Times:
Plus 30 April p2; ‘A Mixed Bag from Colonial Ceylon’ Swineetha
Ranjani D. Ellepola The Sunday Observer: Et cetera [reviews of I
am the Wings].
Woolf, Leonard ‘Leonard Woolf’s Novel of Sri Lanka: The Village in the
Jungle’ Yasmine Gooneratne English Literatures in International
Contexts ed Heinz Antor and Klaus Stierstorfer Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter pp397–402.
Non-Fiction
Jayawardena, Kumari Nobodies to Somebodies: The Rise of the Colonial
Bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka xx+390pp Social Scientists’ Association
(Colombo) pa unpriced.
Wijesinha, Rajiva Richard de Zoysa: His Life, Some Work . . . a Death
v+165pp Sabaragamuwa University Press (Belihuloya) pa unpriced.
Interviews
De Chickera, Ruwanthie ‘I Need a Foothold on Reality’ interview with
Gayathri Samarakoon The Sunday Leader: Now 30 January p8.
De Silva, Jerome ‘The Pride Roars Again’ interview with Thalitha Mathew
The Sunday Leader: Review 22 October p26.
Gunesekera, Romesh ‘In Conversation’ interview with T. Vijay Kumar The
Book Review [India] XXIV (10) pp69–71.
Selvadurai, Shyam ‘In His World’ interview with Wathsala Mendis The
Sunday Times: Plus 1 April p1.
Wijenaike, Punyakante ‘An Interview with Punyakante Wijenaike’ Haaniya
Jiffrey Navasilu: Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 17
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009
Sri Lanka
231
pp154–60; ‘It Was a Burning Desire: Down Memory Lane’ Roshan
Peiris The Sunday Times: Plus 13 February p10.
Journals
Channels 9 (1) ed English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka unpriced.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka New Series (XLIII) [1998
published in 2000] ed T.W. Wickramanayaka, Royal Asiatic Society
of Sri Lanka, 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7;
annual journal for members of RASSL, which covers research on a
range of topics relating to Sri Lanka including Language, Literature,
and the Arts.
Navasilu: the Journal of the English Association of Sri Lanka 16 ed Nihal
Fernando Unpriced.
Nēthrā 4 (1) [1999], (2), (3&4) ed Regi Siriwardena, International Centre
for Ethnic Studies, Colombo. Annual sub Sri Lanka Rs350; SAARC
countries US $15; other countries) US $20. Successor to The
Thatched Patio, this quarterly publication includes critical essays on
Literature, book reviews, poems and short stories.
The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 26 (1&2) ed S.W. Perera, Faculty
of Arts, University of Peradeniya. Annual sub Rs150, US $8.50, 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.
Downloaded from http://jcl.sagepub.com at RUTGERS UNIV on June 1, 2009