Sri Lankan Women Writers Finding Space Within Political Turmoil. Punyakante Wijenaike, Kumari Jayawardena, Nira Wickramsinghe, Rosemary Rogers and Thisuri Wanniarchchi

Sri Lankan Women Writers Finding Space Within Political Turmoil. Punyakante Wijenaike, Kumari Jayawardena, Nira Wickramsinghe, Rosemary Rogers and Thisuri Wanniarchchi
Author: Shamenaz Bano
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 23
Release: 2020-09-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3346249905

Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Literature - General, grade: NA, , course: Doctoral, language: English, abstract: Sri Lanka is a country which has witnessed tremendous political upheavals since ages. Although now, peace has been restored to the lands still there are many issues which have to be sorted out. Though an under develop country, but Sri Lanka was the first country to have given the world first woman Prime Minister, Srinivaso Bhandarnaike. Women writing in Sri Lanka began in 1928 when Rosalind Mendis published her first novel, The Mystery of a Tragedy published by Arthur Stockwell of London. The novel was not so successful and it did not pave the way to inspire other women to take up writing as a career. Women writing did not flourish in Sri Lanka due to many reasons but over the last three decades, it has witnessed a new wave of women writers trying to carve their niche in the world of English writing as there has been tremendous flow of women writers. Vijeta Fernando writes, ‘a half a century long drought followed before creative writing, especially by women, could take root and flourish in the island country.’ So the writing culture including both men and women developed in Sri Lanka in the postcolonial period.

A Disobedient Girl

A Disobedient Girl
Author: Ru Freeman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2009-07-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 143912356X

SHE LOVED FINE THINGS, AND SHE HAD NO DOUBT THAT SHE DESERVED THEM. . . . Young Latha knows that she was not meant to be a servant. She was born for finer things, like the rose-smelling soap she steals from the family she has worked for since she was five, or the glasses of fresh lime juice she helps herself to after a long day. But the hard truth is that her life is tied to Thara, the family’s spoiled daughter, and for the next thirty years they grow up bound by love, betrayal, resentment, and an impossible secret. Then there is Biso, a devoted mother of three, who risks everything to escape from her tyrannical husband. Though her journey begins with hope, she navigates a disastrous path that ultimately binds her story to Latha and Thara’s in the most unexpected and heartbreaking way. Set against the volatile backdrop of class and prejudice in Sri Lanka, A Disobedient Girl is a bold and deeply moving tale about the will to survive and the incredible power of the human spirit to transcend the unforgiving sweep of tragedy.

Nobodies to Somebodies

Nobodies to Somebodies
Author: Kumari Jayawardena
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2002
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9781842772294

Nobodies to Somebodies examines the origins and growth of the bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka during British rule - an important but neglected aspect of the country's modern history. It traces its evolution from a 'feudal' society and mercantilist economy, to the age of plantations. In the course of this evolution local merchants accumulated capital through arrack and toll renting, subsequently diversifying into plantation cultivation and graphite mining, thereby making dents in the old caste-based division of labour.This study assigns primacy to class over caste, and details the rise of the new-rich 'Nobodies' of many different castes, ethnicities and religions into the ranks of the 'Somebodies'. It discusses the links between capital accumulation, religious revivalism, ethnic identity and political movements, and the marriage 'cartels' which led to further concentration of wealth.The book focuses on the rentier nature of the bourgeoisie and how they adopted Western culture and lifestyles and were basically collaborative with the colonial rulers. It highlights the constraints on further capitalist development, the obsession of the bourgeoisie with land acquisition and social status, and its consciousness as a class, especially on issues of political reform.

The White Woman's Other Burden

The White Woman's Other Burden
Author: Kumari Jayawardena
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2014-04-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136657142

In The White Woman's Other Burden, Kumari Jayawardena re-evaluates the Western women who lived and worked in South Asia during the period of British rule. She tells the stories of many well-known women, including Katherine Mayo, Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Madeleine Slade, and Mirra Richard and highlights the stories of dozens of women whose names have been forgotten today. In the course of this telling, Jayawardena raises the issues of race, class, and gender which are part of current debates among feminists throughout the world.

Caste Conflict Elite Formation

Caste Conflict Elite Formation
Author: Michael Roberts
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2007-12-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521052856

Caste Conflict and Elite Formation is a study in the social history of Sri Lanka. However, it does not merely document the remarkable successes in business enterprise and in the acquisition of Western-educated professional skills which were achieved by families from the Karava caste during the last two centuries; their advances, and the social and political struggles which accompanied this process, are employed as a window through which a survey of social change in Sri Lanka during the last four hundred years is conducted. The interest of the book extends beyond the many fascinating social incidents, historical trends and channels of elite formation that are described within its pages to a series of controlled comparisons which reveal the factors responsible for the formation of the Karava elite. Thus the book extends the methodological frontiers of the social history of the region. It emphasizes the significance of the patterns of caste discrimination and caste interaction in Sri Lankan politics, and reveals how these patterns were central to the incentives and opportunities which powered the advances of the Karava families.

Sri Lanka in the Modern Age

Sri Lanka in the Modern Age
Author: Nira Wickramasinghe
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2006-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780824830168

Since the late 1970s civil war has left Sri Lanka in an almost permanent state of crisis; conventional histories of the country by liberal and Marxist scholars in the last two decades have thus tended to focus on the state’s failure to accommodate the needs and demands of the minorities. The entire history of the twentieth century has been tied to this one key issue. Sri Lanka in the Modern Age offers a fresh perspective based on new research. Above all, the author has written a history of the peoples of Sri Lanka rather than a history of the nation-state.

Embodied Violence

Embodied Violence
Author: Kumari Jayawardena
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 328
Release: 1996-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781856494489

Embodied Violence is a major investigation into the myriad of ways in which societies play out the struggle for cultural identity on women's bodies. Focusing on communal violence, it explores how such violence reconfigures women's experiences, facilitates the formation of particular identities and the dissemination of specific ideologies and how it positions women vis-a-vis their communities as well as the State. A distinguished cast of contributors explores the relationship between ideals of motherhood, tradition, community and racial purity, and uncovers the ways in which women's bodies become the recording surface of repressive cultural practices and symbolic humiliations.

The Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon

The Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon
Author: Kumari Jayawardena
Publisher: Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 1972
Genre: Labor movement
ISBN:

Based on a section of the author's thesis, University of London.

Re-Orientalism and South Asian Identity Politics

Re-Orientalism and South Asian Identity Politics
Author: Lisa Lau
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2012-05-23
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136707921

This volume explores various new forms, objects and modes of circulation that sustain this renovated form of Orientalism in South Asian culture. The contributors identify and engage with pressing recent debates about postcolonial South Asian identity politics, discussing a range of different texts and films such as The White Tiger, Bride & Prejudice and Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love.