People In Between The Burghers And The Middle Class In The Transformations Within Sri Lanka 1790 1960s

Vol. 1.

"In examining the literary representations of these critical junctures, Neluka Silva draws upon key aspects of postcolonial, nationalist and feminist theory, which have influenced both the understanding of the concerned episodes and the literary productions of the authors selected. By providing an implicit comparative frame of reference, the author succeeds in suggesting ways in which certain choices reinforce or subvert established power relations in the fraught arena of nationalist politics in the four South Asian countries." "This book will be of interest to students and scholars of postcolonial literature, cultural studies, critical theory, gender studies, politics and nationalism."--BOOK JACKET.

This timely volume moves away considerably from traditional topics investigated in studies of multilingualism and linguistic identity to propose new analytical approaches that investigate postcolonial societies from the standpoint of their specific internal structures. The book uses postcolonial multilingual societies as gateways into complex webs of identity construction and group boundary definition, the interplay and functions of oral (indigenous) and written (foreign) languages in multilingual communities, the birth of new diaspora generations at home and abroad, the redefinitions of gender roles, and the impact of linguistic identities on the different nation states focused upon in the contributions. “This book could not be published at a better time. The contributors present informative facts about the complex dynamics of the co-existence of ex-colonial languages with the ancestral languages of their new speakers, and about how, on the one hand, they are embraced by some as socio-economic assets and, on the other, they are treated by others as alienating colonial legacies. The reader will learn about various “ecological” factors that have contributed to the indigenization of English, the maintenance or revitalization of indigenous languages, and the emergence of new cultural identities that foster new forms of linguistic diversity in Asia and Africa. This book is a gold mine of information about postcolonial identity in Africa, Asia, Ireland, and the Americas.” Prof. Salikoko S. Mufwene Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics and the College University of Chicago

Women novelists of the Sri Lankan diaspora make a significant contribution to the field of South Asian postcolonial studies. Their writing is critical and subversive, particularly concerned as it is with the problematic of identity. This book engages in insightful readings of nine novels by women writers of the Sri Lankan diaspora: Michelle de Kretser’s The Hamilton Case (2003); Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies (1991), The Pleasures of Conquest (1996), and The Sweet and Simple Kind (2006); Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Turtle Nest (2003); Karen Roberts’s July (2001); Roma Tearne’s Mosquito (2007); and V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Love Marriage (2008). These texts are set in Sri Lanka but also in contemporary Australia, England, Italy, Canada, and North America. They depict British colonialism, the Tamil–Sinhalese conflict, neocolonial touristic predation, and the double-consciousness of diaspora. Despite these different settings and preoccupations, however, this body of work reveals a consistent and vital concern with identity, as notably gendered and expressed through resonant images of mourning, melancholia, and other forms of psychic disturbance. This is a groundbreaking study of a neglected but powerful body of postcolonial fiction. “This is an excellent study that I believe makes a significant and timely contribution to the fields of postcolonial literature, Sri Lankan anglophone literature, diasporic literature, women’s studies, and world literature. It was a stimulating and thought-provoking read.” Dr Maryse Jayasuriya, The University of Texas at El Paso.

Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) was a leading Sinhalese Buddhist reformer and national activist who ranks high among the makers of modern Buddhism. The Lion’s Roar is one of the first detailed accounts of Anagarika Dharmapala’s life and the pioneering role he played in the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism at a time when resistance to colonial rule was mainly confined to the elite. The book explores his lifelong struggle for re-establishing Buddhist management of their own sacred places under Hindu control, particularly the Mahabodhi site in Bihar, India. Dharmapala’s association with the Bengali intelligensia, the ‘bhadralok’, and close interactions with Gandhi and Nehru in India, where he spent a greater part of his life, form an interesting part of the narration. Using a rich variety of primary sources, most importantly, Dharmapala’s diaries, the book situates his life within the socio-political and cultural ethos of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and chronicles the zealous efforts of a Buddhist crusader and monk who wished to reform the religion in his native land and propagate it in the Western world.

This book seeks a reconsideration of the phenomenon of sorcery and related categories. The contributors to the volume explore the different perspectives on human sociality and social and political constitution that practices typically understood as sorcery, magic and ritual reveal. In doing so the authors are concerned to break away from the dictates of a western externalist rationalist understanding of these phenomena without falling into the trap of mysticism. The articles address a diversity of ethnographic contexts in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.