Abstract:
This paper focuses on key moments in Sinhala literary studies within
the university system in Sri Lanka teasing out the thematic significance of those
historical landmarks. Sinhala literary studies in a modern higher educational
setting began in a colonial context, and that education was later shaped by
colonialism, colonial nationalism, and postcolonial nationalism. Thus, one can
easily recognize how those ideologies, whose dominance was necessitated or
made to look necessary by socio-political context, have defined the salient
characteristics of each historical period. For example, at the early stage of modern
Sinhala fiction, anti-colonial nationalism determined the nature of the fiction
written during that period. By the middle of the twentieth century, Sinhala cultural
nationalism and Sinhala Buddhist revivalism shaped much of literary studies. A
few years later, literary modernism arrives in the Sinhala literary scene through
the Peradeniya School. 1970s was the era of social and socialist realism, while in
1990s the influence various post-realisms, such as magic realism, defined the
nature of literary studies and criticism. While these dominant concepts of each
period have attracted enough attention, what have often been ignored are the
multiple literary connections Sinhala literary studies continued to maintain
throughout history. For example, Ediriveera Sarachchandra's Maname, a classic
modern play, is often presented as a symbol of Sinhala cultural revival in the
middle of the twentieth century, but a closer examination shows that it is a work
of a cosmopolitan literary mind that was ready to borrow creatively from many
traditions. This paper argues for a scholarly approach that does not lose sight of
multiple influences and borrowings in a period under the pressure of the dominant
ideologies of the time.
