Abstract
Martin Wickramasinghe’s Virāgaya (1956), a novel considered a modern classic is often understood be a text that exclusively focuses on the inner psyche of the central character. Thus, it was criticized for the lack of socio-political meaning. Amarasekara, a renowned writer and critic, maintained that the novel represents a certain weakening of socio-political dialogue in the country after achieving independence from the British. Compared to Wickramasinghe’s famous trilogy, which is explicitly ‘social’ since it deals with an evolution of a certain capitalist class, Virāgaya is understood to be a work that deals more with the psychological than with the social. This paper argues that when read as a postcolonial novel, contextualizing it in its specific postcolonial condition, Viragya appears to be much more ‘social’ and ‘political’ than any other novel that appears to be so. Aravinda (the literal meaning of the name being ‘the lotus’), the central character of the novel, is a man who embodies detachment, which is an important Buddhist value. His detachment is shown by the way he maintains a certain aloofness vis-a-vis the accepted social norms, which is often interpreted as a legacy of his Buddhist upbringing. This paper argues, in contrast, that it is the colonial/postcolonial condition that allows him to maintain a detached life. For example, the stable income he receives as a clerk in the Ceylon Clerical Service creates the material condition for him to lead his detached life even though the idea of detachment has its origin in Buddhism. Thus, this close reading of the text aims to provide some insights into the way we understand colonial/postcolonial subjectivity.
Highlights
Martin Wickramasinghe’s Virāgaya (1956), a novel considered a modern classic is often understood be a text that exclusively focuses on the inner psyche of the central character
This paper argues that when read as a postcolonial novel, contextualizing it in its specific postcolonial condition, Viragya appears to be much more ‘social’ and ‘political’ than any other novel
The stable income he receives as a clerk in the Ceylon Clerical Service creates the material condition for him to lead his detached life even though the idea of detachment has its origin in Buddhism
Summary
Aravinda is the only son of a rural Aurvedic physician, who is open to newness in society and wants his son to be a Western doctor. By 1956, Dharmapala’s nationalist discourse had reached its intended peak with Bandaranaike’s ascent to power (Amarasekara, Abuddassa Yugayak 23) After that victory, both social discourses that had animated Sri Lankan society and shaped the novelists’ perspectives and vision died down creating a period of intellectual stagnation or a period of salience and slowness. According to Amarasekara, the introvert nature of Aravinda who is the main character of the novel, which makes him avoid social engagements, represents the ‘silent’ and ‘slow’ nature of Sri Lankan society at the time. Amarasekara’s explanation of this aspect of Virāgaya is interesting and important: By 1956, the year the novel was published, the kind of evolution of Sri Lankan society depicted in Wickramasinghe’s famous trilogy, had come to an end. I will demosntrate that Virāgaya is a fundamentally ‘political’ novel if we read it as a postcolonial text
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