‘Mothers, daughters and “whores” of the nation’: Nationalism and female stereotypes in post‐colonial Sri Lankan drama in English

Abstract

This article explores the correlation between nationalist discourse and gender stereotypes through the genre of drama in a post‐colonial context. Nationalist discourse articulated through populist material often invokes ideologies which equate perceptions of the motherland with stereotyped images of women. The pervasive myth of ‘machismo’ is also inscribed as a mobilising strategy in the propagandist machinery. The male is cast as the martyr/protector/soldier/hero, while the female is relegated to the role of mother/guardian, the carrier of tradition and cultural mores. In this article I analyse the ways in which the stereotypes of mother, daughter, and ‘whore’ are incorporated by nationalist rhetoric and then reproduced in literary genres and popular culture. The theatre is chosen because it is one of the most powerful and collective art forms. The contemporary English theatre in Sri Lanka has become a vehicle for transmitting the dynamics of a society whose social and political fabric is currently under threat by war, economic hardship and terrorism. The theoretical framework of the study is situated within a post‐colonial discourse, calling attention to moments where the texts subvert the theory and defy the homogenising generalisations that theory sometimes presumes.