Representation of Socio-cultural Authenticity in Post-colonial Sri Lankan Poetry in English

Abstract

The criticisms of Sri Lankan Literature in English have emphasized the inherent inability of Sri Lankans to produce competently written poetry in the English language when compared with the native English standards. These critics have underrated or completely have overlooked the significant achievements and a substantial amount of high-quality English poetry which carries authentic Sri Lankan flavor. Only a handful of researches on Sri Lankan Poetry has investigated the “genuine Sri Lankanness” of the subject. This study investigated how the authentic Sri Lankan flavor is represented in Sri Lankan poetry in English which were subjected to timely socio-cultural movements. The Sinhala-Buddhist identity, the criticism of Tamil separatism, the suffering undergone by the Sinhalese in Lankan civil war are elucidated combined with a typically Sri Lankan flavor. The absence of researches on this particular aspect where the poets have employed the Sri Lankan flavor in their writing tempted the researcher to study the area in detail. A qualitative approach with a content, thematic and discourse analyses have been applied in this research in elucidating the areas of Sri Lankan flavor in the literary texts. The true Sri Lankanness represented in the literary texts of selected Sri Lankan authors representing areas such as relationships, politics, social contexts, religions as well as education have been investigated and emphasized in this study.