A Paradise Lost? New Perspectives on Sri Lankan Literature and Culture

This seminar is intended for students who are interested in

• reading fascinating novels and short stories
• bridging the gulf between literary and cultural studies,
• learning about postcolonial and South Asian studies,
• discussing their findings in the seminar with colleagues and students from Colombo as well as with some of the authors,
• taking part in an international conference on Sri Lankan literature and culture at TU Dresden (this is optional and not part of the seminar),

Therefore, this seminar does not only serve as a critical introduction to Sri Lankan literature and culture and to the major tenets of postcolonial studies but also enables students to put this knowledge into practice and discuss their findings with some of the authors of the books, such as Romesh Gunesekara, as well as with colleagues such as Prof. Neluka Silva (University of Colombo). At the centre of our analysis are three different literary genres, a novel, a novella and a collection of short stories, all of which demonstrate literature’s ability to deal with the uncanny remnants of the past, to live though conditions of war, diaspora and migration, but also to reconcile and create a new (national) community.

While Shyam Selvadurai’s highly acclaimed novel The Hungry Ghosts, which is situated both in Canada and in Sri Lanka, ‘shows how racial, political and sexual differences can tear apart both a country and the human heart (…) until the ghosts are fed and freed’, Anuk Arudpragasam's novella The Story of a Brief Marriage takes place over the course of a single day at a displaced persons camp during Sri Lanka's civil war and can be read as ‘a meditation on the fundamental elements of human existence (…) that give us direction and purpose, even as the world around us collapses’. In comparison, Romesh Gunesekera’s short story collection Noontide Toll, shows Sri Lanka in a much more positive light; a Sri Lanka in which the reader follows the adventures of ‘"Vasantha the van man" as he transports tourists, soldiers, entrepreneurs, aid workers and exiles to the ravaged north and the renewed south’ thus re-connecting and re-thinking a country the name of which signifies no less than ’Resplendent‘ or ’Shining/Brilliant Island’.

Students who want to learn more about Postcolonialism or South Asia and its colonial heritage can also take part in the lecture series (Vorlesung) on Postcolonial Studies (Wednesday, 3.DS; 11.10-12.40) and the Exchange Sessions (Wednesday, 6. DS; 16.40-18.10) with Sri Lankan and international students which accompany this seminar.

This course prepares students for “Schriftliches Staatsexamen: Klausur Englische Literaturwissenschaft” in the spring of 2022. An extensive bibliography will be handed out in the first session. Please buy:

• Arudpragasam, Anuk (2017). The Story of a Brief Marriage. London: Granta Books.
• Gunesekera, Romesh (2014). Noontide Toll. London: Granta Books.
• Selvadurai, Shyam (2016). The Hungry Ghosts. London: Saqi Books.

The Hungry Ghosts should be read before our first session in October.

(The quotes in the text above are taken from blurbs and reviews on the web; cf. bibliography for the seminar)