(Ü/PS) ‘There Are Two Sides to Every Story’: The Power of Storytelling in (Post-)Civil War Sri Lanka

Lasting for nearly three decades and only ending in 2009, the Sri Lankan civil war is considered one of the most gruesome armed conflicts in recent history. Although it has been repeatedly framed as the violent power struggle between two of the island’s most prominent ethnic groups, literature about the war has highlighted its multi-faceted nature, drawing attention to numerous smaller conflicts and points of struggle on a collective, national as well as individual, and even international, level.

Through a close reading of Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors (2012), this seminar examines the role and potential of art and literature in contexts of violent conflict. Primarily drawing on Michel Foucault’s conceptualisations of power, the discussion will focus on individual as well as collective economic, social, and political agendas related to the island’s conflict situation, the relation between violence and hate, issues of class, gender, ethnicity and age, and problems of nation-building and national identity. 

Please buy and read:

Munaweera, Nayomi (2012/2016). Island of a Thousand Mirrors. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. [ISBN 978-1-250-05187-5]

Additional material will be provided during the term. Please sign up for this class via OPAL.