|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 22 May 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Guy Amirthanayagam "Patriot of multi-cultural societies" The death of Guy Amirthanayagam after morning mass on May 17 in Rockville, Maryland, a week after seeing a grandson, Anandan, receive his First Holy Communion, leaves a searing emptiness in the world of his wife Elizabeth and children and grandchildren, amid readers of his poems and essays, among Sri Lankans, Englishmen and Americans who have benefited from his intelligent analysis, born in love, of the countries of his birth and adoption. He manifested that love most recently in "A Journey to Jaffna", an essay which discussed in part Sri Lanka's chances for a peaceful resolution of its ethnic war and was published in the country's leading newspaper Daily News. Amirthanayagam reviewed books for a number of years in the Washington Post Book World, focusing often on Indian writing in English which was one of his areas of expertise as a scholar and critic. Amirthanayagam's enthusiasms in literature, politics and history inspired generations of students, from early days as a schoolmaster at St. Joseph's College, Colombo to a later emergence as research scholar at the East West Canter in Honolulu, and more recently as a professor at Montgomery College and the University of the District of Columbia. At the East West Center, Amirthanayagam founded research programs in the cross-cultural study of literature. His examination of what happens when cultures meet in novels and poems led to editing three pioneering studies: Writers in East-West Encounter: New Cultural Bearings, Asian and Western Writers in Dialogue: New Cultural Identities, and Only Connect, which he co-edited with Syd Harrex. Malcolm Bradbury described him "as a major intellectual presence, a radiating force in the advancement of international cultural studies". In 2000, he published his definitive synthesis in cross-cultural criticism. The Marriage of Continents: Multiculturalism in Modern Literature. An initial assessment of Amirthanayagam must include his poetry. Reuel Denney commented that Guy Amirthanayagam "has written a dozen poems which will survive with the language." In October 1990 Amirthanayagam accompanied Allen Ginsberg in a joint poetry reading at the Catham Square branch of the New York Public Library. Ginsberg, the better known poet, read first insisting that Amirthanayagam receive the prime place. Ginsberg spoke of the readings he used to give with his father. He talked of the evening as a family reunion because of the presence in the hall of some of Amirthanayagam's children. Last Winter Amirthanayagam visited Jaffna which is beginning to recover from a 20-year long war. He laid flowers at his mother's grave. He was grateful for the chance to return despite the devastation he saw around him. Amirthanayagam had a distinguished career in the Ceylon Civil Service which began when he placed first in the island in the entrance exams. But he told me the other day that the then language policies of his nation made it almost impossible for him to see a future for his family in the island. In addition, one of his sons had been diagnosed autistic, and he wanted to find treatment for him. He wrote in "To My Autistic Son, Revantha", I am proud that you have so early seen That there is in life an undertow of sadness Which rocks what fleeting gladness There is today, or may once have been. I will love you steadfastly as long as I dare. But is there nothing that you can share? Will you leave me with this nagging regret That even to me you will never bare Your awesome secret? In 1969, Guy Amirthanayagam and his family left Ceylon for London. He became Education Officer and then Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commissioner. In 1974 he joined the East-West Center in Honolulu, a meeting place of cultures. Such intersections were his subject. He used to say to his children in London that if someone were to call them an epithet, a wog, "remember, that means you are a Western Oriental Gentleman." A fine example of the species, a Western Oriental Gentleman, Guy Amirthanayagam - a patriot of multicultural societies and a champion of minority rights - has been laid to rest. - Indran Amirthanayagam |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
