Our readership needs modern thinking - Dr. Nirmal Ranjith
Dewasiri
Anuradha KODAGODA
It is said that reading maketh a full man. During the early days of
the post-colonization era, most of our people were intense readers. We
have been brought up in the experience of elders who used to buy a book
from their monthly salary.
However, nowadays, with the expansion of the Internet, television and
many other mass media communication modes in society, the reading habit
is fast diminishing. Though there is huge participation at the Colombo
International Book Exhibition, many publishers are complaining that
their sales are decreasing.
What are the true factors behind this story? Dr. Nirmal Ranjith
Dewasiri, a member of judge panels of Godage Literary Award Festival
shared his thoughts with Daily News Artscope.
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Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri. Picture by Sudam Gunasinghe |
How do you capture the change and the
continuation of Sri Lankan literature during the past two decades?
There were many cultural transformations in the post-colonial period
in our country, which had a direct impact on social, cultural,
economical and political elements of society. In the 1940s the major
cultural figures such as Martin Wickramasinghe, Ediriweera Sarachchandra,
G. B. Senanayake, K. Jayatilake, Gunadasa Amarasekara, and Siri
Gunasighe can be compared with the other recognized literary figures in
the world. They represented and created a mature cultural dialogue. They
were well aware of the global literature and cultural elements. The next
generation started from Simon Nawagattegama, and they continued the work
of the 40s. Now we experience a situation where you don't see many
cultural or literary figures in our society.
The current generation has a better access to international
literature compared to previous generations, and also many literary
masterpieces have been translated to Sinhala. Knowledge has now become
democratized.
It has disadvantages too. Since most of the literary figures who were
in previous generations were bilingual and their primary and secondary
education were in English, so that they got the privilege to read and
write in English. Unlike today, there were quite a few translated
literature books in the country. Our present generation, active in
serious cultural work, are monolingual in their reading and writing.
They haven't got a sufficient command in English.
I read more than 20 novels published last year for the Godage
festival. I identified Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, Katharin Jayawardhana
and Anula Wijeratna Manike as mature literary figures. Writing
techniques, theme selections and their exposure to the global literature
are fascinating and the maturity is reflected in their creations.
Even in that background we could see a decline in literary work and
lack of utilizing global literature and knowledge among the literary
personalities in our country.
The International Book Fair is now
open. As usual we see masses crowding in thousands. Does this element
really represent a good readership?
The book publishing industry is a thriving industry in the country.
Many publishers and lots of books are being published every year. But it
doesn't mean there is a booming literary trend in the country. There are
plenty of opportunities for those who can write some stuff and get it
published very easily. I don't think this is a good approach on the long
run.
This exhibition is also a carnival where people find their missing
social space to connect with society. There is a huge demand for
stationery items and educational books such as CIMA, CIM, Management and
Accounting.
Publishers such as Vidarshana, Visidunu and Wijesooriya grantha
Kendraya are not in the mass market, but they have published many
serious literary creations are also surviving in the industry since
there is a crowd for this peripheral publishing agencies as well. The
main reason I assume for the downturn in the reading habit in our
society is the popularization of the Internet, cable TV and many other
mass media.
Gunadasa Amaraekara in his Noseuna Kadapatha states that at the time
Piyadasa Sirisena published his books he could sell more than 25,000
copies and today it is not possible to sell at least 1000 copies from
the same book. I think this statement has missed many social and
cultural changes in our society have been happened during the past two
to three decades.
When Piyadasa Sirisena published his creations the writers were
extremely limited and also the readership was completely different
compared with today.
Today the reading public has many options and choices. The pioneer
literary figures, I mentioned earlier, were popular because they were
not only good writers but they had a vast philosophical thinking and
they addressed the broader stream of spectators in the main stream. We
can clearly observe today there is a major change in the cultural
formation where the serious literature is eliminated from the mainstream
and it has been replaced by immature creations.
Though there are many intellectuals more advanced in literary
knowledge, they don't have an audience among the general public. Their
audience is mostly foreign universities and the English speaking crowd
in our country. There is a diversification. It is essential to consider
this diversification to find the reasons for the decline of literature
in our country.
Compared with other third world countries we have a standard
educational system. That credit should go to the leftist movements and
the post colonial ruling class. The roots of this process have been
absorbed to the global labour market.
Rather than a decline in the reading public, we see certain changes
in reading and writing cultures.
What is your opinion on the current
trends of our literature?
Writers such as Manjula Wediwardana, Sunethra Rajakarunanayake,
Liyanage Amarakeerthi and Piyal Kariyawasam are introducing a kind of
new trends in their creations. They are quite innovative in both
approach and professional standards. They represent different social and
cultural societies and they try to capture new features of socio
relationships in the society.
The Sri Lankan literature has been developing for the past 60 to 70
years and is mainly centred on rural literature. The cultural shock and
the identity crisis which they had once they migrated from villages to
urban areas were mainly reflected in these creations. This prevailing
situation is continuing as it is and also several elements have been
added which makes it more complicated than before. The serious
literature and new trends are being created today under these highly
pressurized conditions. I would like to see these people continue
writing.
As a member of the panel in the
Godage Literary Festival, what is your opinion about the standard and
the quality of the selection process?
This is the second time I was in the literary committee of the Godage
Literary Festival. Among all the literary festivals I would say so far
the best literary festival has been organized by the Vibhavi Academy in
the 1990s which is called the Independent Literary Festival.
They followed a superior criteria and had the assistance of highly
matured intellectuals. I agree with the quality of the Godage Literary
festival and other literary festivals in the country to a certain
extend. They allow us the freedom to select and express our own views to
explain the specialty we found in a particular book. But I am not quite
happy about the standard of the panel members. I don't think most of
them can understand the current trends and methods of literature. That
is the major loophole I found in many panels. The other problem is that
we don't have a good tradition of literary criticism.
We had that kind of a controversial literary criticism in the early
1980s, but they had their own limitations too.
Therefore, the need for a change in thinking patterns of the
intellectuals and as well as readers is evident in this context. |
