Nethra Review reborn on academic lines
 The
International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) re-launches Nethra Review
in a new format (tabloid) in the ambitious plan of New York Times Book
Review model on Wednesday next (June 30, 2010) at the ICES at Kynsey
Terrace Borella.
The enterprising coalescer and librarian S. Thambirajah of this
academic oriented NGO (Non-Government Organization) was good enough to
give us a copy for a little review in this column. We agreed because
this publication of interest and useful to students of English
Literature and others interested in serious critical writing in English.
Despite adverse criticism of this organization from some quarters, it
has been doing some productive work in many fields and publication of
learned theses. This Volume 11 Number 1 (June 2010) is an example of
such positive contributions by some of the foremost intellectuals in the
country. The late Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam was the pioneer livewire of
this research oriented institution. Many Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil
intellectuals were and are associated with the ICES. Another feature of
their activities is to enable serious cinegoers watch outstanding
international films.
Contrary to general misconception among a handful of ultra
nationalist, this organization is not run by a single ethnic group.
Taking the current issue of the Nethra Review for citation we find
that an array of some scholars and academics have contributed different
insights on the literati and their works.
Look at their names:
Liyanage Amarakeerthi, Maithree Wickramasinghe, Walter Perera,
Ranjini Obeysekera, Kakoli Ray, Punyakante Wijenaike, Sarath
Rajapathirana, Ashley Halpe, Nishan de Mel, Sumathy (Sivamohan), Mick
Moore, Wilfrid Jayasuriya, Lakmali Jayasinghe, Frances Bulathsingala,
Ramani Gunatilaka, Nira Wickremasinghe, John Stffler, Dayan Jayatilleka
and Kanchana Dharmasiri.
We must recall that the late Regi Siriwardena was the founder editor
of this journal. The current issue is edited by Lankan born Canadian
academic Chelva Knaganayakam with Lakmali Jayasinghe as the managing
Editor. The conceptulisation is by Nishan de Mel while the cover design
is by Shamanthi Rajasingham. Saroj Jayasinghe is the artist.
The advisory board consists of Neloufer de Mel, Nihal Fernando, M A
Nuhman, Ranjini Obeysekere and Selvy Thiruchelvam.
The Review is priced at Rs.300.00 and obtainable 2, Kynsey Terrace,
Colombo 08.
Excerpts from the Editorial: " This journal does not assume a
specialist reader; rather it speaks to one who is well-informed and
interested in how Sri Lanka presents itself, culturally and
politically...The present issue is eclectic: it includes essays,
reviews, poems and translations."
In this particular column I shall only select the reading material I
liked best for brief comments. But readers could choose their subjects
of special interest.
The first article by Liyanage Amarakeerthi is review of a book in
Sinhala titled Demala (should be pronounced as Thamil as the people who
speak that language call it) Bauddhaya). The author of the book is known
as an academic, lyricist, filmmaker and critic -Sunil Ariyaratne.
As most readers know Buddhism, one of the ancient religions of the
world is not exclusive to Lanka, but what is practiced in this country
is a particular kind namely Theravada Buddhism as opposed to Mahayana
Buddhism which is followed in many South Asian and Eastern nations. We
learn that Prof Sunil Ariyaratne has written a series of books in
Sinhala one among them is on Demala Sahitya Ithihasaya.. (The History of
Tamil Literature)
Here are some revelations from the review:
"...The history of Buddhist culture is a wonderful story of cultural
diversity and cosmopolitanism. For example, arguably the greatest
pre-modern commentator on the Pali canon and the 'founder' of the Sri
Lankan mode of Theravada Buddhism, Buddhgosha is believed to be a Tamil
Buddhist monk... The book goes on to say that some other Tamil monks
such as Buddhadatta and Dharmapala were instrumental in translating
Sinhala commentaries on the Buddhist canon into Pali and writing
commentaries on them."
Moving on find an analytical review by Maithree Wickramasinghe of the
book Festschrift for Prof Ashley Halpe'... Literary theorists find the
article absorbingly interesting.
One of the prominent Lankan writers in English to emerge in the last
decide was Carl Muller. Another disciplined academic critic, Walter
Perera reviews Muller's latest book Maudiegirl and the von Bloss Kitchen
which is readable without much academic lingo.
Ranjamnie Obeysekere has translated three poems in Sinhala written by
Liyanage Amarakeerthi into English.
The attempt includes the publication of both the Sinhala and English
versions so that discerning critics could see for themselves the
relative merits of the poems in two languages. Ashley Halpe' in his
characteristic lucid style analyses Tissa Abeysekera's In My Kingdom of
the Sun and the Holy Peak. Sumathy has translated the first two chapters
of expatiate Lankan Tamil writer Shoba Shakthi's novel in Tamil Mm into
English. Here too the original and the translation are published
together. Sumathy has attempted a difficult task to a satisfying result.
Another interesting analysis is by Wilfred Jayasuriya on Chelva
Kanaganayagam's book Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian Fiction.
I shall stop with this due to constraints of space. Read other
contributions too. All students of Literature in general are suggested
to possess this edition at least as a source book.
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