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Wednesday, 17 November 2010

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Writing about the moment

The era of globalization is typically defined as a time in which the sovereignty of nation states has declined and modes of exchange operate with increasing ease and speed across national boundaries, producing configurations of power that exceed the boundaries of the nation-state.

It is said to have been “born” with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent end of the Cold War.

The concept of globalization in treated with mixed reception within the Sri Lanlan academia. Professor A.V Suraweera has pointed out in his book “Essays on Sri Lankan literature and culture, the word globalization while the accepted translation into Sinhala has been goliyakaranaya another word in an ironical context had came into vogue namely lokavesaya. Avesa in Sanskrit also means ‘take possession of’, ‘burdened with’, ‘engrossed’.

In the Sri Lankan context avesa is generally used to mean ‘take possession of an evil spirit’ probably a ‘Yaksha’ (a demon). Thus it has to be pointed out that the word ‘globalization’ generally has rather an adverse connotation within the Sri Lankan context.


Simon Navagattegama

If globalization refers to a compression of the world, where people eager to know more and more about other people, regions and countries, then as a result does it also mean that cultural identities and markers had to become less clear over time?

In other words does globalization also mean the eraser of cultural differences or the submerging of such differences within the identity of one or few hegemonic cultural systems?

According to my point of view, I will divide Sinhala literature into three separate sections as realistic, psychoanalytical and surrealistic. Gam Peraliya of Martin Wickramasinghe is a realistic novel while Hevanella of Siri Gunasinghe can be categorized as a psychoanalytical work.

Most of Simon Navagattegama’s works is set in a surrealistic setting. The writers who belong to all these steams were rather interested in either describing locally relevant issues or building the inner psyche of their protagonists.

But they have not attempted to link their works to the existing trend towards a global culture.

One of the themes discussed parallel to the concept of globalization is the difference between city and country.

Most of the Sinhala writers have tried to draw a steady line between city and country. By reading such novels one can conclude that village life is simple and transparent while life in the city, particularly of those of the lower middle class, is opaque and complicated. Simon Navagaththegama attempted to erase that steady line and represented the universal nature of humanity.

The writers still seem to capture isolated incidents without paying attention on the whole social structure. They unconsciously avoid generalizations of the global impact into the local social body.

With globalization, many established concepts have undergone visible changes in Sri Lanka. Those changers essentially influence the subsystem of culture. Capturing this influence in the medium of literature is not successful.

The issues of migrant labor, brain drain and global epidemics such as HIV-AIDS, which have become socio- cultural and economic issues in Sri Lanka, have not been dealt in Sinhala literature at all.

Although some writers were influenced by global literary trends, they have failed to represent the socio cultural trends made out of globalization. Therefore it can be said that the Sri Lankan writers are still behind in the mission of utilizing the global framework as the master narrative for national entities.

Sri Lankan life seems to be evolving around “the family, education, high savings, hard work, home ownership, and clean living”. Our literature seems rarely passing this conceptual framework. There is no need to travel across seven seas to experience globalization. It is with you and me in this very moment.

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