Mirroring a people and writings from different angles

Abstract

"Emeritus Professor D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke's Kaleidoscope is a welcome contribution to the reading of Sri Lankan literature in English. The anthology includes some thirty-four writers, some of whom are well known and some not so. As each piece of writing is unique in texture and meaning, the kaleidoscope metaphor that the anthologist uses to describe his collection aptly connotes the materiality of language as well as the multiplicity of the experience it engenders. The sources from which these writings are selected are varied. Anthologies of Sri Lankan Literature in English are only a few in number. Goonetilleke, DCRA (ed.) Modern Sri Lankan Stories (1986), Modern Sri Lankan Poetry (1987), Modern Sri Lankan Drama (1987), The Penguin New Writing in Sri Lanka (1992), The Penguin Book of Modern Sri Lankan Stories (1996), Sri Lankan Literature in English 1948- 1998: A 50th Independence Anniversary Anthology (1998), and Wijesinha, Rajiva (ed.) An Anthology of Contemporary Sri Lankan Poetry (1993) are the only recognized anthologies published in Sri Lanka and India that are easily available to the Sri Lankan readers. Yet these anthologies are confined to the genres they each represent. Obeysekera, Ranjini & Chithra Fernando (eds.) An Anthology of Modern Sri Lankan Writings in English (1981), published in Arizona, contains predominantly their own translations of works originally produced in Sinhala. The genre of drama is not represented in it. To these we might add Kanaganayakam, Chelva (ed.) Lutesong and Lament—Tamil Writings from Sri Lanka (2001), published in Toronto, which is a compilation of translated verses of vernacular Tamil poetry and prose from Sri Lanka. Compared to all these collections, Kaleidoscope remains a unique compilation because it includes not only works in all the three major genres—poetry, prose, and drama—produced originally in English by members of the Sinhala, Tamil, and Burgher communities in Sri Lanka, but also non-fiction. It is obvious that Professor Goonetilleke has contributed significantly to the postcolonial project of setting up of a distinct corpus of Sri Lankan writing in English."(pg 1)