The Quest on Sinhalese Identities in the Selected English Novels

Abstract

In this research work, the deep investigations on the quest for identity by assorted Sri Lankan English Novelists and Writers are addressed. The excerpts and thoughts of renowned English Novelists related to Sri Lankan literature are fetched from various primary and secondary sources to defend and justify the research work. A number of International Journals, Books, Magazines and related literature is investigated to find out the conclusion and defend the proposed research work on the quest for identity by the Sri Lankan English Novelists. The work examines the lack of such an inclusive Sri Lankan identity in relation to literary representations of nation in both English and Sinhala writing. While Sri Lanka’s historical record may not yield much evidence of an inclusive national identity one needs to raise the question as to why literature, which might arguably be seen as a discourse where the improbable and idealistic is often explored, has failed to yield such a conception of idealistic and inclusive nationhood. There are lots of multifaceted questions and complexities related to the dominance of historical consciousness within the Sri Lankan (especially Sinhala) cultural imaginary and the choice of realism as a mode of representation. The dominance of the historical and the dominance of the realist genre need to be seen as dialectically connected—one reinforcing the other: while history can serve to grant an authoritative status to particular identities realism serves to naturalize them.