Terror and Reconciliation : Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009

Sri Lankan Anglophone literature and the problem of publication -- Island dialogues -- Mourning terror: memorials to the conflict in poetry and film -- Talking with the enemy: dialogue and empathy in fiction -- Diasporic interventions -- Interpreting the conflict: historiography and Sri Lankan fiction -- Diasporic differences: the Sri Lankan conflict from a distance -- Conclusion.

Terror and Reconciliation explores the English language literature that has emerged from Sri Lanka’s quarter-century long ethnic conflict. It examines poetry, short fiction and novels by both diasporic writers and writers resident in Sri Lanka. Its discussion of resident Sri Lankan writers is particularly important because it calls attention to a rich and ambitious body of work that has largely been ignored in the Western academy and media until now. The book outlines the ways in which a wide range of resident and diasporic writers have sought to represent the conflict, mourn the violence and terror associated with the conflict, and present options for reconciliation in the conflict’s aftermath. The writers discussed grapple with issues of terrorism, human rights, nationalism, war, democracy, gender, ethnicity, and reconciliation, making this a study of profound interest for students and scholars of South Asian literature and culture, postcolonial studies, race and ethnic studies, women’s studies, and peace studies.

Terror and Reconciliation examines the response of Sri Lankan novelists, short story writers, and poets to the issues of terrorism, war, human rights, linguistic discrimination, and interethnic dialogue raised by the quarter-century long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and argues that their work demonstrates the potential of literature to contribute to reconciliation. This study will be of particular interest to scholars of South Asian Literature and Culture, Postcolonial Literature and Theory, and Peace Studies.