An Anthology of Sinhalese Literature of the Twentieth Century PDF
Preview An Anthology of Sinhalese Literature of the Twentieth Century
AN ANTHOLOGY OF Sinhalese Twentieth Century Fjm:n hy Christopher Reynolds This electronic version of the hard-copy of this book is produced by Shevon Silva. Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO An Anthology of SINHALESE LITERATURE of the Twentieth Century AN ANTHOLOGY OF SINHALESE LITERATURE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Selected by the UNESCO National Commission of Sri Lanka EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY C. H. B. REYNOLDS Preface by E. R. Sarachchandra Translated by D. M. de Silva Lakshmi de Silva Wimal Dissanayake Hemama Ii Gunasinghe Ashley Halpe D. V. Hapuarachchi Ranjini Obeyesekere C. H. B. Reynolds Gamini Salgado Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO, “ Isurupaya”, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. I SESCO COLLECTION OF REPRESENTATIAE WORKS Smholist Senes Tits book has been arcepmd »the Sinhalese Senes of the Tramhnou CoDecua of the I aired Nanons EdKanoatf. Soohfic nd Cstaral Orgamsanon iVNESCO' English translation. iMrodwtren. Preface Nofrapiucal notes, headings and expianmrey aaarenal C CNESCO l«T Al) njhu resected No pm of das puNKabon ma? be reproduced a transmaedL m anjfonaorbyam means, atthoot pentusam bom the Publishers First published in 19*7 by Paul Norbury Publications Ltd. Woodchurch. Ashfotd. Kent. England Reprinted in 1994 by The Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO Isurupaya. Battaramulla. Sri Lanka Reprinted in 1996 ISBN 955-9045-08-0 PREFACE h is a remarkable fact about modern Sinhalese literature that, not only does it owe little co the literature of preceding periods, but that it even rejects the values of that literature and seeks sustenance from sources far removed from the original fount of its inspiration. What it has lost, perhaps, in depth and intensity, it makes up for in width of range and variety that the literature of the past was not able to achieve in all the fourteen centuries of its existence. Ancient Sinhalese literature, it has to be admitted, is by and large a second-hand literature, in the sense that the writers drew their material more from other literatures like those of Pali and Sanskrit than directly from life. This was a natural consequence of the feet that most writers of the past were either monks or lay religious. Hence their writings hardly give us any valuable insights into human nature or the problems of living. Nor do they provide us with a picture in sufficient detail of the day-to-day lives of ordinary folk. They tell us most about monastic happenings and, in some instances, about the life of the court. It is only after the opening up of Sri Lanka to the West that writers began to emerge from among the laity. The process began in the eighteenth century, with the Dutch already in occupation of the maritime provinces of the Island, in what is known as the Matara period. But the dead weight of the past was heavy on the writers of this time: they could not break away from the conventions that dominated and to some extent stifled the literature in the past. It is really after the social changes that took place in the nineteenth century threw up a class of western-oriented intelligentsia, and writers arose from this class, that the true 'liberation’ began. These writers were exposed to a variety of literatures of the West, mostly through translations in the English language, and, stimulated by the contact with the new genres these literatures introduced, they set out as if to make a fresh beginning, turning their backs on the past. It is not surprising that, in the circumstances, this new literature should have encountered hostility from the tradition-oriented literati. It was shocking that poetry which had hitherto extolled the might of kings should now talk of the common man and his pursuits or of the villager and his toils. It was also shocking that playwrights should have recourse to the vulgar language of day-to-day speech for recording the dialogue of their characters. Nor was it any less shocking that people who were otherwise respectable middle-class citizens should write puerile love so that could corrupt the youth. It was this last-mentioned genre, called Nava Katha or new stories, that took the longest time to get established and win the respect of the serious-minded reader. It is true that fictional art, in its more sophisticated form, was as yet unknown, but the sustained prose tale of character and incident was familiar to the reader through examples in the jataka book. The problem was. however, not with the story but with the attitude taken by the author to the events he relates and the people he describes. Sinhalese fiction made a false start that delayed, by half a century at least, its recognition as serious literature. Writers, influenced by the pot-boiler English novel, attempted to graft the concept of romantic love on a society that was rigidly stratified by caste and class, and where the attitude to women was still feudal. This not only falsified character and made the novel look like an idle tale of no consequence but it also brought this genre into disrepute as a force that could disrupt traditional values. Wickramasinghe, in one of his early novels, speaks thus in defence of romantic love: "Love is not something that arises from mere physical desire. It is a complex emotion that comprises a thousand fine feelings such as are engendered by poetry and the arts in a man of cultivated taste. The love that springs up in the heart of a well-bred young man or woman is an emotion of this kind. It should not be confused with such desires as lust or hunger ... It is a purifying force . . .’ It is hardly half a century since the novel that was bom and nurtured in an alien environment became naturalised in the cultural milieu of our country. This happened when writers whose taste was fashioned by a better type of fiction, especially the work of the great Russians, based their novels on an observation of the actual life and character of the people of this country. The Sinhalese novel of today brings to the reader the experiences of people in a wide variety of settings, the traditional village, settlements in the remote jungle or the arid zone, the slums around Colombo, the middle class and even the anglicised upper class. There is much in this literature that can be of interest to the reader of the present day. He will find the parallels with western literature and the influences of western writers exciting to note. He will also be interested to see how people in a traditional society face up to the challenges brought about by the impact with the West and the resultant break-up of moral values. Social upheavals have at least one advantage: they provide rich material for literature. E.R. SARACHCHANDRA
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