Mirroring a people and writings from different angles

Kaleidoscope: An Anthology of Sri Lankan English Literature. Edited by D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke. Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications. Reviewed by Dr. E.A. Gamini Fonseka.

In the sense of the optical device consisting of a cylinder with mirrors and coloured shapes inside that create shifting symmetrical patterns when the end is rotated, Emeritus Professor D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke's Kaleidoscope remains a marvellous contribution to the reading of Sri Lankan literature in English. When words are considered the material of which those coloured shapes are made, the literature represented in the book contains the patterns they help to create with the individual rotations made by a galaxy of outstanding writers from Sri Lanka.

The individual pieces of writing produced by Anandatissa de Alwis, Nihal de Silva, Chitra Fernando, Vijitha Fernando, Godfrey Gunatilleke, Kamani Jayasekera, Suvimalee Karunaratna, Jagath Kumarasinghe, Carl Muller, Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, A. Santhan, Ransiri Menike Silva, Priyanthi Wickramasuriya, Punyakante Wijenaike, Lalitha K. Witanachchi, Rose Aserappa, Patrick Fernando, Yasmine Gooneratne, U. Karunatilake, H.L.D. Mahindapala, Earle Mendis, Destry Muller, Anne Ranasinghe, Rev. W.S. Senior, Regi Siriwardena, Eileen Siriwardhana, Chandra Wickremasinghe, Sunetha Wickremasinha, Lakshmi de Silva, Kamala Wijeratne, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha, H.C.N. de Lanerolle, Ernest Macintyre and Ariele Cohen respectively provide a multifaceted experience of a complex, colourful and shifting pattern or scene or a complex set of events or circumstances that can fascinate the reader in a variety of ways. Each piece of writing is unique in texture and meaning and the kaleidoscope metaphor Professor Goonetilleke has used here for describing his anthology gives insight into the materiality of language as well as the multiplicity of the experience it engenders. The craftsmanship of each of these writers is also recognized in this fitting title.

Professor Goonetilleke claims that he has "selected the material for this anthology not only from books but also from journals and newspapers." Moreover, Professor Goonetilleke has aligned these pieces in his anthology in a brilliant order. He has not only considered "date of publication" but also "content and technique" in the organization of the items.

The Fiction and Non-Fiction section which occupies a larger part of the book has got its contents under four themes - Urges, Divisions, Catastrophe and Excerpts. The thematic relationships within each group of writings are signified by this classification. The stories under these four themes depict the character of Sri Lanka as a people from a variety of angles. While Anandatissa de Alwis's Prema becomes jubilant about his potential as a promising lover to an American woman in her forties, Godfrey Gunatilleke's Tissa in his mid-thirties becomes concerned about his nuptial obligations to a teenage wife. While Rassan's and Selvam's sons in A. Santhan's story thrive after migration to America, Australia and the UK on the grounds of ethnic violence, Duminda in Punyakante Wijenaike's story becomes a mental patient, injured in the battlefield created by the same issue. Suwimalee Karunaratna's Lata ends up a victim in a "snare" in the clutches of "the underworld king" Kam while Sunethra Rajakarunanayake's Nirmala Walikumbura cultivates resilience to manage her matters in her cosmopolitan social milieu in the USA. Ariele Cohen's true life drama emotionally portrays the pulse of the Sri Lankans in a tragic situation where compassion and humanity are the most needed. Thus the people of Sri Lanka appear in many moods and forms in some 16 stories Professor Goonetilleke has selected.

The 27 poems in the Poetry section feature the evolution of Sri Lankan verse in English. Again the kaleidoscope goes turning. The tranquil and serene origins of Sri Lankan poetry with sympathetic colonial influences such as Rev. Fr. W.S. Senior split into numerous veins with the new generations trying to express their feelings in response to various social, political and cultural issues entailed by significant social and political upheavals in the small community of the postcolonial Sri Lanka. Leaving the Kandy Lake poets who were often sentimental and complacent in their thinking, Sri Lankan poetry becomes more and more didactic and provocative through the involvement of poets like Yasmine Gooneratne, Patrick Fernando, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha, Lakshmi de Silva, HLD Mahindapala and Anne Ranasinghe. The entries from Regi Siriwardena, Kamala Wijeratne, Chandra Wickremasinghe and the others directly react to violence which took place in the recent past, demonstrating the function of literature in social and political criticism.

The two plays in the Drama section represent the achievement of Sri Lanka's theatre in English. The pioneering dramatist, H.C.N. de Lanerolle's Fifty-Fifty is a farcical comment on "the Tamil demand for representation in the State Council equal to the Sinhalese in the then new dispensation," and the cleverest of Sri Lanka's dramatists, Ernest Thalayasingham Macintyre's The Loneliness of the Short-Distance Traveller is an absurdist attempt to project the destiny of a people suffering from chronic conditions of frustration and irritation in a dull monotonous lifestyle.

The anthology has been presented with an insightful introduction where Professor Goonetilleke provides important background details that help the reader to understand the works in their context. This is helpful in both diachronic and synchronic analyses of literature. The salubrious social, economic and political climate the middle class of Sri Lanka enjoyed during the colonial times; the revolutionary situations that arose after Sri Lanka received independence from the British Crown in 1948; the aesthetic and social sources from which the poets working in English drew inspiration in the literary and conceptual organization of their material; the cultural exposure the local writers have received in foreign lands; the Tamil terrorism initiated by the LTTE that demands a separate state within the island of Sri Lanka; and the ethnic unrest originated from the dissatisfaction of the Tamil community with the rights extended to them in the independent Sri Lanka are some of the topics that are dealt with in the introduction. In fact these details emerge from the biographical and literary guidelines provided for individual writers representing different periods of Sri Lankan literature in English.

Teachers can use the pieces in their classrooms for teaching English language reading comprehension as well as Sri Lankan literature in English. Researchers can evaluate the influence of the writer's local culture in their application of English in creative work. And the amateur reader can enjoy how a community raises its multiple voices in a language inherited from one of its colonial masters.

All in all the entire piece of work stands as a thoughtful contribution to the study of Sri Lankan literature in English. It really gives a kaleidoscopic pleasure to the reader, no matter, where he is from.