Abiding by Sri Lanka: On Peace, Place, And PostcolonialityU of Minnesota Press - 273 من الصفحات The lack of peace in Sri Lanka is commonly portrayed as a consequence of a violent, ethnonationalist conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. Viewed in this light, resolution could be attained through conflict management. But, as Qadri Ismail reveals, this is too simplistic an understanding and cannot produce lasting peace. Abiding by Sri Lanka examines how the disciplines of anthropology, history, and literature treat the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. Anthropology, Ismail contends, approaches Sri Lanka as an object from an “outside” and western point of view. History, addressing the conflict from the “inside,” abides by the place and so promotes change that is nationalist and exclusive. Neither of these fields imagines an inclusive community. Literature, Ismail argues, can. With close readings of texts that “abide” by Sri Lanka, texts that have a commitment to it, Ismail demonstrates that the problems in Sri Lanka raise fundamental concerns for us all regarding the relationship between democracies and minorities. Recognizing the structural as well as political tendencies of representative democracies to suppress minorities, Ismail rethinks democracy by redefining the concept of the minority perspective, not as a subject-position of numerical insignificance, but as a conceptual space that opens up the possibility for distinction without domination and, ultimately, peace. Qadri Ismail is associate professor of English at the University of Minnesota. He has also been a journalist in Sri Lanka. |
المحتوى
DisPlacing Sri Lanka ReConceptualizing Postcoloniality | 1 |
Reading a Sinhalese Nationalist History | 34 |
Reading a Tamil Nationalist History | 104 |
4 What to the Leftist Is a Good Story? Two Fictional Critiques of Nationalism | 169 |
Does Democracy Inhibit Peace? | 224 |
Notes | 247 |
261 | |
271 | |
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عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
abide by Sri actants analogy anthropology anticolonial argued argument Break-Up of Sri Buddhist called Ceylon Tamils chapter Chelvanayakam claim Colombo colonialism concept consequence consociationalism course critique culture Daniel democracy disciplinary history discipline dominance elite empiricism emplotment epistemological ethnic conflict ethnic groups Eurocentrism Fanon fiction Goonesinha hegemony Indian insist instance intellectual interpretive labor Lazarus leftist LTTE majoritarian Majority Rules Managing Ethnic Tensions Marxism Memory Minority Matters Muslims narrate narrative unit novel object opposed oppression past peace in Sri perspective Politics in Sri Ponnambalam position postcolonial present produce question of peace Rasanayagam reading Reaping the Whirlwind representation seek Senanayake significance Silva and Wilson Silva’s simply Sinhalese and Tamil Sinhalese nationalism Sinhalese nationalist social science Sri Lanka Sri Lankan debate Sri Lankan history Sri Lankan Tamil story Subaltern Studies Tamil nationalism Tamil nationalist text’s tion Tissa understanding understood UpCountry Tamils Uyangoda violence Western