Post Colonial Literatures 1

CIA 3

Name: Sarah Medha Bachmann

Register No:1730248

Question:

“Jean Arasanayagan is a diasporic writer with a difference. She writes in the red ink of her
blood and that is what makes her poetry deeply disturbing but cathartic and in doing so,blends
the personal with the political.”Elaborate.

Jean Arasanayagam is a Sri Lankan poet, short- story writer and artist. Jean belongs to the
English –speaking Burgher minority of Sri Lanka and married to a Tamilian. Her dual belonging
and cultural identity to both minority groups – Burgher & Tamil in Sri Lanka has contributed to
her experiences of sense of displacement and exile. Jean’s writing focus mostly on political and
ethnic conflict in Sri- Lanka though she is not a diasporic writer. Her writings resonate with her
personal feelings of marginalization and displacement on both political and ethnic
terms.Through a detailed reading of Jean’s writings, one can assess that her identity is claimed
by inherited colonialist ideals. It basically reveals the split or dual inheritance of ideals from the
two communities –Burgher and Tamilian. The ideals comprised of assimilation of colonial and
Tamilian values thereby indicating towards the duality of her experiences.

Her works have constantly comprised of one fundamental idea: reflection of contradiction in
hybridity. It reflects the ancestral link to colonial roots as well as the drive to get rid of it. Her
adamant assertion of Burgher identity contains an innate desire to represent her hybridity as
well. This is quite evident in her writings through the landscape of dichotomy and
instability.The association of safety and security to her past colonial experience and violence of
present era causes a major dilemma for her.
Post Colonial Literatures 2

Jean identifies the rigid constructions of racial discrimination executed through the colonial
mission. She rejects an essential cultural identity, yet a re-visioning of hybridity is problematic
within the nation at a time of ethnic conflict and territorial boundaries, as seen in "The Witness,"
in which there is no space for negotiation. It would seem that hybridity is more easily
acknowledged outside the nation, as in "The Garden Party." In this sense, the contradictions and
ambiguities in both stories can be read as an attempt at reconciliation between colonizer and
colonized and as a consequent assertion of hybridization.

In her later works, she depicts the narratives in a way that emphasizes on forceful removal of
privileged and traditional ways of life. As De Mel states “ writer's own diverse identities demand
the dismantling of the barriers of ethnicity, caste and class and the ideologies of nationalism that
carry exclusion. The marginalization of the Tamils and Burghers caused by the 'Sinhala Only'
language policy, and the rise of Tamil nationalism in response to this, together with the
migration of Burgher professionals from the island, has made an impact on how Arasanayagam
has re-imagined Sri Lanka's landscapes”.

Thus, Jean’s writings lament with the ideas of loss, displacement, safety, security, ethnicity,
hybridity, political conflicts, disturbing emotions, marginalization, insecurity in Sri Lanka .