Women & the Nation's Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Sri Lanka - Hardcover

Neloufer De Mel

9788186706411: Women & the Nation's Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Sri Lanka

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8186706410 ISBN 13: 9788186706411

Publisher: Kali for Women, 2001

Language: English
Pages: 304
About the Book

This book explore the
development of nationalism in Sri Lanka during the past century. particularly with in the dominant Sinhala Buddhist and
militant Tamil Movements. Tracing the ways women from diverse background have
engaged with nationalism. Neloufer de Mel argues that
gender is crucial to an understanding of nationalism and vice versa.

Traversing
both the colonial and postcolonial period in Sri Lankas history, the author
assesses a range of writers, activists, political figures and movements. With
her rigorous, historically located analyses, de mel
makes a persuasive dace for the connection between figures like stage actress
Annie Boteju and intellectual Anil de Silva; poetry written
by Jean Arasanayagam Tamil revolutionary women; and
political movements like the LTTE, the JVP, the Mothers Front, and
contemporary feminist organisation. Evaluating the colonial period in the light
of the violence that animates Sri Lanka today , de Mel proposes what Bruce
Robbins has termed a lateral cosmopolitanism that will allow coalitions to
form and to practice an oppositional politics of peace. In the process, she
examines the gendered forms through which the nation and the state both come together
and pull apart.

About the Author

Neloufer De Mel is
a senior lecturer in the department of English, University of Colombo, Sri
Lanka, and a member of the visiting faculty in the womens programme at the
same university. She was the fou

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Neloufer de Mel is senior lecturer of the Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a member of the visiting faculty in the women's studies program at the same university.

Review:

Elegantly written, thorough, and assured, this book represents a different and extraordinarily valuable insight into the ways in which gender is mediated through the intersection of cultural production and politics. There is very little work done about Sri Lanka on this subject that asks questions with the subtlety de Mel brings to her readings. This work stands as one of most groundbreaking contributions to the literature and will transform how the questions that it engages with are read. (Geeta Patel)

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