| dc.description.abstract | The present study is an attempt to device a
combined approach towards reading Sri Lankan English
literature that takes into account both socio-linguistic
and thematic concerns of the cannon. In this context, the
study holds the literary medium of Shehan Karunatilaka`s
Chinaman: The legend of Pradeep Mathew as a palimpsest,
whose linguistic stratification signals a discord between
the novel`s linguistic content and its political worldview.
Here, the study situates Sri Lankan English within the
linguistic ecology of Sri Lanka and observes how different
socio-political and socio-linguistic voices inhabit and
inhibit each other in constructing the palimpsestuous
texture of Sri Lankan English. These observations are in
turn compared with the novel`s commentary on national
(dis)harmony. This content analysis is conducted by
applying Chantal Zabus`s theorization of "relexification”
which conceives postcolonial Anglophone writing as a
palimpsest, and Sarah Dillon`s theoretical insights in to
"palimpsestuous reading” that observes the way different
layers of a palimpsestuous text interact with each other in
constructing that text. The study observes how the power
dynamics that inform the literary medium of "Chinaman”
may contradict the novel`s political worldview that
promotes an inclusive national consciousness. | en_US |
