Life narrative is a field which is currently drawing increasing academic interest in Sri Lanka, though life narratives are an integral part of the socio-political fabric of the nation. In the Sri Lankan, context biogr...Life narrative is a field which is currently drawing increasing academic interest in Sri Lanka, though life narratives are an integral part of the socio-political fabric of the nation. In the Sri Lankan, context biography and autobiography are commonly seen as two separate genres in life writing, but certain life narratives tend to blur those boundaries. From This Point Forward, a photography exhibition by Luka Alagiyawanna, My Mother’s Village, a documentary life narrative by Aaron Burton, and Project I Am by Kannan Arunasalam are some examples. The present study analyses life narratives from I Am Jaffna section in Project I Am1; a digital archive of life narratives of Sri Lankan elders. Based on the life narratives, memories, and experiences of Sri Lankan elders, the project strives to find out whether there was a time when people in Sri Lanka did not describe themselves as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, or Burgher, or a time when ethnic identity was not the primary defining factor of an individual. The reviews and articles on the projects have looked at the project merely as a repository of stories that help Sri Lankans understand their differences and a project promoting reconciliation with hardly any focus on the project as a Sri Lankan life narrative, so that a gap bridged by the present study. The study also focuses on the concept and politics of “othering” with a view to exploring how these life narratives are constructed as Sri Lankan life narratives. For this purpose, the study focuses on the segment on people from Jaffna-I am Jaffa, since the Jaffna community has a long standing history of being “the other.” The inseparability of the concept and politics ofothering and the identity of Sri Lankans show that it is extremely challenging to dispose of the notion of the other as it has actually become an integral aspect of Sri Lankan identity and a social reality.展开更多
文摘Life narrative is a field which is currently drawing increasing academic interest in Sri Lanka, though life narratives are an integral part of the socio-political fabric of the nation. In the Sri Lankan, context biography and autobiography are commonly seen as two separate genres in life writing, but certain life narratives tend to blur those boundaries. From This Point Forward, a photography exhibition by Luka Alagiyawanna, My Mother’s Village, a documentary life narrative by Aaron Burton, and Project I Am by Kannan Arunasalam are some examples. The present study analyses life narratives from I Am Jaffna section in Project I Am1; a digital archive of life narratives of Sri Lankan elders. Based on the life narratives, memories, and experiences of Sri Lankan elders, the project strives to find out whether there was a time when people in Sri Lanka did not describe themselves as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, or Burgher, or a time when ethnic identity was not the primary defining factor of an individual. The reviews and articles on the projects have looked at the project merely as a repository of stories that help Sri Lankans understand their differences and a project promoting reconciliation with hardly any focus on the project as a Sri Lankan life narrative, so that a gap bridged by the present study. The study also focuses on the concept and politics of “othering” with a view to exploring how these life narratives are constructed as Sri Lankan life narratives. For this purpose, the study focuses on the segment on people from Jaffna-I am Jaffa, since the Jaffna community has a long standing history of being “the other.” The inseparability of the concept and politics ofothering and the identity of Sri Lankans show that it is extremely challenging to dispose of the notion of the other as it has actually become an integral aspect of Sri Lankan identity and a social reality.
