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Rewriting History: A. Santhan's Portrayal of Jaffna in the Whirlwind


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1 University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
     

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Since writing in English from Sri Lanka with a Tamil perspective is limited, as a novel which stands out as an account of the wartime experience of the people of Jaffna, A. Santhan's The Whirlwind explores the life, culture, history, and identity of the people of Jaffna, Tamil inhabitants of the northern part of Sri Lanka. It is expressed through the incidents happened in the Jaffna Peninsula which was occupied by an Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980's. This paper describes the ways in which the writer captures the traumas, violence, denial of human rights, the clashes between Tamil militants and IPKF, and their ideologies by rewriting the history of Jaffnese during the period of IPKF. The objective of this paper is to express the traumatic experiences of the minority in Sri Lanka and their sociocultural and political identity in the postcolonial Sri Lanka.

Keywords

Culture, History, Identity, Jaffnese, Minority, Tamil.
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  • Rewriting History: A. Santhan's Portrayal of Jaffna in the Whirlwind

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Authors

Sivagowri Sivagurunathan
University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Abstract


Since writing in English from Sri Lanka with a Tamil perspective is limited, as a novel which stands out as an account of the wartime experience of the people of Jaffna, A. Santhan's The Whirlwind explores the life, culture, history, and identity of the people of Jaffna, Tamil inhabitants of the northern part of Sri Lanka. It is expressed through the incidents happened in the Jaffna Peninsula which was occupied by an Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980's. This paper describes the ways in which the writer captures the traumas, violence, denial of human rights, the clashes between Tamil militants and IPKF, and their ideologies by rewriting the history of Jaffnese during the period of IPKF. The objective of this paper is to express the traumatic experiences of the minority in Sri Lanka and their sociocultural and political identity in the postcolonial Sri Lanka.

Keywords


Culture, History, Identity, Jaffnese, Minority, Tamil.

References