"Homeless and homesick": exile and Bildungsroman in Shyam Selvadurai's Funny boy
Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: It is the purpose of this paper to analyze the literature of a Sri- \nLankan writer who has been urged to emigrate because of the social \nand racial problems risen between Tamils and Sinhaleses in Sri-Lanka, \nin the last few decades. Shyam Selvadurai (Funny Boy), now living in \nCanada, a new novelist of the nineties, describes a paradisiac country \nin violent turmoil and writes about the decision to leave a seemingly \nimpossible situation for a “promised” land. It will be interesting to \nexamine the contradictions between these very different but enriching \ncivilizations, the Eastern and the Western, specifically in the way \nthey face religion, gender and race. Special attention would be paid \nto the notions of bildungsroman, the loss of innocence, the growingup \nof political conscience, the racial discrimination, and the literary \nmetaphors of exile.
Author: Juan Ignacio Oliva Cruz
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1016004300