English

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/2509

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Start date: 2001End date: 2009

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 24
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    Imagining the Future of English Studies in Sri Lanka
    (Postcolonial Text, 2008) Wickremasinghe, Maithree
    The submission is a speech made at the launch of Arbiters of a National Imaginary: Essays on Sri Lanka - a Festschrift for Professor Ashley Halpé edited by Chelva Kanaganayakam. The speech begins with a tribute to Professor Ashley Halpé, followed by a methodological perspective when examining the festschrift. While it does not technically review the articles in the book, it however discusses their significance for contemporary disciplinary practices of English Studies in Sri Lanka. The objective of the speech, therefore, is to argue for a paradigm shift in English Studies when engaging with the specificities of the Sri Lankan context, which would necessarily involve a consideration of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary directions of English, as well as the political and ethical needs of the local situation.
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    Making meaning of meaning-making: a case study of feminist research methodology in Sri Lanka
    (Institute of Education, University of London, 2007) Wickremasinghe, Maithree
    While women-related (WR) research has proliferated in Sri Lanka since 1975, research focusing on such literature and on research methodology is limited. My research concentrates on the theoretical frameworks, ontological and epistemological standpoints, methods, politics and ethics that constitute WR research methodology in Sri Lanka. In effect, it considers the ways in which researchers extract I construct meanings to fulfil feminist objectives in research. Consequently, the work covers the epistemological gap in methodology within local Women's Studies; and enriches international research by highlighting the Sri Lankan situation through being generalisable to wider theoretical objectives. Women-relatedness of research is posited as a paradigmatic shift in knowledge-making within which research activism takes place. The umbrella concept and materiality of WR research methodology is case studied through constituent case studies of method, ontology, epistemology, theory, and politics I ethics. This involves conceptualising I engaging with the particularities of Sri Lankan ontological politics; an epistemology of gender that originates from a sense of being I doing; the method of literature reviewing as an epistemic project; theory on methodology as epistemology and feminisms as a form of ethical politics. Maithree Wickramasinghe- Making Meaning of Meaning-Making 2 Sri Lankan women's studies and discourse compose a somewhat abstract ontology for my research purpose, while WR research methodology is captured I constructed in research through the examination of research texts and interviews. My own methodology is founded on the principle of knowledge as a process of both discovery and construction. Analysis of research is from multiple theoretical locations and methodological intersects of positivism and postrnodernism; as well as feminist standpoints, postcolonialism, and reflexivity. The ultimate aim of the study is not only conceptual unity, but also, conceptual contestation.
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    An epistemology of gender - An aspect of being as a way of knowing
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2006) Wickremasinghe, Maithree
    In this article, I examine the concept of gender as applied in Sri Lankan Women's/Gender Studies, and discuss the methodological assumptions behind the usages of the concept. It is based on theoretical understandings of contemporary currents in non/post-positivist methodologies, feminist theory and epistemologies, as well as postmodernism and postcolonialism. I argue for the conceptualisation of gender as ontology in local feminist research/writing by referring to the multiple conceptual constructions of gender as aspects of ‘being’-spanning gendered identities to societal systems. I then focus on gender as epistemology with regard to the ways in which Sri Lankan feminists use gender as political aspirations, theoretical constructs, analytical categories and methodologies. I argue that politicized experiences of gender are at the crux of conceptualising realities in formal knowledge. And conversely, that the gender realities conceptualized in knowledge also mediate in the actual enactments of realities; that gender epistemology (or a way of knowing) is also ontology (or a sense of being). This can be summed up with the convoluted statement that gender ontology as epistemology is gender epistemology as ontology.
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    Gender dimensions in disaster management: a guide for South Asia
    (Zubaan, 2005) Ariyabandu, M.M.; Wickremasinghe, Maithree
    This book aims to address the dearth of specific information on the subject of'gender issues in disaster', particularly in the South Asian countries. Targeted at policy makers and development practitioners in South Asia, it argues that the risk posed by natural hazards is a variable, which has direct implications on development in general, and livelihoods in particular. The specific vulnerabilities and capacities of men and women, and the gender/social dynamics of disaster situations are often not obviously visible, but it is vital ...
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    Rejuvenating and Restructuring the Discipline of English Studies in Sri Lanka: A Concept Paper
    (University of Kelaniya, 2009) Wickremesinghe, Maithree
    Since its inception as a discipline in the country, the various strands of English Studies7 in Sri Lankan universities have reflected, rejected, complemented and contradicted the historical needs and events of the nation as a whole. Above all, it has engaged with and is a significant aspect of the hybrid (Bhaba 1994), if not multibrid8 history and culture of Sri Lanka. As a teacher, scholar and practitioner of English, it is due to an extreme sense of frustration about the state of English Studies in the country today (discussed later on) that I have felt compelled to write this paper on restructuring the discipline. This is because I view the discipline as a living, evolving entity (as it can never be an end-product), that need to be constantly revised -- if it is to have meaning, relevance and validity to those who are part of it and those who pursue it. Consequently, my attempts at consciously re-conceptualizing English Studies have to be located not only in the internal developments, cross-fertilizations and advances within the discipline globally but also in the socio-political, cultural and economic currents of the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It is from this standpoint that this paper aims to take stock of the contemporary trends and triumphs of the discipline of English within the universities as well as to conceptualize its challenges and possibilities for the future.
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    Rhetorical Tools for Communicating Strategic Change: Dana’s Definitional Statement
    (University of Michigan, 2007) Gunesekera, M.
    What rhetorical tools are critical for managers seeking to communicate strategy? What textual features matter when developing a language of change? To explore these questions we compare Dana Corporation’s 1987 strategic definitional statement, The Philosophy and Policies of Dana, with its 2004 revision, our framework being Eccles and Nohria’s triadic of rhetoric, action, and identity. In a newly competitive environment, Dana evolved from recognition as an exemplary company into reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Concurrently, their 2004 statement marks a significant rhetorical shift. Dana’s example suggests the usefulness of thematic rearrangement, language adjustments, and opening sentence subjects to articulate revisions in purpose, values, and behavioral expectations and illustrates the usefulness of Eccles and Nohria’s framework for understanding rhetoric as a strategic organizational activity.
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    Sri Lankan English Literature and the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003
    (Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2005) Goonetilleke, D.C.R.A.
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    Disillusionment with more than India
    (Towards a Transcultural Future, Literature & Society in a ‘Post’-Colonial World, 2005) Goonetilleke, D.C.R.A.
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    Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Rushdie's Partial/Plural Identity
    (World Literature Written in English, 2008) Goonetilleke, D.C.R.A.