Re-reading Eva Ranaweera’s novels- In the light of subaltern studies

Abstract

The appeal of Eva Ranaweera’s Novels lie in their Persistent critique of social stratification between class and gender and their direct engagement with silent aspects of society, seldom reproduced in the contemporary male dominated main stream Sinhala novel. Her novels can be located in the context of Subaltern studies, Post colonialism and Feminism-the intellectual developments that have made their mark worldwide. The Subaltern is defined as an inferior rank .its history and society is presented as all that is involved in the culture, informing the subaltern condition, whether in terms of class, caste or gender. It is recognized that subordination can’t be understood except as one of the constitutive terms in a binary relationship. The other party plays the dominant role, for Subaltern groups are always subjected to the activity of ruling groups. It is this dialectic that informs Ranaweera’s fictional texts, and can be seen to operate within the paradigm of subaltern histories. A recurrent theme right from her first novel Laisa has been the friction between the peasant servant woman and her elite master. Thus She draws the reader in to the dramatic conflict of characters who live on the periphery of the state. The intention of the present study is to analyze how at various phases of her literary career, Ranaweera has returned to the life of the oppressed Subaltern and explored various structures of power and powerless.