Reading Martin Wickremasinghe:

Critics fail to grasp novels' subtleties

by S. R. Palliyaguruge

Sixty-five years have passed since Martin Wickremasinghe wrote his masterpiece 'Gamperaliya' and fifty-three years have passed since he wrote 'Viragaya'. However, the issue is that still there isn't a wide ranging reading of his literary works.

Everyone says that Martin Wickremasinghe had done a tremendous service to the Sinhala literature and his works are being read at school and university levels. Yet, what is the real service he has done in the fields of literature and culture in Sri Lanka? There is no answer to this question.

First of all, it is pertinent for us to look into the period in which Martin Wickremasinghe did his writings.

Martin Wickremasinghe's first literary work was the novel "Leela" which he wrote in 1914. Thereafter, he wrote a series of novels such as "Iranganie", "Soma", "Rohini" and "Miringuwa". On examining these literary works, it is obvious that these novels are very much like Piyadasa Sirisena's novel "Jayatissa ha Rosalin" which is considered as the second novel in Sinhala fiction and well known in the Sinhala literary field. As we all know, the first realistic novel in Sinhala is "Gamperaliya" and Wickremasinghe's major artistic novels started to emerge after it.

However, it is important to note that Wickremasinghe's next novels are different in form and content to Piyadasa Sirisena's "Jayatissa ha Rosalin". Why did this deviation marked an important phase of Sinhala novel? "Jayatissa ha Rosalin" was an utterly boring novel written in rather coarse language inundated with full of mysterious incidents. The intention of the novelist was social reform and to build up a society based on moral codes. Therefore, most of his novels were intended for readers who did not appreciate literature.

Have novels, short stories or poems grown at the hands of such uncouth readers? They have grown among the sensitive readers who appreciate high quality literature. In essence, such a social reform is being carried out not by uncouth readers as expected by Piyadasa Sirisena but by the minority of intelligent readers. However, either Piyadasa Sirisena or W. A. Silva could not gather those readers around them. It is Martin Wickremasinghe who addressed these intelligent readers. That was not by "Leela" or "Soma" that he attracted these educated readerships but by novels like "Gamperaliya", "Kaliyugaya", "Yuganthaya" and "Viragaya". Therefore, Martin Wickramasinghe can be considered as the pioneer writer who created an educated readership in Sri Lanka. It is this creation of readership that is the biggest service rendered by Martin Wickremasinghe.

Did this educated readership come into being after "Gamperaliya" was written? This process began with Martin Wickramasighe's first anthology of short stories "Geheniya" which was written in 1924. He wrote eight anthologies of short stories such as "Magul Gedara" (1927), "Paukarayata galgasima" (1936), "Handa Sakki Kima" (1946), "Billa Saha Apuru Muhuna" (1949), "Vahallu" (1951), "Kata Ahura" (1946) and " Ape Vitti". Of these anthologies, three were published before 'Gamperaliya'. It was because of these short stories that a sensitive and intelligent readership, who could grasp the social realities, was created in Sri Lanka.

Wickremasinghe further sharpened the insightful readership through his novels beginning with "Gamperaliya". Though this is the biggest contribution that Martin Wickremasinghe made, there is another important factor.

Despite the establishment of universities in Sri Lanka, it was after 1952 with the establishment of the University of Peradeniya that resurgence of Sinhala literature began. The golden era of that renaissance was the time when serious cultural discourse took place at Peradeniya University.

Who carried this discourse further? It was the student community which was nourished by Martin Wickremasinghe's work and the university teachers carried this discourse further. How far Martin Wickremasinghe influenced Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra can be gathered from several places in Sarachchandra's autobiography "Pin Athi Sarasavi Varamak".

It was Martin Wickremasinghe's work that contributed to the creation of an apt diction in Sinhala for creative writing and stirred a healthy discourse in Sinhala literature. In other words, until recently, Martin Wickremasinghe's work has been among the prescribed syllabi at schools and universities. How many novelists have been inspired by Wickremasinghe's work? His influence has not confined to literature.

It was the village folk who spearheaded the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's 1956 revolution. The five forces; Buddhist monks, Ayurvedic physicians, teachers and workers were none other than those villagers. Who made intelligent readers out of them?

It was neither Piyadasa Sirisena nor Anagarika Dharmapala that made this constituency. It was Martin Wickremasinghe. Since Martin Wickremasinghe mostly discussed the village and villagers, his writings influenced the 1956 revolution.

If Mahagamasekara romantisised the death in literature it was Martin Wickremasinghe who romantisised village in Sinhala literature. He not only brought village to the city but also focused attention on customs and traditions associated with village.

He believed that it was native diction from which an idiom suited to modern novel could be derived as well as he applied what he believed in his works. It is not an exaggeration to state that one-fourth of vocabulary that contemporary Sinhala writers use is the words created by him.

But Wickremasinghe who associated with the village failed to understand that the art would preserve in the city rather than in village. Sarachchandra understood this. It is because of this that Sarachchandra conducted his drama in the city. However, this was changed following his death.

Some say that "Viragaya" was the precursor to the present trend of cheap romances. However, "Viragaya" is not a cheap romance. In fact, it portrays the lazy lifestyle of upper middle class in Sri Lanka and personal tragedy through a romance. As in Ivan Goncharov's "Oblomov", "Viragaya" is one of the best realistic novels in Sinhala. "Gamperaliya" is not only the first Sinhala artistic novel but also the novel which introduced Intersexuality and polyphony and change of time for the first and the last time in Sinhala fiction.

This measure Wickremasinghe is historic on the one hand and bewildering on the other hand because this giant step cannot be expected to take place in the first realistic novel of a country.

However, after 65 years since "Gamperaliya" had been written still Sinhala critics have failed to understand the subtleties of the novel other than the romance in it.

Nothing has substantially been done on examining singular contribution made by Martin Wickremasinghe to Sinhala literature.