Prof Goonetilleke wins Lifetime: Achievement Award
Emeritus Prof. D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke has been awarded the Lifetime’s
Achievement Award in English at the Godage National Literary Awards
1914.
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Prof. D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke |
Hailed in the West as “a well-established critic of twentieth-century
and post-colonial literature and the leading authority on Sri Lankan
English literature”, Emeritus Prof Goonetilleke holds a unique record in
Sri Lanka as a productive, distinguished and tireless scholar. His major
works on English literature include Developing Countries in British
Fiction, acknowledged by international academia as a pioneering step in
post-colonial studies, Images of the Raj: South Asia in the Literature
of Empire, Joseph Conrad: Beyond Culture and Background, Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness and Salman Rushdie.
He has served his own country well by introducing the work of many
Sri Lankan writers to readers and scholars worldwide through eight
anthologies and numerous articles. In Sri Lankan English Literature and
the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003, he has provided a comprehensive history
of Sri Lanka with an evaluation of Sri Lankan creative writing from its
origins to the present day.
In addition to 21 books, published in Britain, the USA, Canada, India
and Sri Lanka, he has contributed 20 chapters to books, 38 short
chapters to Reference books and 50 articles to journals—published in
Britain, U.S.A., Canada, Europe, Australia, India and Sri Lanka.
He was elected World Chairperson of the Association for Commonwealth
Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) and organised its Triennial
Conference of 1995 which brought honour to the country.
He was Foundation Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of
Cambridge, Fellow Commoner of Churchill College, University of
Cambridge, Henry Charles Chapman Visiting Fellow at the University of
London and Guest Professor of English at the University of Tubingen,
West Germany.
The impressive achievements were attained parallel to 44 years of
imparting knowledge to undergraduates and serving on numerous national
committees on cultural activities and the teaching of English. |
