Montage - Cultural paradigm | Sundayobserver.lk

Bilingual writer Sunil Govinnage has transcended barriers in his writings both in Sinhala and English. His experiences are unique especially evoking characteristics of life in globalised context conditioned by frequents travels, meeting with people of diverse race, ethnicities and of different values. Predominant feature of his writing is strong nostalgia attached to the motherland and its culture which he left behind when emigrating to Australia and confronting the cultural shock he experienced in globalised life conditions.

Q: In the, poem ‘Mute Sea’ and ‘My Heritage’ you speak about giving up your heritage, including your mothertongue Sinhala but over the last 22 years you have kept writing both in Sinhala and English. In your opinion, is Australia conducive for multicultural writers and writings?

A: You have asked the million dollar question first, but I am not sure I have a readymade answer! Australia is a great country with great traditions and thriving (English) literary cannon which is linked with its colonial past. The original landowners, the Aborigines only had an oral language which is rapidly disappearing and there are a very few well-established Aboriginal writers who also write in English.

We describe Australia as a multicultural country looking at the number of nationalities living here but English is the predominant language, the language which rules the country. There are so many migrant writers but they have no place unless they write and publish in English. Government sponsored Australian grants and various support systems meant for writers do not encourage anyone to write in their mothertongue whether it is Sinhala, Russian or Chinese! So we have to write and publish in English.

There are two Sinhala newspapers (‘Sannasa’ and ‘Pahana’) published in the East but they are not national newspapers like ‘The Australian’ or ‘The Age’ or ‘Sydney Morning Herald.’ After migrating, I had to write in English because many of my friends and work mates couldn’t read Sinhala! But I continued to write in Sinhala which has a history over 2,500 years.

When I first began writing in English, there was a feeling of sadness which I attempted to capture in a poem called White Mask. Let me repeat it for the benefit of your readers:

I like to think of Sunil Govinnage as a writer of the Indian Ocean, rather than having to think about him in terms of national identities, like Sri Lankan, Australian or even a sub-identity like black Australian. He is, after all, a resident of Perth, a city lapped by the ocean whose currents and winds link him to his place of birth. Also, the experiences reproduced in his writings transcend national boundaries, which is why I would join Wimal Dissanayake in evoking globalisation as one of the ‘life conditions’ under which his texts have emerged.

A figure of one of the many diasporic populations moving around the world, we find our narrator, for instance in Amsterdam, treating the conundrums of mistaken identity with irony, an irony which has a transcendent function: it shows the wisdom of laughing one’s way out of identity politics and its endless assertions of the special case.

Which is a long way of saying, read before identifying! Don’t trust the author to match up to your expectations. This, now, is-your-text to do something with, it will give you endless avenues for thinking, feeling and being. You can stroll along these avenues enjoying the breezes of the Indian Ocean bringing flavours and perfumes of South Asia to these shores, and yet so much more; an intensity of experience and a tenderness of perception which make Sunil Govinnage one of the most unique and compelling writers to emerge-from anywhere-in recent years.

- Stephen Muecke, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Technology, Sydney.

Under
A sixty year-old gumtree
A plaque remembers
An unknown soldier.
In King’s Park
He sits and scribbles poetry
In English,
Burying
Two thousand and
five hundred years
Of metaphors, images
Metre and rhyme now
Heard only at night
In dreams of Sinhala verse.

Q: How do you define the terms “Cultural Otherness” and “Cultural Citizenship” with reference to your work “Black Swans and Other stories” and “White Mask”?

A: These terms are deeply involved with literary theories covering literature of diaspora. When I write poetry or prose, I don’t think of literary theories; I just write! I write on things I experience, or experienced by others as I have read or heard from various sources. The issue about Cultural Otherness is a great one. It is intertwined with one’s identity. Like the language or name, particularly non-Anglo-Celtic names can be a bit difficult to pronounce. So I know a lot of people take adopted names in Australia. Sunil can be Sonny or Deepthi can be Natasha and so on! But I am happy to say that none in my family, my two children or wife have gone in this path of changing our names. So we have kept our cultural otherness in a way but by choice! You may remember my short story, called ‘What’s in a Name, Mate!’

In the story, my protagonist was asked to shorten his name Siripala to Singh? The protagonist who is a Sri Lankan born engineer with a long name, Vidhana Pathiranalage Siripala Wickramasinghe, respond by saying:”Oh, no! People might think that I’m a Sikh!” This issue of changing names is a universal one. Recently, a young Sri Lankan with a usual Sri Lankan name asked me whether he should change his name to a simple Western one, so that he can find a job easily in Australia! You can guess my response to this young Sri Lankan man! All these can be examined using literary theories framing within or outside disporic concepts such as Cultural Otherness and Global Citizenship, but it is a job for a critic not for a poet or a writer!

Q: Both your English books are available in countries such as the USA, Canada, France, Japan and even in China through www.amazon.com How is that your English work is not available in Sri Lanka?

A: A very good question indeed! Let me first answer your question with a question. Are there facilities and a market for English prose and poetry writing from down under in Sri Lanka? I partially take the responsibility for not publishing my short stories in Sinhala. I have made plans to publish my short story collection both in English and Sinhala soon. I hope it will happen!

Q: The stories like “Dad’s Books” explore the theme of generation gap between migrants and their children. The second generation of migrants, who are born and bred in the adapted country, seems to consider Sri Lanka as their parent’s land of birth rather than their motherland. This attitude on the part of their children would cause pain to the parents who are eager to preserve their indigenous cultures and corresponding societal values despite the fact that they live on a foreign soil. How do you deal with this situation as a poet and writer?

A: This a very good but a complex question! Let me give you a brief answer! If you read ‘Dad’s books’, you will find that it doesn’t belong to a diasporic framework. The story belongs to an unusual character who collects books and this is an issue he had to deal with his family. The protagonist who has no name in the story is a Chekhovian fan and the story focuses on this and other issues. And the story is written from his young teenage son’s point of view.

The second part of the question is a universal problem to many migrants. As we have made a decision to adopt Australia with a great Anglo-Celtic tradition as our home, I didn’t push my two children to learn my language.

After all there were no facilities in their schools in Perth to learn Sinhala. In fact, they grew up learning English and French! I wanted them to grow up being ordinary but good Australians and they have lived up to my expectations, except they support Sri Lankan cricket team when we play against Australia! I have never questioned their allegiance but I believe they go by a great Australia tradition called Fair go which emphasises the importance of giving every one a fair and equal opportunity. I don’t think that Australian media and cricket commentators ever give a fair opportunity to go to any cricket team other than their own! That’s another Australian Story!

I have captured some of these dilemmas through my poetry and prose but all of them are not true as poets use their imagination like writers and story tellers.

Q: Your mentor, Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa in his lengthy bi-lingual introduction to your second collection of Sinhala Anthology, ‘Mathaka Mawatha’ (Passage of Memory) describe you as a poet with a “ ... fractured ego of the global stranger who has everything but owns nothing, who lives everywhere but has no home anywhere.” What is your view?

A: It is better to have a “fractured ego” than a bloated one! I suppose Mr Ariyadasa not only attempts to summarise my plight down under but all other diasporic writers living around the globe. If you read poetry by Wimal Dissanayake’s anthologies such as ‘Duru Rata Sita’ (From an alien country) and ‘Nagala Kanda’, (Nagala Mountain) you will find beautifully crafted poems depicting the lives and values of diasporic existence.

Q: Apart from Mr Ariyadasa who else influenced your journey into the world of literature and writing?

A: I grew up reading every book in our school library, Issipathana Vidyalaya in Sinhala and also many translations. I was greatly influenced by the works of Martin Wickramasinghe, Ediriweera Sarachchandra and Gunadasa Amarasekara. But in addition to Mr Ariyadasa who helped me to learn English and taught me the ABC of journalism, there were four other great people who had influenced me in many ways. Although not in order of importance, Carlo Fonseka, Wimal Dissanayake, and the late Dayasena Gunasinghe and Canadian journalist Warner Troyer had a prolific influence in my creative and worldly life. With regard to my poetry, Wimal Dissanayake, Dayasena Gunasinghe and Singapore’s Edwin Thumboo had a greater influence and I cannot deny the distant influence from Gunadasa Amarasekara’s poetry but not his ideologies of course!

Q: In his brief foreword to your short story collection, ‘Black Swans and Other Stories,’ widely acclaimed Australian academic and cultural critic Professor Stephen Muecke of University of Technology, Sydney writes: “.. an intensity of experience and a tenderness of perception which make Sunil Govinnage one of the most unique and compelling writers to emerge-from anywhere-in recent years.” Comment.

A: They are indeed good words, and Professor Muecke who has read most of my published and unpublished writings may have seen cultural otherness and global citizen in my work! But I am struggling in down under, in my Australia, at least to get into an Australian Anthology which is all the time edited by White Anglo-Celtic writers and academics! Like English they make Aussie Rules of Writing and Publishing and it is like reaching Himalayan summit to get into these clubs! They dominate Australian literature!

I am happy to bid farewell as a bi-lingual Sri Lankan writer who lived and wrote also in Sinhala from Australia! It is my multi-cultural country and it is my choice and I cannot cross the journey back the Mute Ocean again. It’s another long story and you need to wait for my novels to be published. I have given up my heritage to live and die in Australia by maintaining a dual cultural code. Not many regrets!

Writing in English and Sinhala from multi-cultural Australia