Black September for literati

This week’s column will glance at the literary activities that took place last September which is also known as the literary month. The narrative in this column draws heavily from a literary seminar held in Colombo which examined some of the literary work bestowed with the highest literary awards of the country in September 2009.

The month of September is marked for its host of literary activities including numerous awards for literary works presented by both State and non-state sectors. However, this year’s literary month was a black September for majority of literati on many accounts. Major among them is the dubious criteria that the award committees apparently adapted in selecting works of literature for awards (It is highly unlikely whether they had adapted any criteria at all, in selecting literary works for literary awards supposed to be the highest in the country).

Insightful views on the merits and demerits of the literary works which had already been conferred with ‘converted awards’ were presented at a seminar organised by ‘Colamba Kavaya’, a literary study circle, held recently at the Jayewardene Centre in Colombo. The resource personnel of the seminar included Siri Thilakasiri, Karunaratne Amarasinghe and Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath who as a team dissected “Podu Purushaya” (Common Mate) from diverse perspectives.

The primary focus of the seminar was on the publication labelled as a novel authored by Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, which received both the State Literary Award for the best novel in Sinhala and Swarnapustaka Sammanaya (The Golden Book Award) presented annually by a group of Publishers.

Two such books, “Podu Purushaya” (Common Mate) and “Bora Thel” (Crude Oil) were given State Literary Award, Godage Literary Award and Swarnapustaka Sammanaya (The Golden Book). The first book was written by Sunethra Rajakarunanayake while the second was by Ven. Batuwangala Rahula.

Coarse and interest-killing language

Analysing the language of the book by Rajakarunanayake, Siri Thilakasiri pointed out that the principle task of a creative writer is to device a diction which is both appropriate for the theme and to convey a gamut of complex emotions. It is a home truth that the foremost criterion of a good book is its readability and its ability to keep the reader engaged with the author throughout the narration. He observed that this characteristic is amply present in literary works of Martin Wickremasinghe, Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra, K. Jayatilake and Gunadasa Amerasekara. Among other things, in fact, they are masters in the creative use of colloquial Sinhala idiom or ‘Gami Vahara’. However, Siri Thilakasiri observed that the language in ‘Podu Purushaya’ though purportedly claimed as that of colloquial Sinhala idiom, was, in fact, coarse, interest-killing and was pasted with a shallow language like hay. The narration was crawling with mistakes in grammar, syntax and inappropriate use of words. Citing literary works of renowned Sinhalese authors such as Martin Wickremasinghe, Venerable Yakkaduwe Prangnarama and K. Jayatilake, Siri Tilakasiri said the language in the book was shallow, rudimentary and bereft of creative properties of the language appropriate for fiction. Some of the sentences of the book were meaningless, he said.

They were just groups of words with little or no meaning. Over the past 40 years, particularly the teaching of Sinhala grammar suffered heavily at the hands of successive ‘educationists’ who virtually relegated the teaching of grammar to the backburner encouraging the bastardisation of language which was turned out as colloquial Sinhala idiom. The growth and development of FM radio channels infested with Sri Lanka’s “SMS culture” may have contributed to the present deterioration of standards of Sinhala language. This was also one of the reasons for the production of literary works of inferior quality as shallow as hay.

Karunaratne Amarasinghe, citing examples from Sinhala literature of the creative properties of the language, struck home the point that the use of words and phraseology was an important aspect of a masterpiece and only such work should be given awards.

‘Anthojata Bahijata’ or confusion within confusion

Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath speaking on Sri Lankan literary scene said. Sri Lanka now has an Internally Displaced Literature (IDL) or island literature. Although a large number of novels, anthologies of short stories and anthologies of poetry are being published, most of them render no meaning. He pointed out that the reason for this is that most of the writers are ignorant of Western, Eastern and Sinhalese classical literatures.

Speaking on ‘Podu Purushaya’, Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath said, “I found the book utterly unreadable. As soon as I took the book, it became a severe pain in my mind. Reading it was torturous and with great difficulty, I read only forty odd pages ... it was nothing but intermingled networks of conversations leading to further confusion against the backdrop of Kilinochchi... Since the writer did not have a sketch of what she was going to write, the plot has taken a meandering path leading to utter confusion”. Prof. Gamlath pointed out that the texture of the book lacks what he calls “Sandarba Shuddhiya” or contextual clarity which is the hallmark of a good literary work. If this characteristic is absent in a narration, it would give an effect of a torture camp to the reader and that Sunethra Rajakarunanayake has just done that. Though writers such as Siri Gunasinghe and Ajith Thilakasena experimented with the use of colloquial Sinhala idiom for creative writing, the colloquial idiom as it is cannot be used for an insightful writing. The colloquial idiom should be refined and re-arranged in order to suit creative pursuits.

However, according to Prof. Gamlath, Rajakarunanayake had used the narrative form of the novel in its crude form. If such a usage is accepted as a literary norm, any street urchin could become a writer. In such a scenario, is there a meaning of using the language for creative purposes? If there is a significant difference between a street urchin who uses colloquial Sinhala and Rajakarunanayake in their use of creative prose, it is the refined use of colloquial idiom. Since Rajakarunanayake has not used such a refined colloquial Sinhala, “Podu Purushaya” becomes an amateurish piece of writing. Siri Thilakasiri and Karunaratne Amarasinghe highlighted several instances where Sunethra has virtually killed the language. One of the prominent factual errors mentioned in the course of the seminar was that the author had instead of Shajahan, cited Nurjahan in association with the famed Taj Mahal.

One of the positive outcomes of the seminar was the confirmation of the fact that the criteria adapted by award committees were not the yardsticks in measuring literary merits and demerits of the works that were submitted for awards but mysterious criteria only known to those panellists who chaired these committees.

The criteria for judging high standard literary work should be open and transparent.