SLAM 010 conference

This is the last of a series of columns on SLAM and literature in Sri Lanka. In the concluding remarks in the previous week's column, I wrote: "If new literati really want to reach international markets and to mark Sri Lanka on international literary map, it is imperative that they aspire to reach international standards and to look at the fact whether they are making substantial contributions to literature in general and Sri Lankan literature in English in particular."

As I mentioned in the previous week's column, the SLAM, a 'unique' literary conference held at the University of Peradeniya focused on language standards. One of the arguments put forward was that the puritanical approach to language would leave as many as possible out and would in the long run help serve a few elites. This attitude to language seemed to prevail not only among students in the Department of English but also among those students from the Department of Sinhalese. I'm not sure whether this is the policy of the relevant Departments, and merits further investigations.

The attitude, at least on the part of some poets, was manifested in the form of poetry performed by 'budding poets' in the two sessions set aside for them. A couple of students from the Department of Sinhalese also performed at those sessions. For instance, the poem 'froteztology' appeared in Malinda Seneviratne's column "From the Sidelines' performed by Marlon Ariyasinghe at one of the sessions epitomises the general attitude of most of the budding poets who performed. I reproduce extracts of the poem as appeared in "From the Sidelines" for the purpose of further analysis;

Though the above lines would make a poem is polemical, the underline message is clear. What the new linguistic movement, if there is any, intends to be a radical shift from what they termed out 'puritanical approach' to language and to disregard conventional grammar altogether.

Another intention of those who propagate this school of thinking both in Sinhalese and English may be to create a proverbial 'storm in the cup' and to emerge out of the controversy as 'linguistic mavericks' with the banner that they are the one who have really 'de-hegemonised' the elitism in language and de-root the English language with from its colonial shadows.

The logical extension of this school of thinking is that anything can be published and there is absolutely no need for editing. Unfortunately, all these pompous cries of new found radicalism in language seems to be a scenario similar to that of unskilled workers talking about sub-standard and unsafe tools.

Verse 'blanks'

This situation is also valid to 'budding poets' in Sinhalese who performed at the literary event. The fundamental issue is that the language is the medium of literature and that literature should not end in bastardising a language. Most of the budding poets' language was poor and crude with hardly any 'verse'. They were not blank verses but verse 'blanks'. Some of the poems were nothing but crude statements, often aimed at politicians. The 'non-poems' were broken into lines and read aloud out at planned sessions. Often slang words were the preferred vocabulary of the 'budding poets' both in Sinhalese and English. This is nothing but the Bastardisation of language. This linguistic movement or school of thinking seems to promote the idea that one can write, read and speak in a way the creator wishes.

Although the rationale behind this lost radical movement is not clear, one can arrive at a conclusion if one can use or abuse the language according to once whims and fancies, there is no need for having rules of languages or teaching language at all levels. There is also no need for writers, editors and teachers of language, if anyone can publish anything he or she wishes and get away with the labels of post-modernism, post-structuralism or de-construction in both literary and metaphorical senses. The idea of opening the flood gates of linguistic mayhem may have been proposed with some ulterior motives.

It is home truth that each and every language has its own fundamental structure and a well-evolved regime of grammar and syntax. The conventions of the language are important as grammar would discipline the expression of ideas in a manner that could be understood by all those following rules and standards of any language. If one wants to break the rules of grammar and feels that grammar would stand in the way of creativity, what he or she should does, before 'bending the rules', is to master the grammar of a given language, whether it is Sinhalese, English or French, and also to study classical literature of that particular language.

Linguistic radicalism and contemporary literature

This brand of linguistic radicalism with apparently no broader and positive objectives, have been distilling into contemporary Sri Lankan literature both in Sinhalese and English. Poor and substandard literary productions both in Sinhalese and English have been conferred with literary awards extolling them as the best literary productions in both languages. Sadly ,some of the award-won authors seemed to have pulled strings to get crony amateur critics to review their substandard works in newspaper columns and organise so called 'seminar' series to eulogise their works often exploiting half-baked modern literary theories such as post-modernism.

Finally, we are interested in finding out 'behind the scene' people who organised the SLAM and where the funds came from!