Women and the Nation's Narrative - by Neloufer de Mel (Paperback)

About the Book

This book explores the development of nationalism in Sri Lanka during the past century, particularly within the dominant Sinhala Buddhist and militant Tamil movements. Tracing the ways women from diverse backgrounds have engaged with nationalism, Neloufer de Mel argues that ge...

Book Synopsis

This book explores the development of nationalism in Sri Lanka during the past century, particularly within the dominant Sinhala Buddhist and militant Tamil movements. Tracing the ways women from diverse backgrounds have engaged with nationalism, Neloufer de Mel argues that gender is crucial to an understanding of nationalism and vice versa. Traversing both the colonial and postcolonial periods in Sri Lanka's history, the author assesses a range of writers, activists, political figures, and movements almost completely unknown in the West. The breadth of topics examined here will make this work a valuable resource for South Asianists as well as for scholars in a wide range of fields who want to consider the ways in which gender inflects their areas of research and teaching.

Review Quotes

Elegantly written, thorough, and assured, this book represents a different and extraordinarily valuable insight into the ways in which gender is mediated through the intersection of cultural production and politics. There is very little work done about Sri Lanka on this subject that asks questions with the subtlety de Mel brings to her readings. This work stands as one of most groundbreaking contributions to the literature and will transform how the questions that it engages with are read.

About the Author

Neloufer de Mel is senior lecturer of the Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a member of the visiting faculty in the women's studies program at the same university.