A Critical Study of the Thematic Complexities of Post Realistic Modern Sinhala Novels

Abstract

The objective of this research is to conduct an analytical study of the thematic complexities of the post realistic modern Sinhala novels. In many countries in the world, before the introduction of “Novels”, the tradition of “fiction” prevailed. This holds true with Sinhala literature as well. The salient feature of a novel which distinguishes it from a fiction is ‘the reality’. Reality means the sum or aggregate of all that is real or in existence, as opposed to that which is merely imaginary. Beginning with the first Sinhala fiction “Meena” published in 1905, the year 1944 with the publication of the novel “Gamperaliya” by Martin Wickramasingha is considered the year of the introduction of realistic Sinhala novels which distinguished those from the Sinhala fiction. The year 1956, that Wickramasingha contributed his novel “Virāgaya” in a new style is also considered a milestone in the history of Sinhala novels. Subsequently, with its influence, many novels on the theme of individual characters were predominant and this trend was changed to certain extent with the creation of “Goluhadawata” by Karunasena Jayalath in 1962. This was centered around the love of youngsters in their school life. In the 70th and 80th decades, many novels based on the analysis of human society were published and at the end of 80th decade, the emergence of “Surrealistic writing style” was established with the publication of “sansārāranyayēdadayakkārayaā” by Saimon Nawagateegama in 1981, which is also is evident in Sinhala novels. Successively, Sri Lankan writers like Tenyson Perera, K.K. Saman Kumara and Mohan Raj Madawala in the 90th decade deployed the same writing style in their novels. Ajith Thilakasena, being a Sinhala short story writer, Kapila Kumara Kalinga, Manjula Wediwardana, Liyanage Amarakeerthi, and Mahinda Prasad Masimbula also followed the same style of writing claiming that the realistic writing style is not capable enough to portray the current complex society. Their writing could be considered as “post -realistic” writings. The content analysis was deployed as the research methods to interpret the selected texts and to identify the thematic complexities of Post Realistic Modern Sinhala Novels. This study is dedicated to communicate the thematic complexities of modern Sinhala novels with special reference to six themes in the area in detail. Of them according to the findings, it is evident that the themes like cast, nationality and the human problems are depicted in a very powerful manner with the very productive usage of the new style of writing. This development could be considered a blessing for modern Sinhala novels in its path. It is also clear that though the new writing styles have emerged, the potentiality of realistic writing style is still in existence in modern Sinhala literature and particularly in modern Sinhala novels.