"Homeless and Homesick": Exile and Bildungsroman in Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy
Author
Oliva Cruz, Juan IgnacioDate
1997Abstract
It is the purpose of this paper to analyze the literature of a Sri-
Lankan writer who has been urged to emigrate because of the social
and racial problems risen between Tamils and Sinhaleses in Sri-Lanka,
in the last few decades. Shyam Selvadurai (Funny Boy), now living in
Canada, a new novelist of the nineties, describes a paradisiac country
in violent turmoil and writes about the decision to leave a seemingly
impossible situation for a “promised” land. It will be interesting to
examine the contradictions between these very different but enriching
civilizations, the Eastern and the Western, specifically in the way
they face religion, gender and race. Special attention would be paid
to the notions of bildungsroman, the loss of innocence, the growingup
of political conscience, the racial discrimination, and the literary
metaphors of exile.