Sri Lankan experiences of migration to the West: an analysis of diasporic literature as a medium of prosthetic memory

Abstract

Literature in English of the Sri Lankan diaspora offers Anglophone readerships an insight into Sri Lankan experiences of migration. Amid the challenges of categorisation, territorialisation and polarisation of writers and texts, this corpus continues to expand and diversify as new generations of writers reevaluate their identity by tracing their roots back to formative political and cultural aspects of the diaspora. Acknowledging the potential of this body of literature to bridge the gap between the nation and its diasporas, residents and expatriates, homeland and host land, and to generate a network of readership spanning Sri Lanka and the West, this study analyses these literary works as exemplars and mediums of memory. Viewing these diasporic writings through the theoretical framework of Alison Landsberg’s Prosthetic Memory – a theory of memory that explores how individuals, through media and cultural artefacts, can empathetically engage with historical events and experiences that they did not directly live through – this thesis identifies Landsberg’s triumvirate of ‘the person – the narrative – the experiential sites’ as the essential components of this form of memory construction. Within a diasporic context this triad becomes ‘the diasporic subject – the diasporic narrative –diasporic experiences’, providing the analytical framework adopted for this study. Through the analysis of Sri Lankan diasporic fiction in English this thesis argues firstly that this corpus of literary works comprises an influential and constitutive narrative of the gamut of diasporic experiences. Secondly, it maintains that the social realism embedded in these diasporic fictions demonstrate the workings of prosthetic memory within their fictional worlds, thereby creating an experiential realm compounded of social, historical and cultural forms of knowledge. Thirdly, the overarching assertion of this thesis is that Sri Lankan diasporic literature in English may be viewed holistically as a memory prosthesis in the hands of its readership, supplying meanings and narratives that generate a globally shared form of experience which, despite its many variations, may be identified as constitutive of its anglophone diasporas.

Thesis is embargoed until 31st July 2030.

Date of Award	Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Accelerating Higher Education Expansions and Development (AHEAD) Operation & Eastern University, Sri Lanka
Supervisor	Daniel Roberts (Supervisor) & John Brewer (Supervisor)