Table Of ContentAssembling Ethnicities in
Neoliberal Times
Critical Insurgencies
A Book Series of the Critical Ethnic Studies Association
Series Editors: Jodi A. Byrd and Michelle M. Wright
Critical Insurgencies features activists and scholars, as well as
artists and other media makers, who forge new theoretical and
political practices that unsettle the nation- state, neoliberalism,
carcerality, settler colonialism, Western hegemony, legacies of
slavery, colonial racial formations, gender binaries, and ableism,
and challenge all forms of oppression and state violence
through generative future imaginings.
About CESA The Critical Ethnic Studies Association organizes
projects and programs that engage ethnic studies while reimagining
its futures. Grounded in multiple activist formations within and
outside institutional spaces, CESA aims to develop an approach to
intellectual and political projects animated by the spirit of decolo-
nial, antiracist, antisexist, and other global liberationist movements.
These movements enabled the creation of ethnic studies and con-
tinue to inform its political and intellectual projects.
www.criticalethnicstudies.org
Assembling Ethnicities in
Neoliberal Times
Ethnographic Fictions and Sri Lanka’s War
Nimanthi Perera- Rajasingham
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2019 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2019. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Perera-Rajasingham, Nimanthi, author.
Title: Assembling ethnicities in neoliberal times : ethnographic fictions and
Sri Lanka’s war / Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham.
Other titles: Critical insurgencies.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press,
2019. | Series: Critical insurgencies | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019017385 | ISBN 9780810140745 (paper text :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810140752 (cloth text : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780810140769 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Sri Lankan literature (English)—History and criticism. | Sri
Lankan literature—History and criticism. | Sri Lanka—History—Civil War,
1983–2009. | Sri Lanka—Ethnic relations. | Sri Lanka—In literature. | Civil
war in literature. | Ethnicity in literature. | Ethnic relations in literature.
Classification: LCC PR9440.05 .P47 2019 | DDC 820.9/95493—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019017385
For Gerard and Suriya
You are my island in the sun
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
Chapter 1. The Factory Is like the Paddy Field:
Gam Udawa Performances, Neoliberalism,
and Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism 53
Chapter 2. In the Shadows of Neoliberalism:
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Many
Lives of Shobasakthi in Gorilla and Dheepan 81
Chapter 3. How Bodies Matter:
Working- Class Women’s Theater in a Time of War 101
Chapter 4. Bearing Witness:
Human Rights, and the Politics of Solidarity
in Anil’s Ghost and The Trojan Women 123
Conclusion. Cartographies of Loss:
Postwar Neoliberalism, International Tourism,
and the Vital Art of Romesh Gunesekera
and Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan 159
Notes 187
Bibliography 213
Index 231
Acknowledgments
First, I thank Elin Diamond for believing in my project when I was a stu-
dent at Rutgers University. You encourage and inspire me to keep writing
and thinking, and your work influences my own in many ways. Rich-
ard Dienst also guided me through various theoretical and conceptual
knots in my thinking. I learned so much from you about neoliberalism,
theory, and the importance of writing clearly. I am indebted to Sonali
Perera for inspiring me to look at working- class women’s theater, and
for being the person who knew the archives and texts I wanted to write
about. Soon after I first arrived in the United States, the final war in Sri
Lanka began, and I was thankful to have someone to speak to about it.
As with all writing, one’s colleagues and friends are one’s best
interrogators. Candice Amich, years of conversations with you about
neoliberalism, performance, and feminism have been invaluable to
me, as has your friendship. I also thank Octavio (Tavi) Gonzalez for
encouraging and believing in my work since we were graduate students
together. Kezia Page, Carol Fadda, Nagesh Rao, and Navine Murshid,
our conversations, your patient readings of my work, and your solidarity
and friendship have helped me so much.
This book could not have been written without the generous time
and ideas shared by the artists I write about. First and foremost, I am
very grateful to Padmini Weerasooriya, Sriya Ahangamage, and Chan-
dra Devanarayana for allowing me to be part of the Women’s Centre, so
I could learn about their work, and follow the Centre’s theater group.
Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, thank you for reading a draft of this
book’s “Conclusion,” and for your time, ideas, and images. Shobasak-
thi, thank you for generously responding to my e- mails and messages.
Dharmasiri Bhandaranayake, thank you for sharing your archives on
The Trojan Women, and speaking to me about the production. Jennifer
Brice’s fortuitious invitation of Michael Ondaatje to Colgate University
allowed me to have a conversation with him that was very useful, and
so I thank you both. Your ongoing commitments to peace and justice in
Sri Lanka have inspired my writing and sustained me for many years.
ix
x Acknowledgments
I must also thank the many Sri Lankan scholars who took time to
read my work, listen to my ideas, and share their thoughts. Kanchana
Ruwanpura, thank you for many years of scholarly support and guid-
ance. Amara Kuruppu and Sornalingam, your home in Batticaloa has
been a welcome refuge. You have taught me so much about Batti-
caloa and life. Thank you Kumari Kumaragamage for many years of
conversation and beautiful poetry and performance art. Amirthanjali
Sivapalan, thank you for allowing me to share my work at Jaffna Uni-
versity, and for taking me to Shobasakthi’s village and the islands. Your
kindness and support from the time we met at Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-
versity as students over a decade ago have meant so much to me. Thank
you also N. Sivapalan and Reverend Father Gerard Saverimuttu for
your help. I thank Neloufer De Mel for encouraging my writing and
thinking over the years, and for many years of intellectual inspiration.
Thank you Vasuki Nesiah, Qadri Ismail, Sunil Bastian, and Sumanasiri
Liyanage for engaging with my ideas and helping me develop them. My
intellectual life began during my years at the Social Scientists’ Associ-
ation and later at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Kumari
Jayawardena and Radhika Coomaraswamy took me on and supported
me for many years. I remain in your debt. I am grateful for all the
opportunities provided by the scholars and staff at both institutions. I
remember our wonderful librarian Mr. Thambirajah and archivist Bha-
wani Loganathan with great warmth.
At Colgate University, I must especially thank Susan Cerasano for
her advice these past five years. Padma Kaimal, you have been a rock for
me, thank you for your time. The Women’s Studies Program at Colgate
has been my second home, and I thank Meika Loe, Susan Thom-
son, Sarah Wider, Deborah Knuth Klenck, Anna Rios- Rojas, Suzanne
Spring, Helene Julien, Danny Barreto, Mark Stern, and all the femi-
nists there for their solidarity. I thank my department colleagues: Lynn
Staley, Linck Johnson, Jane Pinchin, Michael Coyle, Peter Balakian,
Constance Harsh, Morgan Davies, and Greg Ames. Tess Jones, Cheryl
Robinson, and Courtney Borack, you keep departments and the peo-
ple in them going. Support given by the Research Council at Colgate
helped me make a number of research trips home to finish this book.
In addition, I want to thank Ani Maitra, Katherine Schaap-W illiams,
Amelia Klein, Lenora Warren, Benjamin Child, John Connor, Dana
Olwan, Christian Ducomb, and Neelika Jayawardane for reading
drafts of my chapters. Sean Conrey, Flavia Rey de Castro, Todd Sealy,
Rashmi Gangamma, and Judith Adkins, thank you for your friendship
Acknowledgments xi
and conversations. At Rutgers University, I am thankful to Sumit Guha,
Indrani Chatterjee, Carter Mathes, Ann Jureicic, Mukti Lakhi Mang-
haram, Stephane Robolin, Evie Shockley, and Michelle Stephens for
many kinds of support while I was a graduate student there. I must also
thank Shakti Jaising, Nami Shin, Isra Ali, Liz Reich, Mark Digiacomo,
Alexa Valenzuela, Anita Sharma, Ania Loomba, Auritro Majumder,
Sreya Chatterjee, and Cathy Schlund- Vials for their instructive ideas
and feedback on my work over the years.
I thank the team at Northwestern University Press, and especially
Gianna F. Mosser for being the most professional, compassionate, and
patient editor. She guided me through the process from manuscript to
book with great patience as I delayed while pregnant and through the
first months of having my daughter. Thank you also to the series editors
of Critical Insurgencies, Michelle W. Wright and Jodi A. Byrd, for their
interest in my manuscript.
I must thank my mother Christine Perera for feeding me and caring
for me for years when I came home. I owe you a debt I can never repay.
Thank you Tyrone Perera for all your help and for being a father to me.
Last but not least, I thank Gerard H. Gaskin for accompanying me on
my journey through much of this book. Our conversations over the
years, and your compassionate and beautiful photography, have taught
me so much.
