Zurück zur Übersicht Montag, 01.07.2019
Montag | 16.15 Uhr | The Politics of Authenticity: Culture and Sinhala Nationalism in Sri Lanka Prof. Dr. Harshana Rambukwella, Open University of Sri Lanka, Postgraduate Institute of English The classical wave of scholarship on nationalism from the 1960s to the late 1980s was largely dominated by a focus on the political economy of nationalist discourse and nation-state formation. However, with the interventions of scholars such as Benedict Anderson and Partha Chatterjee the study of nationalism took a ‘cultural’ turn. But most of this work looked at nationalism as an ‘invented tradition’ or constructed discourse. This talk goes beyond the invention of tradition paradigm by deploying the notion of authenticity. It historicizes the discourse of authenticity in Sinhala nationalism, and in doing so raises a series of interrelated questions that apply not only to Sinhala nationalism and Sri Lanka, but also to nationalism and authenticity more generally: Why is authenticity so central to nationalism? What kind of conditions demand, sustain and reproduce it? Can we think of multiple and contending authenticities instead of one homogeneous discourse? The talk explores the life worlds of three key figures of Sinhala nationalism from the late 19th to the 20th century and through them the politics of authenticity in the formation and propagation of Sinhala nationalist discourse. Adresse Südasien-Institut (Gebäude 4010) Room 010.00.21 Voßstraße 2 69115 Heidelberg Homepage Veranstaltung https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/PDFs/rambukwella-01062019.pdf Veranstalter Südasien-Institut, Abteilung Politische Wissenschaft Homepage Veranstalter http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/sai/pol/index.html Kontakt |