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

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.<br><br><i>Thesis is embargoed until 31st July 2030</i>.<br><br>