Bricks, Mortar, Words: Memorializing Public Spaces Destroyed in the Sri Lankan Ethnic Conflict

Abstract

This essay examines literary attempts to memorialize public buildings and structures—the Jaffna Public Library, the Central Bank building, the Temple of the Tooth—that were destroyed during the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. Drawing examples from the poetry of Cheran, Anne Ranasinghe, Vivimarie Vander Poorten, and Jean Arasanayagam and the novels of V.V. Ganeshananthan and Romesh Gunesekera, the essay considers how when concrete structures are damaged or razed, they can still be preserved in literary works. Such public memorialization of destroyed and desecrated public spaces is essential, for reconciliation cannot happen until the destruction is acknowledged and perpetrators held accountable.