{"id":438,"date":"2014-06-11T23:40:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T23:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/?p=438"},"modified":"2017-06-03T02:34:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-03T02:34:46","slug":"selvadurai-shyam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/2014\/06\/11\/selvadurai-shyam\/","title":{"rendered":"Selvadurai, Shyam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe magic of fiction seems to be the more specific you are, the more universal you end up becoming.\u201d \u2013 Shyam Selvadurai, in an\u00a0Outlines<\/em>\u00a0Interview, May 1996.<\/p>\n

Biography<\/h3>\n
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If postcolonialism is the Empire writing back, many Sri Lankans have had to write back to an Empire in which they now reside. Emigrating to the United Kingdom, Canada, or the United States to escape the political, religious, and racial violence that has consumed their home country, expatriate Sri Lankans such as\u00a0Michael Ondaatje<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Romesh Gunesekera<\/a>\u00a0have carved out respected positions for themselves within the world of letters. Newcomer Shyam Selvadurai\u2019s first novel,\u00a0Funny Boy<\/em>, has established him as a talent deserving a place next to some more well-known Sri Lankan expatriates.<\/p>\n

Born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Selvadurai\u2019s mixed\u00a0Tamil\/Sinhalese family<\/a>\u00a0emigrated to Canada in 1983. While in Canada, Selvadurai came to terms with his homosexuality, and studied at York University. His first novel,\u00a0Funny Boy\u00a0<\/em>was published in 1994. He currently lives in Toronto with his partner Andrew Champion.<\/p>\n

Funny Boy<\/em><\/h3>\n

Funny Boy<\/em>\u00a0could be read as a\u00a0bildungsroman<\/em>, the story of one young boy\u2019s interior formation and integration, set against the backdrop of his country\u2019s disintegration. The boy, Arjun \u201cArjie\u201d Chelvaratnam, is the second son of a privileged middle-class Tamil family. It is amid rising waves of Sinhalese and Tamil violence that Arjie must understand and come to terms with his own homosexuality. Coming out is no small feat for any gay teen to undertake, and on top of the usual feelings of loneliness, isolation, and fear of rejection by family and friends, Arjie must negotiate his painful transformation to adulthood in the midst of a country gone mad.<\/p>\n

It is the socio-economic, racial, and religious tensions within Sri Lanka that occupy most of Selvadurai (and consequently Arjie\u2019s) time and attention within the novel. In fact, while Arjie\u2019s awakening sexuality serves as an undercurrent throughout the book\u2019s five sections (plus an epilogue) it is really only the main theme of one, \u201cThe Best School of All.\u201d That is the section in which Arjie\u2019s father sends him to The Queen Victoria Academy, a terribly cruel\u00a0English-style school<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Queen Victoria Academy serves as a symbol for colonial, aristocratic, and middle class male privilege. This is the tradition Arjie is expected to be a part of. To be gay would, for Arjie, mean failing in the eyes of his Father and the larger world of middle class Tamil patriarchy in which he lives. Indeed, Arjie\u2019s father tells him that the academy \u201cwill force you to become a man,\u201d clearly indicating that the school is to indoctrinate Arjie in the ways of middle class male privilege. Arjie\u2019s older brother warns him that their Father suspects and fears his homosexuality<\/a>. His move to the Academy is clearly meant to \u201ccure\u201d him of (what his Father sees as) the homosexual affliction. Within this context, it is extremely ironic that the Academy is the very place in which Arjie meets Shehan Soyza, a Sinhalese classmate whom he falls for and carries on a sexual relationship with.<\/p>\n

The five sections of the novel and its epilogue could each be read as lengthy short stories or novellas in their own right. \u201cPigs Can\u2019t Fly\u201d examines Arjie\u2019s early childhood and his gravitation towards the imaginative games his female cousins play as opposed to his male cousins\u2019 beloved game of cricket<\/a>. The section concerns cultural constructions of gender and the negative developmental effects incurred by one who naturally falls outside of said constructions. \u201cRadha Aunty\u201d is the tale of Arjie\u2019s Aunt Radha and her doomed affair with a Sinhalese man. It foreshadows some of the conflicts Arjie is to face in his own relationship with Shehan. In \u201cSee No Evil, Hear No Evil,\u201d Arjie plays an important role in his mother\u2019s extramarital affair with a childhood sweetheart. This is his introduction into the world of covert or secret relationships between adults\u00ad and the prices anyone may pay for loving the \u201cwrong\u201d kind of person. \u201cSmall Choices\u201d chronicles one of Arjie\u2019s first crushes\u00ad, a puppy love obsession with a young man employed by his father, while the novel\u2019s epilogue \u201cRiot Journal\u201d is Arjie\u2019s frightening first hand account of anti-Tamil violence. The book ends with the family\u2019s imminent emigration to Canada.<\/p>\n

In an interview, when the question of autobiography was raised, Selvadurai had this to say: \u201cI\u2019m gay and Arjie\u2019s gay and both families left Sri Lanka, but that\u2019s where it ends. Arjie\u2019s first experience and acceptance of himself happened in Sri Lanka and mine happened in Canada. My family is also much more liberal. My father is Sinhalese and my mother is Tamil which was a huge thing at the time of their marriage so we were brought up differently from other kids. There was a lot of tolerance for difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awards and Honors<\/h3>\n

Funny Boy<\/em>\u00a0won the Lambda Literary Foundation\u2019s Award for Best Gay Male Novel as well as the Smithbooks\/Books in Canada First Novel Award for 1994. Selvadurai\u2019s young adult novel\u00a0Swimming in the Monsoon Sea\u00a0<\/em>(2005) won the Lambda Literary Award in the children\u2019s and youth literature category.<\/p>\n

Author Bibliography<\/h3>\n