English Publications

Alternate Space: Trivial Writings of an Academic

By ci ⋅ October 19, 2008 ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

Alternate Space: Trivial Writings of an Academi by Sasanka Perera

Alternate Space: Trivial Writings of an Academic

consists of 48 essays on different aspects of Sri Lankan society, culture and politics originally written to the Sri Lankan national daily The Island under the regular column Alternate Space by Sasanka Perera between January 2002 and January 2003, and less regularly between January and May 2004.  The book version was published in 2005.

 

Reviews of Alternate Space

‘Contradictory Situations Created by Erroneous Actions’

“— Reflecting on a vast array of events and traversing on the attitudes of our people, the author has vividly and with crystal clarity sometimes with regret, at other times with a tinge of humor together with darts of biting sarcasm exposes how Sri Lankan leaders and people have perceived and tackled some of the very sensitive and explosive problems facing the country —“

“— Trivial Writings of Sasanka Perera leads us to a world of reality and prods us to voice our need for a more vibrant and dignified phase of history  to make a comfortable and balanced transition from pre-modernity to modernity.  The erudite as well as the general reader, the elite and the commoner, and especially the politicians and their followers should read this book and reflect on the message this book gives us —“

Peter Perera

Daily Mirror, 7^th July 2005, Colombo

The Witchery of Trifles

“— Those like myself who have enjoyed his essays in The Island  will readily agree that while drawing the readers to idiosyncrasies of Lankan behavior, his often pungent-caustic observations have serious theoretical and ethnographic underpinnings. But he treads lightly without seeking to overwhelm the general reader with the weight of scholarship or the airs of the exalted academic —“

“— Sasanka Perera covers the trivial as well as the troubling aspects of our national socio-cultural and political landscape.  His essays provide lighthearted humor as well as stuff for serious reflection — Hopefully, Trivial Writings will jolt its readers awake to see through the piteous pretensions of those in positions of power and the ‘witchery of trifles which obscures great things.’”

Nalin Swaris

The Island, 18^th June 2005, Colombo

The Work of a Public Intellectual

“— in the island of Sri Lanka, there is hardly any contemporary academician or scholar who works in English who dares to function as a public intellectual.  It is against this regressive background that I place the collection of essays by Sasanka Perera who has taken up the role of a public intellectual.  Perera, while being an academic and a scholar, has broken out of the cool comfort zone of scholarly discussions and investigations, and has entered the hazardous public domain with a series of writings that directly intervene with the current political moment. His writings are not passive; he takes positions and makes gestures of judgment. His writings are not just to be read, but to be acted upon — Perera’s essays pierce the chimera of the urban elite society as the works of a public intellectual ideally should.”

Jagath Weerasinghe, blurb to Alternate Space: Trivial Writing of an Academic