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This is the Vogue of the English Department. We issue weekly writeups about everything juicy that's happening in our department!

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"Blink": Over the years

The history of English literary magazines in Sri Lanka dates back to the 1940s, a period in which the English graduates were highly encouraged by the English departments of the local universities to showcase their critical thinking skills and creativity. Harvest (1945-46), Symposium (1948-50), Points of view (1952) and Community (1954-58/ 1962-63) were founded by the graduates in English who were eager to contribute to the field of English language and literature. However, the socio-political context of the country after eight years of gaining independence (1956s) saw certain upheavals in the paradigm of English education in Sri Lanka, both in the school and university levels. Professor D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke writes to the Encyclopaedia of Postcolonial Literatures in English (2005) that “English was displaced from its pre-eminent position as the official language and as the medium of instruction in schools and universities”. Therefore, the literary journals which gained pub...

A Meeting At Crossroads: When English Meets The Interdisciplinary. There is a strange and narrow-minded misconception that the bearer of an English degree steps out of University with the knowledge and abilities privy to exceptional writers and English speakers. The bearer of an English degree supposedly walks down a path that sharply forks into either ‘teacher’ or ‘writer’, and some others question English students as to what they can do at all with their degree. As an English undergraduate, the number of times I have been asked these questions are too many, and I grit my teeth and bite my tongue instead of replying with the saying, ‘ignorance is bliss’! I believe that this misconception stems from the widely accepted belief that an English degree comprises of courses that delve only into language, grammar, writing, literature and poetry, which cannot hold a candle (or even the very idea of one), to the STEM subjects. Of course this is part and parcel of the package that is an E...

T aking a Stand: The Department of English and it's Anti -Ragging Policy W hite hairbands, rubber slippers, plastic files, thel bedima, bucket eka, card eka—the undergraduates of the University of Kelaniya are all too familiar with the notorious practices and terminology that constitute the so-called process of initiating new undergraduates into the university. This practice of initiation, in other words, is known as ragging. Ragging is considered to be a rite of passage for all new entrants; it is seen to be a practice that fosters close bonds between first-year undergraduates and their seniors; and an intrinsic facet of the subculture within institutions for higher education—by some. The Department of English of the University of Kelaniya, however, does not see eye to eye with such claimants. It recognizes ragging as an ‘act which causes or is likely to cause physical or psychological injury, fear or mental pain in an undergraduate’ (University of Colombo) (n.d), an...

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