Narrating Civil Conflict in Post-war Sri Lanka: Counter Memory, Working-through and Implications for North-South Solidarity

Abstract

This article examines survivor/witness narratives of the Sri Lankan civil conflict (1983–2009) and their potential as counter-memories that contest and challenge authorized history dictated by the state. In situating the significance of these narratives the article draws on the prevailing conditions in post-conflict Sri Lanka, especially the surveillance and intimidation against public memory in the former war regions and the dominance of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism within state power. In orientation, the study is future-oriented and is preoccupied with how survivor narratives can be utilized to strengthen reconciliation and solidarity among different victim groups. It advocates for survivor/witness narratives to be incorporated as classroom material and for frameworks that appreciate comparative readings of conflict to be developed and adopted.