Eating Cake, Staying Quiet: The Rupture of Many Selves in Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts

Sidney Hambleton Sponer

Articles

Vol. 48 No. 1 (2023): Special Issue: The Ruptured Commons

Eating Cake, Staying Quiet: The Rupture of Many Selves in Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts

Sidney Hambleton Sponer^▸^▾

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Submitted: May 16, 2024
Published: 2024-05-21

References

Amarasingam, Amarnath. “Tamil Migration to Canada: The Turbulent 1980s and the Birth of a Community.” Pain, Pride, and Politics: Social Movement Activism and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Canada, by Amarnath Amarasingam, U of Georgia P, 2015, pp. 70-94.
Arachchi, Kaushalya Sendanayaka. “Will Govt Decriminalize Same-Sex Relations?” The Island, 7 May 2023, https://island.lk/will-govt-decriminalize-same-sex-relations/.
Arasanayagam, Jean. “Search My Mind.” Holt, pp. 656-63.
Chakraborty, Chandrima, and Robin E. Field. “Guest Editors’ Column: Moving Ahead, Looking Back: New Directions in South Asian Canadian Literature and Culture.” South Asian Review (South Asian Literary Association), vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 11-29, doi:10.1080/02759527.2016.11933043.
“Checkmate!” The Island, 16 May 2009. Holt, pp. 711-12.
Cho, Lily. “Asian Canadian Futures: Diasporic Passages and the Route of Indenture.” Canadian Literature, no. 199, Winter 2008, pp. 181-201.
Cole, Susan G. “Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” NOW Magazine, 11 Apr. 2013, https://nowtoronto.com/art-and-books/shyam-selvadurais-the-hungry-ghosts/.
Das, Rajorshi. “Home, Ethnicity and Sexuality in Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 2, 2017, pp. 321-27, ResearchGate, doi:10.21659/rupkatha.v9n2.32.
De Visser, Prashan. “Sri Lanka.” Christianity in South and Central Asia, edited by Kenneth R. Ross et al., Edinburgh UP, 2019, pp. 199-207.
Deegalle, Mahinda. “Politics of the Jathika Hela Urumaya: Buddhism and Ethnicity.” Holt, pp. 383-94.
Egge, James R. Religious Giving and the Invention of Karma in Theravada Buddhism. Curzon, 2002.
Gopinath, Gayatri. Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Duke UP, 2005.
Holt, John, editor. The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press, 2011.
Jayasuriya, Maryse. “Terror, Trauma, Transitions: Representing Violence in Sri Lankan Literature.” India@logs, vol. 3, 2016, pp. 195-209.
Jayatilaka, Lilani. “Moderation the Only Way.” The Island, 17 May 2009. Holt, pp. 726-30.
Lau, Lisa. “The Sinhalese Diaspora: New Directions in Sri Lankan Diasporic Writing.” South Asia, vol. 39, no. 1, 2016, pp. 47-63, doi:10.1080/00856401.2016.1111125.
Menike, Nimmi N. Writing Violence and Buddhism in Sri Lanka: Of Hungry Ghosts and Homecomings. Routledge, 2022.
“Our Holocaust.” Tamil Guardian, 12 May 2009, www.tamilguardian.com/content/ourholocaust.
Pemaratana, Soorakkulame. “Evolution of the Theravada Buddhist Idea of ‘Merittransference’ to the Dead, and Its Role in Sri Lankan Buddhist Culture.” Buddhist Studies Review, vol. 30, no. 1, 2013, pp. 89-112, journal.equinoxpub.com, doi:10.1558/bsrv.v30i1.89.
Pirbhai, Mariam. “To Canada from ‘My Many Selves’: Addressing the Theoretical Implications of South Asian Diasporic Literature in English as a Pedagogical Paradigm.” Home-Work: Postcolonialism, Pedagogy and Canadian Literature, edited by Cynthia Sugars, U of Ottawa P, 2004, pp. 385-403.
Rodrigo, Arun Nedra. “A ‘Just Hearing’: Reading Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts as Counter to State Practice.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, pp. 184-204.
Saeed, Humaira. “The Impossibility of Leaving: Queer Migration and Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 55, no. 3, 2019, pp. 337-51, doi:10.1080/17449855.2019.1617975.
Said, Edward W. “Reflections on Exile.” Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, by Edward W. Said, Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 173-186.
Salgado, Minoli. Writing Sri Lanka: Literature, Resistance and the Politics of Place. Routledge, 2007, doi:10.4324/9780203015360.
Sarkowsky, Katja. Narrating Citizenship and Belonging in Anglophone Canadian Literature. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96935-0.
Selvadurai, Shyam. The Hungry Ghosts. Anchor Canada, 2014.
Simonpillai, Radheyan. “Funny Boy Elicits Love and Anger from the Tamil Diaspora.” NOW Magazine, 24 Nov. 2020, nowtoronto.com/movies/funny-boy-tamil-deepa-mehtainterview.
Somani, Alia. “What Is Remembered and What Is Forgotten? South Asian Diasporic Histories and the Shifting National Imaginary.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 40, no. 1,2015, journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/24281.
Steker, Margaret. “Juggling Ghosts.” Review of The Hungry Ghosts, by Shyam Selvadurai. Canadian Literature, no. 221, 2014, p. 125.
VanderPoorten, Vivimarie. “Death at Noon.” Groundviews, 10 Jan. 2009, groundviews.org/2009/01/10/death-at-noon/.
Wickrematunge, Lasantha. “And Then They Came for Me.” Holt, 715-20.
Wijayalath, Ayesha. “Constitutional Contestation of Religion in Sri Lanka.” The Round Table, vol. 108, no. 6, 2019, +639-51, Scholars Portal Journals, doi:10.1080/00358533.2019.1688063.

How to Cite

Hambleton Sponer, S. (2024). Eating Cake, Staying Quiet: The Rupture of Many Selves in Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts. Studies in Canadian Literature, 48(1), 209–227. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/34174

Copyright Notice

[1] Amarasingam, Amarnath. “Tamil Migration to Canada: The Turbulent 1980s and the Birth of a Community.” Pain, Pride, and Politics: Social Movement Activism and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Canada, by Amarnath Amarasingam, U of Georgia P, 2015, pp. 70-94.

[2] Arachchi, Kaushalya Sendanayaka. “Will Govt Decriminalize Same-Sex Relations?” The Island, 7 May 2023, https://island.lk/will-govt-decriminalize-same-sex-relations/.

[3] Arasanayagam, Jean. “Search My Mind.” Holt, pp. 656-63.

[4] Chakraborty, Chandrima, and Robin E. Field. “Guest Editors’ Column: Moving Ahead, Looking Back: New Directions in South Asian Canadian Literature and Culture.” South Asian Review (South Asian Literary Association), vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 11-29, doi:10.1080/02759527.2016.11933043.

[5] “Checkmate!” The Island, 16 May 2009. Holt, pp. 711-12.

[6] Cho, Lily. “Asian Canadian Futures: Diasporic Passages and the Route of Indenture.” Canadian Literature, no. 199, Winter 2008, pp. 181-201.

[7] Cole, Susan G. “Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” NOW Magazine, 11 Apr. 2013, https://nowtoronto.com/art-and-books/shyam-selvadurais-the-hungry-ghosts/.

[8] Das, Rajorshi. “Home, Ethnicity and Sexuality in Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 2, 2017, pp. 321-27, ResearchGate, doi:10.21659/rupkatha.v9n2.32.

[9] De Visser, Prashan. “Sri Lanka.” Christianity in South and Central Asia, edited by Kenneth R. Ross et al., Edinburgh UP, 2019, pp. 199-207.

[10] Deegalle, Mahinda. “Politics of the Jathika Hela Urumaya: Buddhism and Ethnicity.” Holt, pp. 383-94.

[11] Egge, James R. Religious Giving and the Invention of Karma in Theravada Buddhism. Curzon, 2002.

[12] Gopinath, Gayatri. Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Duke UP, 2005.

[13] Holt, John, editor. The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press, 2011.

[14] Jayasuriya, Maryse. “Terror, Trauma, Transitions: Representing Violence in Sri Lankan Literature.” India@logs, vol. 3, 2016, pp. 195-209.

[15] Jayatilaka, Lilani. “Moderation the Only Way.” The Island, 17 May 2009. Holt, pp. 726-30.

[16] Lau, Lisa. “The Sinhalese Diaspora: New Directions in Sri Lankan Diasporic Writing.” South Asia, vol. 39, no. 1, 2016, pp. 47-63, doi:10.1080/00856401.2016.1111125.

[17] Menike, Nimmi N. Writing Violence and Buddhism in Sri Lanka: Of Hungry Ghosts and Homecomings. Routledge, 2022.

[18] “Our Holocaust.” Tamil Guardian, 12 May 2009, www.tamilguardian.com/content/ourholocaust.

[19] Pemaratana, Soorakkulame. “Evolution of the Theravada Buddhist Idea of ‘Merittransference’ to the Dead, and Its Role in Sri Lankan Buddhist Culture.” Buddhist Studies Review, vol. 30, no. 1, 2013, pp. 89-112, journal.equinoxpub.com, doi:10.1558/bsrv.v30i1.89.

[20] Pirbhai, Mariam. “To Canada from ‘My Many Selves’: Addressing the Theoretical Implications of South Asian Diasporic Literature in English as a Pedagogical Paradigm.” Home-Work: Postcolonialism, Pedagogy and Canadian Literature, edited by Cynthia Sugars, U of Ottawa P, 2004, pp. 385-403.

[21] Rodrigo, Arun Nedra. “A ‘Just Hearing’: Reading Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts as Counter to State Practice.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, pp. 184-204.

[22] Saeed, Humaira. “The Impossibility of Leaving: Queer Migration and Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 55, no. 3, 2019, pp. 337-51, doi:10.1080/17449855.2019.1617975.

[23] Said, Edward W. “Reflections on Exile.” Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, by Edward W. Said, Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 173-186.

[24] Salgado, Minoli. Writing Sri Lanka: Literature, Resistance and the Politics of Place. Routledge, 2007, doi:10.4324/9780203015360.

[25] Sarkowsky, Katja. Narrating Citizenship and Belonging in Anglophone Canadian Literature. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96935-0.

[26] Selvadurai, Shyam. The Hungry Ghosts. Anchor Canada, 2014.

[27] Simonpillai, Radheyan. “Funny Boy Elicits Love and Anger from the Tamil Diaspora.” NOW Magazine, 24 Nov. 2020, nowtoronto.com/movies/funny-boy-tamil-deepa-mehtainterview.

[28] Somani, Alia. “What Is Remembered and What Is Forgotten? South Asian Diasporic Histories and the Shifting National Imaginary.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 40, no. 1,2015, journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/24281.

[29] Steker, Margaret. “Juggling Ghosts.” Review of The Hungry Ghosts, by Shyam Selvadurai. Canadian Literature, no. 221, 2014, p. 125.

[30] VanderPoorten, Vivimarie. “Death at Noon.” Groundviews, 10 Jan. 2009, groundviews.org/2009/01/10/death-at-noon/.

[31] Wickrematunge, Lasantha. “And Then They Came for Me.” Holt, 715-20.

[32] Wijayalath, Ayesha. “Constitutional Contestation of Religion in Sri Lanka.” The Round Table, vol. 108, no. 6, 2019, +639-51, Scholars Portal Journals, doi:10.1080/00358533.2019.1688063.