Tara Senanayake

Tara Senanayake is a Lecturer in English at the University of Peradeniya. She received an Honours Degree in English from the University of Peradeniya and has taught literature and theory at Peradeniya and the Open University of Sri Lanka. Currently completing her thesis for a Master of Philosophy degree, her work is influenced by post-colonial literature and theory and interrogates the construction of identities, nostalgia and memory. Her publications focus on themes of postcolonial literatures, migrant writing and gender studies. Her research interests also include areas of Discourse Analysis, Sri Lankan English, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. Tara’s publications and conference presentations are as follows: Research Publications • Senanayake, T. “Mapping Madness when the Moon Smiles: The Fashioning of Identity and Dis(order) in the Female Body in Chandani Lokuge’s If The Moon Smiled in Gendered Ways of Trans-National Un-belonging from a Comparative Literature Perspective. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2017. (Forthcoming) • Senanayake, T. “A Deathly Rebirth: The Quest for Individuality and the Birth of the Female Artist in The Awakening”, ICLEHI -42: proceedings.icasai.org. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2016. ISBN 978-967-13879-4-8 • De Zoysa I, P. Jayaweera and T. Senanayake. “The Dilemma of Types: GPVs. ESP”, ICLEHI -42: proceedings.icasai.org. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2016. ISBN 978-967-13879-4-8 • Senanayake, T. “The Age of Venus, the Age of Women: Monsoons and Potholes as a Female Bildungsroman?” Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial Sri Lankan Women’s Creative Writing in English. Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2011. ISBN 978-955-665-144-7 • Senanayake, T. “Change, Conflict and Convergence in Pursuit of Identity: Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies, Change-Conflict and Convergence: Austral-Asian Scenarios, Orient Blackswan (Pvt) Ltd, India, 2010. ISBN 978-812-504-2198 • Senanayake, T. “Growing up in Postcolonial Sri Lanka: Construction of Identity in the Sri Lankan Bildungsroman: A Comparative Study of Funny Boy, Once upon a Tender Time and Monsoons and Potholes”, Unpublished Undergraduate Dissertation, June 2007. Articles in Refereed Journals • Senanayake, T. “The Chutnification of Postcolonialism and Postmodernism in Midnight’s Children”, Phoenix Volume VIII, Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth, 2011 • Senanayake, T. “Giving Voice To The Silenced Or Dust In The Readers’ Eyes: A Reading Of A Little Dust On The Eyes”, Phoenix Volume XIII & XIV, Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth, 2016 &2017. ISSN 1017-1622 Conference Presentations • Senanayake, T. “Of Silences, Omissions and Dust in the Reader’s Eyes: Reading A Little Dust on the Eyes in the Age of Post Truth”, International Conference on Literature, Culture and Society in the Age of Post Truth- Conference organized by the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (IACLALS) and the Department of English, University of Pondicherry, University of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, India, 6th-8th February 2019. • Senanayake, T. “Giving voice to the silenced or dust in the reader’s eyes: A Reading of A Little Dust on the Eyes”, A Translocal World? Exploring the Postcolonial Today- 8th Conference of the Sri Lankan Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS), Royal Mall, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 29th -30th October 2016. • Senanayake, T. “Mapping Madness when the Moon Smiles: The Fashioning of Identity and Dis(order) in the Female Body in Chandani Lokuge’s If The Moon Smiled, A Young Scholars’ Conference on Gendered Myths of Conflict and Un-belonging from a Comparative Literature Perspective, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 2nd-3rd August 2016. • Senanayake, T. “A Deathly Rebirth: The Quest for Individuality and the Birth of the Female Artist in The Awakening”, The 3rd International Conference on Language, Education, Humanities and Innovation, Impiana KLCC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 30th April- 1st May,2016. • Senanayake, T, “The Theory of Beauty and the Construction of Identity: A Comparative study of The Bluest Eye and Monsoons and Potholes”, The Third International Conference on Language, Literature and Society (LLS 2016), Bangkok, Thailand. 18th-19th January 2016. • Senanayake, T. “The Chutnification of Postcolonialism and Postmodernism in Midnight’s Children”, 6th Conference of the Sri Lankan Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS), Royal Mall, Kandy, Sri Lanka, October 2010. • Senanayake, T. “Change, Conflict and Convergence in Pursuit of Identity: Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies, 4th International ASAA Conference, Hotel Suisse, Kandy Sri Lanka, December 2008. Ongoing Research • Invitation by Delhi University to contribute to an Anthology for Undergraduates – Chapter titled “Because the Sky is so High and Pigs can’t Fly – Inventing Identity in Funny Boy” – May 2019 • Research Paper titled “Thus Spake The Body: Staging The Body As Speaking Subject in Anuk Arudpragasam’s The Story Of A Brief Marriage, to be presented at the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, July 2019.