Placing the Displaced - Identity Formation of Females through the Liberation Movement – In Relation to The Road from Elephant Pass by Nihal De Silva and Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweer

Abstract

The classificatory lens of projecting females involuntarily made the ethnographic female marginalized from the female identity disposition by the majority of the country and by the hegemonic patriarchy. The idea of the ‘Tamil Tigress’ arises in the Tamil minority and refers to an abstract spatiality of belonging that extends beyond conventional femininity. As women negotiate the complex interactions between gender, ethnicity, and social upheaval, it creates an illusionary space for the creation and rebuilding of female identity in Sri Lanka. Kamala’s childhood traumas related 1983 Black July draw her to a sense of retaliation towards the Sinhala majority. On the other hand, the brutal sexual victimization of Saraswathi by the troop of Sinhala army soldiers led to a sense of retaliation and she undertakes even the extremist ideology of becoming a female martyr to regain her lost chastity and re-affirm her identity through the movement. Kamala’s dedication to the mission and her desire to achieve the required objectives by the success of the mission dilutes boundaries and polarizations offered by the societal formation of the female body in Sri Lankan society. The capability of female identity affirmation by the minority females’ empowerment is suggested by both Munaweera and De Silva by the active way of handling the multiplicity of spaces encountered by their respective female characters.