War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka
After the End
Authors: Seoighe, Rachel
- Provides timely analysis of Sri Lanka’s post-war nation-building project
- Considers the demands of the global liberal order and the workings of international forces on post-war Sri Lanka
- Examines this exclusionary form of nationalism in political performances and the authorship of public space
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- About this book
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This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these themes to explore state crime, atrocity and its denial and representation, Seoighe offers an analysis of how stories of conflict are authored and constructed. This book examines the political discourse of the former Rajapaksa government, highlighting how fluency in international discourses of counter-terrorism, humanitarianism and the ‘reconciliation’ expected of states transitioning from conflict can be used to conceal and deny state violence.
Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, academics, politicians, state representatives and international agency staff, and three months of observation in Sri Lanka in 2012, Seoighe demonstrates how the Rajapaksa government re-narrativised violence through orchestrated techniques of denial and mass ritual discourse. It drew on and perpetuated a heightened majoritarian Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism which consolidated power under Sinhalese political elites, generated minority grievances and, in turn, sustained the repression and dispossession of the Tamil community of the Northeast. A detailed and evocative study, this book will be of special interest to scholars of conflict studies, political violence and critical criminology. - About the authors
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Rachel Seoighe is a Criminologist and Socio-Legal Scholar and a Lecturer in Criminology (Human Rights and Criminal Justice) at Middlesex University’s Department of Criminology and Sociology, UK.
- Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 1-37
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A History of War in the Post-colonial State
Pages 39-92
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The End: Atrocity in a State of Denial
Pages 93-151
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Post-war Lived Experience: ‘Sinhalisation’
Pages 153-191
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Tamil Separatism and Commemorative Practices
Pages 193-246
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka
- Book Subtitle
- After the End
- Authors
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- Rachel Seoighe
- Series Title
- Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict
- Copyright
- 2017
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-319-56324-4
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-56324-4
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-56323-7
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-85885-2
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XIV, 378
- Topics
