Kanchanakesi Warnapala
Biographic Data
| ID | 642259 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kanchanakesi Warnapala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kanchanakesi |
| FAMILY NAME | Warnapala |
| SIGNATURE | WARNAPALA K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sri Jayewardenepura |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2699-4918 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Colonial fragility in the early British period in Sri Lanka
Through a detailed analysis of John D’Oyly’s Diary on Ceylon, this essay contends that Doyly’s diary not only provides striking insight into the life of a colonial administrator but also becomes symbolic of the fragility of British colonial authority during the early British period in Sri Lanka, known as British Ceylon. The Diary documents the collapse of the Kandyan Kingdom in 1815 and offers a window into the complex and intricate negotiations …
Romanticizing Caste in Gaadi and Alborada
Memoir and Respectable Femininity
This paper is an exploration of Hold Me in Contempt: A Memoir by Shirani A. Bandaranayake, the first and only woman so far to have held the position of Chief justice in Sri Lanka, who was impeached from her position. It argues that while the memoir acts as testimony and enables female political activism and agency, revealing the liberatory possibilities of female memoir, it simultaneously reanimates gender stereotypes which it attempts to resist …
Reframing female bodies in Sri Lankan cinema
The paper provides a comparative reading of the female protagonists in two Sri Lankan films, focusing on how the female body becomes a contentious site of gendered violence, subject to state and male surveillance and containment. Through a close analysis of Prasanna Jayakody’s 28 (2014) and Asoka Handagama’s Asandhimitta (2019), this paper attempts to reveal how Sri Lankan cinema violently reconfigures the female body as a site of negotiation for…
The Reluctant Wife
This paper sets out to examine the politics of representation of the biographical film, Ginnen Upan Seethala (2018), which focuses on the life and times of Rohana Wijeweera, a rebel leader who led two failed insurrections in post-independence Sri Lanka. It argues that while the film seemingly exonerates the leader and the movement, through a discourse of domesticity, it simultaneously engages in a nuanced representation of Chithrangani Wijeweera,…
The Portrait of the Colonial Artist in Sri Lanka
Recognizing that colonial conflicts and contradictions were expressed and negotiated through visual imagery, I contend that visual representations of Ceylon are a contentious site, providing a way to theorize differential gazes as differential articulations of power, which intersect and interact in Ceylon. As such, I approach these competing spaces in colonial representation through Julia Margaret Cameron's photograph of Marianne North in Ceylon.…
Caricaturing colonial rule in Sri Lanka
Drawing upon a nineteenth-century Sri Lankan illustrated satiric magazine called Muniandi, I examine how we might view representations of Ceylon by the Ceylonese that complement colonial representations, and yet stand in tension with those imperial visualizations. Through an analysis of three illustrations of Muniandi, I show how the magazine reveals mixed messages when it contends with Orientalist discourses of Ceylon in an ambivalent manner. I …
No prominent works on this page.
The Portrait of the Colonial Artist in Sri Lanka
Recognizing that colonial conflicts and contradictions were expressed and negotiated through visual imagery, I contend that visual representations of Ceylon are a contentious site, providing a way to theorize differential gazes as differential articulations of power, which intersect and interact in Ceylon. As such, I approach these competing spaces in colonial representation through Julia Margaret Cameron's photograph of Marianne North in Ceylon.…
Caricaturing colonial rule in Sri Lanka
Drawing upon a nineteenth-century Sri Lankan illustrated satiric magazine called Muniandi, I examine how we might view representations of Ceylon by the Ceylonese that complement colonial representations, and yet stand in tension with those imperial visualizations. Through an analysis of three illustrations of Muniandi, I show how the magazine reveals mixed messages when it contends with Orientalist discourses of Ceylon in an ambivalent manner. I …
The Reluctant Wife
This paper sets out to examine the politics of representation of the biographical film, Ginnen Upan Seethala (2018), which focuses on the life and times of Rohana Wijeweera, a rebel leader who led two failed insurrections in post-independence Sri Lanka. It argues that while the film seemingly exonerates the leader and the movement, through a discourse of domesticity, it simultaneously engages in a nuanced representation of Chithrangani Wijeweera,…
Reframing female bodies in Sri Lankan cinema
The paper provides a comparative reading of the female protagonists in two Sri Lankan films, focusing on how the female body becomes a contentious site of gendered violence, subject to state and male surveillance and containment. Through a close analysis of Prasanna Jayakody’s 28 (2014) and Asoka Handagama’s Asandhimitta (2019), this paper attempts to reveal how Sri Lankan cinema violently reconfigures the female body as a site of negotiation for…
Memoir and Respectable Femininity
This paper is an exploration of Hold Me in Contempt: A Memoir by Shirani A. Bandaranayake, the first and only woman so far to have held the position of Chief justice in Sri Lanka, who was impeached from her position. It argues that while the memoir acts as testimony and enables female political activism and agency, revealing the liberatory possibilities of female memoir, it simultaneously reanimates gender stereotypes which it attempts to resist …
Romanticizing Caste in Gaadi and Alborada
Colonial fragility in the early British period in Sri Lanka
Through a detailed analysis of John D’Oyly’s Diary on Ceylon, this essay contends that Doyly’s diary not only provides striking insight into the life of a colonial administrator but also becomes symbolic of the fragility of British colonial authority during the early British period in Sri Lanka, known as British Ceylon. The Diary documents the collapse of the Kandyan Kingdom in 1815 and offers a window into the complex and intricate negotiations …
Sociology (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · South Asian Cinema and Culture (4 works) · Colonialism (3 works) · History (3 works)