Yasmine Gooneratne (Macquarie University, Australia)

 
updated: 3 November 1994 
 
Professor Yasmine Gooneratne
School of English,  Linguistics & Media
Macquarie University, North Ryde,
NSW 2109, Australia

email: Yasmine@pip.engl.mq.edu.au
fax:   61 2 805 8240 (office)
       61 2 876 8698 (home)
phone: 61 2 805 8776 (office)
       61 2 876 2111 (home)
 
Regional interests:
India
Sri Lanka
Singapore
Malaysia

Themes of recent/current research:
Postcolonial South Asian fiction, poetry and drama
Life of Sir John D'Oyly (1774 - 1824), British civil servant and
     diplomat
Fiction and screenplays of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Fiction of R.K. Narayan
Representation of Asia in Western fiction and poetry

Disciplines:
English (Literature)
History
Fine Arts
Sociology
Cultural Studies

Also involved in:
Postcolonial Literatures & Language Research Centre, Macquarie
University, NSW (Foundation Director); Jane Austen Society of
Australia (Patron); Federation Internationale des Langues et
Litteratures Modernes (Vice-President); South Pacific branch of the
Association for Commonwealth Literature & Language Studies; Order of
Australia Association; Australian Society of Authors; teaching
university courses on Modern English Writing of Asia, Eighteenth
Century English Literature, Postcolonial Fiction and Literary Craft.

Publications:
Most recent: RELATIVE MERITS. A PERSONAL MEMOIR OF THE BANDARANAIKE
FAMILY OF SRI LANKA (C. Hurst & Co., London, 1986); A CHANGE OF SKIES
(Picador Australia, 1991, Penguin Books India 1992), a novel about
South Asian immigrants to Australia, winner of the 1992 Marjorie
Barnard Literary Award for Fiction. A list of publications can be
sent on request.

Research and Teaching interests:
British Raj, in Sri Lanka and India. English-language literature in South
Asia, including work in translation.  Keywords: English, Sinhala,
Sinhalese, British, Sri Lanka, India, literature, history, Bandaranaike
family, South Asian immigrants in Australia, poetry, novels, short
stories, fiction, drama, education, 18th and 19th centuries, biography,
autobiography.