R. Samuel Gnanaraj¹ & S. Azariah Kirubakaran²
¹PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli). ORCID: 0000-0002-2837-1175.Email: rgsam93@gmail.com
²Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli). Email: sak.bhc@gmail.com
Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.33
Abstract
Travel discourses very often reflect what the traveller encounters among the people, regarding their culture, tradition and space. The nuance of encountering the novelty is pivotal for a traveller. Samanth Subramanian in This Divided Island emancipates many restraints through identifying the solitude and unseen areas in the divided island (Sri Lanka). This paper aims to present the narrative of violation of human rights through embracing the interdisciplinary subject of travel across boundaries. Human rights and travel writing are vital to its subject. It establishes the narrative of witnesses of the internal war that happened in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and the Tamils for three decades. The narrative discourses in This Divided Island bear the truth of witnessing. This paper also comprises two component features. One, it establishes that travel writing witnesses the unseen realm of humanity during the wartime in Sri Lanka, and two, it witnesses the deep memories and rebuilds it. The sufferers of the war were neither majority nor minority. The important facets of the civilians who were affected internally and externally underwent a period of transition, where they became victims or they were restructured as militants. Subramanian’s This Divided Island brings strength and reveals unknown factors and transmits the violated rights through narrating the events.
Keywords: Travel, Witnessing, Human Rights, Memories, Rebuilding
