Generating a Minority Prize: Victorian literature, transculturation, and Anglophone critical/creative writing in Sri Lankan educational landscapes

This paper explores the enduring minority status of teachers of English literature in Sri Lanka. The article focuses on Victorian literature in the Sri Lankan Anglophone educational landscape, in particular higher education, as it has been experienced variously across at least three generations from c.1950 to the present. Beginning with Matthew Arnold's concept of a cultured minority, and T.B. Macaulay's view of an educated minority in colonised territories, our perspective uses the Sri Lankan literary prize system to trace the varied and shifting identities at play in the minority, which we see through the eyes of three interviewees, all prize winners, teachers of English, and creative writers in Sri Lankan higher education. The article explores ideas about Victorian canonicity, narratives of literary history, including the Victorian or (long) nineteenth century periodisation. The article also explores the heterodoxic energies in Victorian literature as critical sources of civic engagement.