Refreshing, raw, and poignant, funny boy is an exquisitely written, compassionate tale of a boy s comingofage that quietly confounds expectations of love, family, and country as it delivers the powerful message of staying true to ones self no matter the obstacles. Read funny boy by shyam selvadurai for free with a 30 day free trial. In this essay, i read shyam selvadurai s funny boy as a counterbildungsroman narrative that braids together radha auntys transgressions of femininity with arjies queer awakening. Apart from one fleeting reference to past eventsi was. The novel is at once innocent and wise, fanciful and uncompromisingly frank in its depiction of arjie chelvaratnams happy and harrowing childhood. An evocative comingofage novel about growing up gay in sri lanka during the tamilsinhalese conflictone of the countr. Read unlimited books and audiobooks on the web, ipad, iphone and android. When the novel begins, arjie is seven years old, and realizes he enjoys spending more time with his female cousins than his male cousins. His generous intellectual engagement was essential for the development of central ideas in this paper.
I absolutely loved shyam selvadurai s debut novel funny boy. It follows the protagonist arjies growth from a boy of seven years into his late teens. Shyam selvadurais funny boy uses six loosely connected stories to recount the childhood and adolescence of a sri lankan tamil boy, arjie, who comes of age in colombo during the 1970s and 1980s. Behind arjie s coming of age, funny boy also traces the leadup to the sri lankan civil war, a growing tension between sri lankas sinhala majority and sizable tamil minority that eventually erupts into violent conflict and becomes the books driving force, uprooting arjie and his family forever. Sexuality, race and the geographies of difference in shyam.
He has a talent for writing beautifully and searingly yet, he never fails to inject a little humourcomic relief to lighten up the mood. Bending genre and gender in the best school of all kaustav bakshi jadavpur university, kolkata introduction the best school of all, which is the fifth of the six stories that constitute shyam selvadurai s funny boy, can be read independent of the novel. In this essay, i read shyam selvadurai s funny boy as a counterbildungsroman narrative that braids together radha auntys transgressions of femininity with arjies queer awakening amidst the heteropatriarchal violence of the 1983 antitamil pogrom in colombo, sri lanka. York university, toronto, canada, bachelor of fine arts, honou rs, in theatre, 1989. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. He is the author of cinnamon gardens and swimming in the monsoon sea, and the editor of an anthology, storywallah. In this essay, i read shyam selvadurais funny boy as a counterbildungsroman narrative that braids together radha auntys transgressions of femininity with arjies queer awakening.
Smith books in canada first novel award and the lambda literary award in the us. Shyam selvadurai was born in 1965 in colombo, sri lanka. Funny boy is a gay young adult novel by shyam selvadurai that recounts the childhood and teenage years of arjie as he discovers he is gay while growing up in sri lanka in the late 1970s and early 1980s. First published by mcclelland and stewart in september 1994, the novel won the lambda literary award for gay male fiction and the books in canada first novel award. Publication date 1996 topics young men fiction, gay men fiction, sri lanka fiction. In addition to learning he is different from other boys and eventually recognizing that he is gay. Established by toronto city council in 1974, the toronto book. An evocative comingofage novel about growing up gay in sri lanka during. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis.
In shyam selvadurai s funny boy, the child narrator draws readers into the characters and problems that we can recognize in any family. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading funny boy. Funny boy shyam selvadurai ebook harpercollins publishers. The idea of exile in shyam selvadurais funny boy gradesfixer. In this essay, i read shyam selvadurais funny boy as a counterbildungsroman narrative that braids together radha auntys transgressions of femininity with. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on litcharts. The family runs for safety, and hides in a neighbours. I absolutely loved funny boy and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. It won a lambda literary award and the books in canada first novel award and tackles navigating sexuality, class. The childs point of view offers a simple writing style and understanding of the novel, yet the reader is able to uncover complexities revolving around the novel. Published in 1995, funny boy is shyam selvadurais first novel.
An evocative comingofage novel about growing up gay in sri lanka during the tamilsinhalese conflictone of the countrys most turbulent and deadly periods. Funny boy keeps repeating with quiet conviction that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. The second son of a privileged family in sri lanka, he prefers staging makebelieve wedding pageants with his female cousins to battling balls with the other boys. In addition to learning he is different from other boys and eventually recognizing that he is gay, arjie must confront the increasingly tense and violent relations between sri lankas two major. An evocative comingofage novel about growing up gay in sri lanka during the tamilsinhalese conflictone of the countrys most turbulent and deadly per. Shyam selvadurai s novel funny boy presents the coming of age of arjie, a young, gay, tamil boy in sri lanka. Shyam selvadurai s first novel, funny boy won the smithbooksbooks in canada first novel award and the lambda literary award for best gay mens fiction. In this remarkable debut novel, a boy s bittersweet passage to maturity and sexual awakening is set against escalating political tensions in sri lanka, during the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots. In the final story in selvadurais funny boy, riot journal. Shyam selvadurai on adapting funny boy with deepa mehta cbc books. Free download philosophy book funny boy by shyam selvadurai.
I also learned much more than i knew about sri lanka, officially the socialist democratic republic of sri lanka formerly ceylon and the ongoing conflict between the tamils. Born in 1965 in colombo, sri lanka, selvadurais mixed tamilsinhalese family emigrated to canada in 1983. Teach your students to analyze literature like litcharts does. Funny boy by shyam selvadurai download pdf bkxusfumnarpr. The betrayals of neoliberalism in shyam selvadurai s funny boy. Sexualtextual tendencies in shyam selvadurais funny boy.
Selvadurai s mother is sinhalese the majority group and his father is tamil. You are not alone, it says to the reader, i understand you. Pdf indigenizing sexuality and national citizenship. While in canada, selvadurai came to terms with his homosexuality, and studied at. Rioters ravage the area, burning down the tamil houses and businesses throughout the town of colombo. First published in 1994, funny boy by shyam selvadurai won critical acclaim for its portrayal of a young mans coming of age as a gay sri lankan during the civil war crisis. Get the entire funny boy litchart as a printable pdf. Shyam selvadurai has brought back from his sri lankan childhood a glittering and wise novel. He has studied creative writing and theatre and has a bfa from york university, as well as an mfa in creative writing from the university of british columbia. Boy, are all the necessary ingredients for a possible rescue fantasy. Funny boy by shyam selvadurai is narrated as six tales arjies life. Shyam selvadurairs funny boy analysis english literature essay. Born in 1965 in colombo, sri lanka, selvadurai s mixed tamilsinhalese family emigrated to canada in 1983.
Read funny boy a novel by shyam selvadurai available from rakuten kobo. The theme of masculinity and queerness in funny boy from. News the screen adaptation of funny boy with deepa mehta. He currently lives in toronto with his partner andrew champion.
He currently exists in toronto with his male partner andrew champion. Shyam selvadurai and deepa mehta adapting the novel funny boy for the big screen the hungry ghosts shortlisted for the 2014 toronto book awards. Doc a chapterbychapter critical summary of funny boy. Instant downloads of all 1291 litchart pdfs including funny boy. This novel funny boy 1994 won the canadian first novel award. Set from the late 1960s to the early 1980s in sri lanka, funny boy follows the childhood and adolescence of arjie chelvaratnam as his nation hurdles toward civil war. A chapterbychapter critical summary of funny boy by shyam. In shyam selvadurais funny boy, the child narrator draws readers into the characters and problems that we can recognize in any family. Shyam selvadurai is a sri lankancanadian novelist who wrote funny boy 1994, which won the books in canada first novel award, and cinnamon gardens 1998. Project muse breaking the narrative ties that bind in shyam. Selvadurai has written for the canadian television shows many voices and inside voices and contributed to. I absolutely loved shyam selvadurais debut novel funny boy. Funny boy is set in the 1970s and early 1980s, during the leadup to the sri lankan civil war that was still raging at the time of the books publication. Newcomer shyam selvadurai s first novel, funny boy, has established him as a talent deserving a place next to some more wellknown sri lankan expatriates.
Project muse breaking the narrative ties that bind in. One poem, the best school of all, is meant to help the audience reminisce about their own school days and to rouse sufficient sentiment to back a. First published by mcclelland and stewart in september 1994, the novel won the. In the world of his large family affluent tamils living in colombo, sri lanka arjie is an oddity, a funny boy who prefers dressing as a girl to playing cricket with his brother. These voices are either colonized by heterosexual narratives or they are persecuted as something unnatural and insane. Shyam selvadurai s funny boy uses six loosely connected stories to recount the childhood and adolescence of a sri lankan tamil boy, arjie, who comes of age in colombo during the 1970s and 1980s. Refreshing, raw, and poignant, funny boy is an exquisitely written, compassionate tale of a boys comingofage that quietly confounds expectations of love, family, and country as it delivers the powerful message of staying true to ones self no matter the obstacles. Selvadurai was born in colombo, sri lanka to a sinhalese mother and a tamil fathermembers of conflicting ethnic groups whose troubles form a major theme in his work. In the culminating chapter of shyam selvadurai s novel, funny boy, are all the necessary ingredients for a possible rescue fantasy. The goal of this essay is to pursue a reading of ethnicity and sexuality in shyam selvadurais novel funny boy to show the importance of the. This war, an ethnic conflict between sri lankas sinhalese majority and tamil minority, is impossible to understand without grasping the historical antecedents that turned ethnicity into the basis for political identity. Pdf downloads of all 1291 litcharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Set in sri lanka where selvadurai grew up, funny boy is constructed in the form of six poignant stories about. Funny boy is the remarkable literary debut of shyam selvadurai.
Funny boy is a comingofage novel by canadian author shyam selvadurai. Ethnic crisis and queerness a study of shyamselvadurais. Bending genre and gender in the best school of all kaustav bakshi jadavpur university, kolkata introduction the best school of all, which is the fifth of the six stories that constitute shyam selvadurais funny boy, can be read independent of the novel. Set against the backdrop of sri lankan social and cultural politics of the 1980s, the novel explores the barriers around love, marriage, gender expectations, and cultural tensions, specifically in the sinhala and tamil populations. This 54page guide for funny boy by shyam selvadurai includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 6 chapters, as well as several more indepth sections of expertwritten literary analysis. Passage to homosexuality in the novels of shyam selvadurai 84 surrounded by conservative, wealthy influential family members who fervently dominate their choices and force them to repress all forms of transgressive desires. And yet selvadurai presents this ethnic conflict from the perspective of a boy who scarcely. Breaking the narrative ties that bind in shyam selvadurais funny. Set in postcolonial sri lanka, shyam selvadurais funny boy 1994 tells the story of a young tamils arjie chelvaratnams realization of his samesex desire. A study of shyam selvadurai s funny boy comes to gay voices. Set in sri lanka, it is a haunting novel, told in six beautifully rendered stories, about a boy growing up within an extended uppermiddleclass tamil family in colombo, during the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots. Breaking the narrative ties that bind in shyam selvadurais funny boy katherine bell bio i n the culminating chapter of shyam selvadurais novel, funny boy, are all the necessary ingredients for a possible rescue fantasy.
Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides for challenging works of literature. Shyam selvadurai, funny boy, sri lankan canadian literature, postcolonial theory, homosexuality, henry newbolt, british imperialism i wish to express my gratitude to jeremy tambling, who first introduced funny boy to me 12 years ago. He came to canada with his family at the age of nineteen. He currently lives in toronto with his partner andrew champion selvadurai was born in colombo, sri lanka to a sinhalese mother and a tamil fathermembers of conflicting ethnic groups whose troubles form a.
At the same time as he watches sri lankas sinhalese majority gradually turn against his minority tamil community, arjie comes to terms with the consequences of being gay in a patriarchal culture and family. Funny boy study guide from litcharts the creators of. Importantly, however, this analysis reads the funny boys sexual. If was filled with lush prose, great characters and lots of insight into human emotions and relationships. Funny boy by shyam selvadurai overdrive rakuten overdrive. Shyam selvadurais novel funny boy presents the coming of age of arjie, a young, gay, tamil boy in sri lanka. Newcomer shyam selvadurais first novel, funny boy, has established him as a talent deserving a place next to some more wellknown sri lankan expatriates. In the culminating chapter of shyam selvadurais novel, funny. Funny boy summary from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. A chapterbychapter critical summary of funny boy by shyam selvadurai. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of funny boy by s selvadurai. Selvadurai manages to touch a number of subject in each tale like the curious mind of our teenage protagonist arjie, the plight of the tamils in the communal riots of srilanka, the tension between the tamils and sinhalese etc.
The betrayals of neoliberalism in shyam selvadurais funny boy. Lanka during the tamilsinhalese conflictone of the countrys most turbulent and deadly periods. A novel shyam selvadurai an evocative comingofage novel about growing up gay in sri lanka during the tamilsinhalese conflictone of the countrys most turbulent and deadly periods. The novels author shyam selvadurai uses the term much more literarily and the turning points in. University of british columbia, vancouver, masters of fine arts, in creative writing 2010. In the final story in selvadurai s funny boy, riot journal. Shyam selvadurai born 12 february 1965 is a sri lankan canadian novelist who wrote funny boy 1994, which won the books in canada first novel award, and cinnamon gardens 1998. A study of shyam selvadurais funny boy comes to gay voices. I situate this twinned discourse against the backdrop of domestic and institutional spaces that articulate. Thus, one can claim that selvadurai attempts to remember the past as it was without the interpolation of heterosexual. Shyam selvadurai was born in colombo, sri lanka, in 1965. A quiet masterpiece gay timesin the world of his large family affluent tamils living in colombo, sri lanka arjie is an oddity, a funny boy who prefers dressing as a girl to playing cricket with his brother.