Chitra Fernando (1935–1998) was a writer of short stories and children's literature from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. She was born in the city of

Kalutara Kalutara ( si, කළුතර, ta, களுத்துறை) or Kalutota is a major city in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is also the administrative capital of Kalutara District. It is located approximately south o ...

in southern

.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds., ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'' (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 367–368.

Education and teaching

Fernando was educated successively at Visakha Vidyalaya, a Buddhist school for girls in Bandarawela, at Balika Maha Vidyalaya in

, and at the University of Ceylon in

Peradeniya Peradeniya ( si, පේරාදෙණිය, translit=Pēradeniya; ta, பேராதனை, translit=Pērātaṉai) is a suburb of the city of Kandy, about 30,000 inhabitants in Sri Lanka. It is situated on the A1 main road, just a few kilom ...

, which she entered with an exhibition in history. Her university teachers included Professor

E. F. C. Ludowyk Evelyn Frederick Charles Ludowyk (1906–1985), was a Sri Lankan Burgher Shakespearean scholar, author, playwright and critic, and the first Professor of English of the University of Ceylon. Education A member of a prominent Dutch Burgher famil ...

, Dr H. A. Passe,

Doric de Souza Anthony Theodoric Armand "Doric" de Souza (1914–1987) was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist politician, Senator, Professor of English and a brilliant Marxist theoretician. Born to Goan journalist Armand de Souza, who was the editor of the ''Ceylon Mo ...

and Robin Mayhead. She graduated from Peradeniya in 1959 with an honours degree in English. From May 1958 to April 1960 Fernando taught English at Visakha Vidyalaya, but resigned in 1960 to join the staff of the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univer ...

as a temporary assistant lecturer in the Literature Department. A scholarship took her to Australia in 1961, where she gained an MA and PhD at the universities of Sydney and

Macquarie Macquarie may refer to: People * Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. * Elizabeth Macquarie Campbell, Lachlan Macquarie's second wife Locations * Division of Macquarie, an electoral district in th ...

. She then lectured at Macquarie in linguistics. Her two main academic studies were "English and Sinhala Bilingualism in Sri Lanka" (1977) and "Towards a Definition of Idiom, its Nature and Function" (1978).ResearchGate. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
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Writings

Fernando's books of stories for children are all set in Sri Lanka. They include ''Glass Bangles'' (1968), ''The Adventures of Senerat Bandara'' and ''Bempi Appu'' (both 1972). She also wrote a collection of stories for adults, ''Three Women'' (1983), and a novella, ''Between Worlds'' (1988). Meanwhile she co-edited with Ranjini Obeyesekere ''An Anthology of Modern Writing from Sri Lanka'' (1981). ''Between Worlds'', in looking at East-West tensions and individual and national identity, "focuses on the traditional woman, the rebel, and the young Asian who has migrated to the West," with a modernized, westernized outlook. Her tales for children often bring an ironic humour to folk tales by setting them in a

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language prima ...

domestic setting.

References

External links

Literary Encyclopedia
1935 births 1998 deaths Sinhalese writers {{SriLanka-writer-stub