Sri Lankan literature is the literary tradition of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. The largest part of Sri Lankan literature was written in the
Sinhala language, but there is a considerable number of works in other
languages
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...
used in Sri Lanka over the millennia (including
Tamil,
Pāli
Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Therav ...
, and English). However, the languages used in ancient times were very different from the language used in Sri Lanka now.
Up to the present, short stories are a very important part of Sri Lankan literature; the output of Sinhalese short story writers has elicited a greater measure of critical analysis.
List of writers
Sinhala writers
Sinhala poets
Essayists and non-fiction writers
Sinhala playwrights
Sinhala radio play writers
Tamil authors
Tamil poets
*
Neelaavanan
*
Pottuvil Asmin
Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan diaspora authors who write in English
See also
*
Sri Lankan culture
The culture of Sri Lanka mixes modern elements with traditional aspects and is known for its regional diversity. Sri Lankan culture has long been influenced by the heritage of Theravada, Theravada Buddhism and the religion's legacy is particu ...
*
Henry Parker, a British engineer who studied and compiled the
oral literature
Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used v ...
of Sri Lanka
References
External links
All Authors Listed by Country: The South Asian Literary Recordings Project (Library of Congress New Delhi Office)
{{Asian topic, , literature
Sri Lankan writers