MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS AND WHORES OF THE NATION - NATIONALISM AND FEMALE STEREOTYPES IN POSTCOLONIAL SRI-LANKAN DRAMA IN ENGLISH

This article explores the correlation between nationalist discourse an d gender stereotypes through the genre of drama in a post-colonial con text. Nationalist discourse articulated through populist material ofte n invokes ideologies which equate perceptions of the motherland with s tereotyped images of women. The pervasive myth of 'machismo' is also i nscribed as a mobilising strategy in the propagandist machinery. The m ale is cast as the martyr/protector/soldier/hero, while the female is relegated to the role of mother/guardian, the carrier of tradition and cultural mores. In this article I analyse the ways in which the stere otypes of mother, daughter and 'whore' are incorporated by nationalist rhetoric and then reproduced in literary genres and popular culture. The theatre is chosen because if is one of the most powerful and colle ctive art forms. The contemporary English theatre in Sri Lanka has bec ome a vehicle for transmitting the dynamics of a society whose social and political fabric is currently under threat by war, economic hardsh ip and terrorism. The theoretical framework of the study is situated w ithin a post-colonial discourse, calling attention to moments where th e texts subvert the theory and defy the homogenising generalisations t hat theory sometimes presumes.