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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Poignant and powerful, Softly as I Leave You captures the story of one woman's struggle to reconcile the many different aspects of her life. Late one spring morning, Uma awakens to a life in which her core relationships - to her lover, her husband, and her son- seem unbearably tangled. Through the lyrical quality of the writing, the story transcends into a meditation on love and betrayal, grief and redemption (Publisher blurb).
Notes
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Dedication: For James
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Epigraph: There has never been a time when you and I have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. Bhagavad Gita
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Transnation and Feminine Fluidity : New Horizon in the Fiction of Chandani Lokugé
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 323-336)'Sri Lankan-Australian women writers have left their stamp on Australian fiction, from the ground-breaking first novel, A Change of Skies by Yasmine Gooneratne, in 1992, to the narratives of 2014 Miles Franklin Award recipient Michelle de Kretser. Among these novels that address the migrant’s cultural dilemma and accommodation, the novels by Chandani Lokugé demand attention. Lokugé has published three novels. This chapter examines the aspects of water and music flowing through Lokugé’s fiction to transformative new horizons and how these validate the concept of the transnation. Diversity of voices in literature is important in the contemporary public sphere in Australia and the chapter contributes towards addressing an elision in Australian discourse.'
Source: Abstract.
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The Diasporic Slide : Representations of Second-generation Diasporas in Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies (1991) and in Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011)
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , December vol. 52 no. 5 2016; (p. 581-594) Mediating Literary Borders : Asian Australian Writing 2018; (p. 55-68) 'The novels by Yasmine Gooneratne, A Change of Skies (1991), and Chandani Lokugé, If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011), show the challenge of diaspora as sliding from parents to children. These fictions portray second-generation immigrants as “caught between two cultures”: the Sri Lankan culture of their parents and the Australian culture with which they engage at school and university. In Gooneratne’s comedy this cultural negotiation creates comic ambivalence in the second-generation character Veena, who is set to repeat the actions of her forebears. Gooneratne’s playful outcome contrasts with Lokugé’s tragic vision in her novels If the Moon Smiled and Softly as I Leave You, which position the “model minority” stereotype and racism in Australia, respectively, as significant challenges for second-generation characters. This article aims to counterbalance the dominant critical focus on first-generation diaspora in fiction. It examines relationships between parent and child characters in the novels in the context of social studies on second-generation diaspora, the South Asian diaspora, and multiculturalism in Australia.' (Introduction) -
Legacies of War in Current Diasporic Sri Lankan Women's Writing
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , June vol. 10 no. 1 2016; 'Since the end of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, Sri Lankan writers have sought to come to terms with the long-running war and its violent conclusion. This essay considers three recent novels by Sri Lankan diasporic women: Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors (2012), Chandani Lokugé’ s Softly, As I Leave You (2012) and Minoli Salgado’s A Little Dust on the Eyes (2014). Each of these novels focuses on the trauma of the war and the way that the war has affected and continues to affect those in the diaspora as well as in the homeland. Moreover, the novels provide a comparative view of the diaspora’s relation to the war, as Munaweera is resident in North America, Salgado in the United Kingdom, and Lokugé in Australia. In keeping with this issue’s theme – “from compressed worlds to open spaces” – my essay explores how South Asian women writers address the Sri Lankan war in the open spaces of the transnational Sri Lankan diaspora. As all three novels suggest, the end of the military conflict has not ended the need to understand the quarter-century of violence that preceded it. Diasporic women writers continue to intervene in a still fraught ethnopolitical situation, as all three novels deal with questions of loss, violence, trauma and the persistence of the conflict in the diaspora.' (Publication abstract) -
[Untitled]
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 5 no. 2 2013;
— Review of Softly, as I Leave You 2011 single work novel -
Illusive Beauty
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 338 2012; (p. 54)
— Review of Softly, as I Leave You 2011 single work novel
-
Off the Shelf : Fiction
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 21 January 2012; (p. 31)
— Review of Softly, as I Leave You 2011 single work novel -
Illusive Beauty
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 338 2012; (p. 54)
— Review of Softly, as I Leave You 2011 single work novel -
[Untitled]
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 5 no. 2 2013;
— Review of Softly, as I Leave You 2011 single work novel -
Legacies of War in Current Diasporic Sri Lankan Women's Writing
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Asiatic , June vol. 10 no. 1 2016; 'Since the end of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, Sri Lankan writers have sought to come to terms with the long-running war and its violent conclusion. This essay considers three recent novels by Sri Lankan diasporic women: Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors (2012), Chandani Lokugé’ s Softly, As I Leave You (2012) and Minoli Salgado’s A Little Dust on the Eyes (2014). Each of these novels focuses on the trauma of the war and the way that the war has affected and continues to affect those in the diaspora as well as in the homeland. Moreover, the novels provide a comparative view of the diaspora’s relation to the war, as Munaweera is resident in North America, Salgado in the United Kingdom, and Lokugé in Australia. In keeping with this issue’s theme – “from compressed worlds to open spaces” – my essay explores how South Asian women writers address the Sri Lankan war in the open spaces of the transnational Sri Lankan diaspora. As all three novels suggest, the end of the military conflict has not ended the need to understand the quarter-century of violence that preceded it. Diasporic women writers continue to intervene in a still fraught ethnopolitical situation, as all three novels deal with questions of loss, violence, trauma and the persistence of the conflict in the diaspora.' (Publication abstract) -
The Diasporic Slide : Representations of Second-generation Diasporas in Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies (1991) and in Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011)
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , December vol. 52 no. 5 2016; (p. 581-594) Mediating Literary Borders : Asian Australian Writing 2018; (p. 55-68) 'The novels by Yasmine Gooneratne, A Change of Skies (1991), and Chandani Lokugé, If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011), show the challenge of diaspora as sliding from parents to children. These fictions portray second-generation immigrants as “caught between two cultures”: the Sri Lankan culture of their parents and the Australian culture with which they engage at school and university. In Gooneratne’s comedy this cultural negotiation creates comic ambivalence in the second-generation character Veena, who is set to repeat the actions of her forebears. Gooneratne’s playful outcome contrasts with Lokugé’s tragic vision in her novels If the Moon Smiled and Softly as I Leave You, which position the “model minority” stereotype and racism in Australia, respectively, as significant challenges for second-generation characters. This article aims to counterbalance the dominant critical focus on first-generation diaspora in fiction. It examines relationships between parent and child characters in the novels in the context of social studies on second-generation diaspora, the South Asian diaspora, and multiculturalism in Australia.' (Introduction) -
Transnation and Feminine Fluidity : New Horizon in the Fiction of Chandani Lokugé
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 323-336)'Sri Lankan-Australian women writers have left their stamp on Australian fiction, from the ground-breaking first novel, A Change of Skies by Yasmine Gooneratne, in 1992, to the narratives of 2014 Miles Franklin Award recipient Michelle de Kretser. Among these novels that address the migrant’s cultural dilemma and accommodation, the novels by Chandani Lokugé demand attention. Lokugé has published three novels. This chapter examines the aspects of water and music flowing through Lokugé’s fiction to transformative new horizons and how these validate the concept of the transnation. Diversity of voices in literature is important in the contemporary public sphere in Australia and the chapter contributes towards addressing an elision in Australian discourse.'
Source: Abstract.
Last amended 12 Apr 2021 13:33:07
Settings:
- Melbourne, Victoria,
- Sydney, New South Wales,
-
cSri Lanka,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
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