Harshana Rambukwella

This research project is part of a broader project which attempts to critically explore cultural expressions of democracy – as opposed to normative indices of democracy such as formal institutions and representative democratic practices like elections. It uses a selection of cultural polemic and novels from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s (written in Sinhala and English languages) to explore how discourses of democracy manifest in oblique forms. The project aligns itself conceptually with recent attempts to craft an "alternative" understanding of democracy that resists the normalization of a Eurocentric democratic template. However, this project recognizes the need for an agonistic engagement with "norms" within a context where "alternative" imaginaries have all too easily been appropriated by populisms ranging from right-wing political movements in Europe to "soft authoritarianisms" in Asia.