Yasmine Gooneratne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yasmine Gooneratne | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1935 |
| Died | (aged 88)[1] |
| Occupation | University professor, literary critic, editor, poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist and educator |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
Yasmine Gooneratne (1935 – 15 February 2024) was a Sri Lankan poet, short story writer, university professor and essayist. She was recognised in Sri Lanka, Australia, throughout Europe, and the United States, due to her substantial creative and critical publications in the field of English and post-colonial literature. After 35 years in Australia, she returned to live in Sri Lanka.[2][3][4][5][6]
Gooneratne was educated at the University of Ceylon and Cambridge University. She held a personal chair in English as a Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, and held an Emeritus position after her retirement.[7][8]
Gooneratne was awarded Australia’s highest national honour, the Order of Australia, in 1990, for her services to Education and Literature.
Gooneratne was also awarded the Raja Rao Award in 2001, for ‘Outstanding Contribution To The Literature and Culture Of The South Asian Diaspora.’ This award was presented by the Samvad India Foundation and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Gooneratne was also honoured with Sri Lanka’s Sahithyarathna Award for a lifetime achievement in Literature at The State Literary Festival in 2008. This award is described as ‘The Highest Honour bestowed by the State of Sri Lanka’, and was conferred on Gooneratne ‘For Her Immense Contribution To The Field Of English Literature.’
Gooneratne was invited to be a patron of Sri Lanka’s literary festival, The Galle Literary Festival – also known as ‘The Fairway Galle කැල්ලපත Literary Festival’ – at its inception, in 2005.[9][10]
Born into the Bandaranaike family,[11] the niece of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike,[12] Yasmine married a Sri Lankan physician, Dr. Brendon Gooneratne, in 1962. They had two children.
Gooneratne was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990 by the Australian government for her distinguished services to literature and education,[13] the only Sri Lankan to have received this honour. She received a Ph.D for English literature from Cambridge University in 1962.[14][15]
Her international scholarship and pioneering work in the study and appreciation of postcolonial literature was described as being recognized by "Macquarie University's first higher doctoral degree (D.Litt.), the Order of Australia, and the Samvad India Foundation's Raja Rao Award for Literature which acknowledges authors who deal with the South Asian Diaspora in their literary work."[16] The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka wrote of Gooneratne:
When Saraswati did come into Yasmine’s life... she took the form of the goddess Tara. When The Samvad India Foundation singled out Yasmine for the Raja Rao award in 2002, they made her a gift of the beautiful little figurine. This international prize celebrates writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the literature of the South Asian diaspora, and the honour delighted Yasmine even as it took her by surprise. “I never expected that the Indian writing establishment would regard me in that light,” she says.[17]
Gooneratne died on 15 February 2024, at the age of 88.[1]
