Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy Discussion Topics Overview Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1965. He is the son of a Sinhalese mother and a Tamil father, members of conflicting ethnic groups whose troubles form a major theme in his work. Ethnic riots in 1983 drove the family to immigrate to Canada, where he studied creative and professional writing as part of a BFA program at York University. He teaches at York University, and lives in Toronto. Selvadurai’s books have been published in the US, the UK and India, and published in translation in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Israel. Funny Boy, published in 1994, is his second novel. It is regarded as one of the novels that pioneered a new era of contemporary Sri Lankan writing in English, winning the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Award for Best Gay Male Novel as well as the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award for 1994. Selvadurai’s young adult novel Swimming in the Monsoon Sea (2005) won the Lambda Literary Award in the children’s and youth literature category and was a finalist for Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Governor General's Awards, in the category of children's literature. His latest novel, The Hungry Ghosts, was published by Doubleday in 2012. Discussion Topics 1. “Funny boy”: What are some of the ways Arjie is “funny”? We understand that the word is not meant to describe someone who makes us laugh. If anything, Arjie’s homosexuality is far from “funny”; it is a very serious matter indeed. Yet, if we were to explore the word further, we would see that there are ways in which Arjie’s being different, “odd,” uniquely equips him to tell the story of the novel. For instance, because he would rather be home-bound, Arjie’s closeness with his mother and Radha Aunty allows him access to their inner thoughts. The author alludes indirectly to this unique capacity of Arjie’s when he chooses the uncle’s carelessly cruel words as the novel’s title. How is Arjie’s being “funny” an effective way for Selvadurai to tell his story? How is Arjie’s homosexuality an effective lens through which the larger story of the family, the community, and the country may be narrated? 2. Ethnic conflict: How do the national politics, in particular, the ethnic conflict and riots between the Tamils and the Sinhalese (see Background on Sri Lanka) play out in the novel? Draw upon three examples in the text to illustrate ways in which the larger tensions of the nation are encapsulated in the local interactions, especially to do with love and marriage, between the characters. One of your examples must derive from the chapter “The Best School of All.” 3. Gender: In the first chapter, “Pigs Can’t Fly,” the young Arjie’s fondness for dressing as the bride comes into direct conflict with his cousin’s, “Her Fatness.” There is much in this chapter about gender construction and gender roles. For instance, the grandparents’ house has clearly marked boundaries f.

1. Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy
Discussion Topics
Overview
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1965. He
is the son of a Sinhalese mother and a Tamil father, members of
conflicting ethnic groups whose troubles form a major theme in
his work. Ethnic riots in 1983 drove the family to immigrate to
Canada, where he studied creative and professional writing as
part of a BFA program at York University. He teaches at York
University, and lives in Toronto. Selvadurai’s books have been
published in the US, the UK and India, and published in
translation in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark,
Turkey and Israel. Funny Boy, published in 1994, is his second
novel. It is regarded as one of the novels that pioneered a new
era of contemporary Sri Lankan writing in English, winning the
Lambda Literary Foundation’s Award for Best Gay Male Novel
as well as the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award
for 1994. Selvadurai’s young adult novel Swimming in the
Monsoon Sea (2005) won the Lambda Literary Award in the
children’s and youth literature category and was a finalist for
Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Governor
General's Awards, in the category of children's literature. His
latest novel, The Hungry Ghosts, was published by Doubleday
in 2012.
Discussion Topics
1. “Funny boy”:
What are some of the ways Arjie is “funny”? We understand
that the word is not meant to describe someone who makes us
laugh. If anything, Arjie’s homosexuality is far from “funny”; it
is a very serious matter indeed. Yet, if we were to explore the
word further, we would see that there are ways in which Arjie’s

2. being different, “odd,” uniquely equips him to tell the story of
the novel. For instance, because he would rather be home-
bound, Arjie’s closeness with his mother and Radha Aunty
allows him access to their inner thoughts. The author alludes
indirectly to this unique capacity of Arjie’s when he chooses the
uncle’s carelessly cruel words as the novel’s title. How is
Arjie’s being “funny” an effective way for Selvadurai to tell his
story? How is Arjie’s homosexuality an effective lens through
which the larger story of the family, the community, and the
country may be narrated?
2. Ethnic conflict:
How do the national politics, in particular, the ethnic conflict
and riots between the Tamils and the Sinhalese (see Background
on Sri Lanka) play out in the novel? Draw upon three examples
in the text to illustrate ways in which the larger tensions of the
nation are encapsulated in the local interactions, especially to
do with love and marriage, between the characters. One of your
examples must derive from the chapter “The Best School of
All.”
3. Gender:
In the first chapter, “Pigs Can’t Fly,” the young Arjie’s
fondness for dressing as the bride comes into direct conflict
with his cousin’s, “Her Fatness.” There is much in this chapter
about gender construction and gender roles. For instance, the
grandparents’ house has clearly marked boundaries for the
formation of gendered identities, the front (the outer or public)
belonging to the boys, the back (the inner or private) belonging
to the girls and Arjie. While Arjie, the “girlie-boy,” plays with
his girl cousins, a girl cousin, Meena (the “tomboy”?), plays
with the boys. How does this chapter illuminate the socializing
process by which gender identities and gender roles get
constructed in the novel? In what way does Arjie end up
resolving this chapter’s conflict of gender in the remainder of
the novel?

3. Background on Sri Lanka
Flag of Sri Lanka (“Sacred Island”)
Map of South Asia - how many
countries can you name? Map of Sri Lanka:
What was its name prior to 1972?
Can you identify where our novel is set?
Maithripala Sirisena, President since 2015 Vellupillai
Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tigers, killed by the Sri
Lankan Army on May 18, 2009
History:
Sri Lanka was first settled by modern humans around 35,000
years ago and possibly earlier. The most ancient of the
inhabitants may have been the ancestors of the Veddas, an
aboriginal people now living in jungle areas near Maduru Oya
National Park. They were conquered in the 6th century B.C.E.
by the Sinhalese, who were originally from North India. The
Sinhalese settled in the north and developed an elaborate
irrigation system. They founded their capital at Anuradhapura,
which, after the introduction of Buddhism from India in the 3rd
cent. B.C.E., became one of the chief world centers of that
religion; a cutting of the pipal tree under which Buddha attained
enlightenment at Bodh Gaya was planted there. Buddhism
stimulated the fine arts in Sri Lanka, its classical period lasted
from the 4th to the 6th centuries.
The proximity of Sri Lanka to South India (see map of South
Asia above) resulted in many Tamil invasions. In the 12th
century A.D., a Tamil kingdom arose in the north, and the
Sinhalese were driven to the southwest. Arab traders, drawn by
the island's spices, arrived in the 12th and 13th centuries; their
descendants are the Muslim Moors.
The Portuguese conquered the coastal areas in the early 16th
century and introduced the Roman Catholic religion. By the
mid-17th century, the Dutch had taken over the Portuguese
possessions and the rich spice trade. In 1795 the Dutch

4. possessions were occupied by the British, who made the island,
then known as Ceylon, a crown colony in 1798. Under the
British, tea, coffee, and rubber plantations were developed, and
schools, including a university, were opened. A movement for
independence arose during World War I. The constitution of
1931 granted universal adult suffrage to the inhabitants; but
demands for independence continued, and in 1946 a more liberal
constitution was enacted.
Full independence was finally granted to Ceylon on Feb. 4,
1948, with dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations. In
1950 delegates of eight countries of the Commonwealth met in
Colombo and adopted the Colombo Plan for economic aid to
South and South East Asia. The replacement of English as sole
official language by Sinhalese alienated the Tamils and other
minorities, and led to Tamil protests and anti-Tamil attacks.
Riots in 1958 between Sinhalese and the Tamil minority over
demands by the Tamils for official recognition of their language
and the establishment of a separate Tamil state under a federal
system (which had been negotiated but then abandoned by the
government) resulted in severe loss of life, predominantly
among the Tamil community. In Sept., 1959, Prime Minister S.
W. R. D. Bandaranaike was assassinated, and in 1960 his
widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became prime minister. The
Federal party of the Tamils was outlawed in 1961, following
new disorders.
Certain Western business facilities were nationalized (1962),
and the country became involved in disputes with the United
States and Great Britain over compensation. The radical policies
of Mrs. Bandaranaike aroused opposition, and the elections in
1965 gave a parliamentary plurality once more to the moderate
socialist United National party (UNP) of Dudley Senanayake,
who became prime minister with a multiparty coalition. Under
Senanayake, closer relations with the West were established and
compromise arrangements were made for recompensing
nationalized companies. However, economic problems and
severe inflation continued, aggravated by a burgeoning

5. population (between 1946 and 1970 the population almost
doubled).
In 1971, the Marxist People's Liberation Front attempted to
overthrow the government in an armed rebellion, but with
Soviet, British, and Indian aid, the rebellion was quelled after
heavy fighting. In 1972 the country adopted a new constitution,
declared itself a republic while retaining membership in the
Commonwealth of Nations, and changed its name to Sri Lanka.
In the early 1970s the government was confronted with a severe
economic crisis as the country's food supplies and foreign
exchange reserves dwindled in the face of rising inflation, high
unemployment, a huge trade deficit, and the traditional policy
of extensive social-welfare programs.
Civil War
Repression of the Tamil language fueled demands by the Tamil
minority for an independent state. Election of a new UNP
government under J. R. Jayawardene in 1977 and the
implementation of economic reforms geared toward growth did
little to restrain an upsurge of terrorist violence or of bloody
anti-Tamil riots (1977, 1981, 1983). In the 1980s the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam initiated a full-scale guerrilla war
against the army in the north and east; at the same time, radical
Sinhalese students assassinated government officials whom they
believed were too soft on the Tamils. In response to a request
from Jayawardene's government, in 1987 India sent 42,000
troops to North East Sri Lanka. The Indian troops fought an
inconclusive war with the Tigers and were asked to withdraw by
Jayawardene's successor, Ramasinghe Premadasa, who was
elected in 1988.
The Indian troops withdrew in late 1989, and fighting resumed
in 1990. In 1993, Premadasa was assassinated in a suicide
bombing; he was succeeded as president by prime minister and
UNP leader Dingiri Banda Wijetunga. A year later, the
opposition People's Alliance party (PA) came to power, and
Chandrika Kumaratunga, the daughter of Sirimavo

6. Bandaranaike, became prime minister and then president. Her
government negotiated a cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers, but it
collapsed after three months as violence resumed. In late 1995
the government, in a large-scale offensive, captured the Tamil
stronghold of Jaffna; heavy casualties were reported there,
while terrorist bombs caused civilian deaths in Colombo. The
war continued throughout the 1990s, as government troops
attacked rebel bases and terrorists carried out political
assassinations (including those of several moderate Tamil
politicians) and suicide bombings. By end of the century, more
than 60,000 people had been killed in the ethnic conflict.
President Kumaratunga was injured when a suicide bomber
detonated explosives at an election rally in Dec. 1999; a few
days later, she narrowly won re-election. Subsequent attempts
by Kumaratunga to negotiate a new constitution that would
grant Tamils some autonomy proved unsuccessful, and fighting
continued.
Following an opposition victory at the polls, the UNP's Ranil
Wickremasinghe became prime minister, creating a politically
divided government. He pledged to work with the president, and
agreed to a truce and mediated negotiations with the Tamil
guerrillas. The truce led to a formal cease-fire, brokered by
Norway and signed in Feb. 2002, and off-and-on peace talks
began the following September.
In Nov. 2003, the president suspended parliament and assumed
control of the defense, interior, and information ministries,
accusing the prime minister of yielding too much to the Tamil
rebels in negotiations. She also briefly declared a state of
emergency. The power struggle created a constitutional crisis in
Sri Lanka, and paralyzed the government and its inconclusive
negotiations with Tamil forces.
The crisis continued into 2004, and in January Kumaratunga
claimed she was entitled to an additional year in office because
of a secret swearing-in ceremony a year after she was elected to
her second term. (Sri Lanka's supreme court ruled against her
claim to an additional year in 2005.) The following month the

7. president called early elections, which were held in April. Her
PA-led coalition won a plurality of the parliamentary seats, and
she appointed Mahinda Rajapakse prime minister.
Meanwhile, a split developed in the Tamil guerrillas in Mar.,
2004, when the smaller eastern force broke away, but the
following month the main northern force reasserted control in
the east. The rebels accused the government of supporting the
renegade faction and refused to restart the peace talks. Sri
Lanka's coastal areas, especially in the south and east, were
devastated by the Dec. 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that was
caused by an earthquake off North West Sumatra. More than
34,000 people died, and more than 800,000 displaced. Only
Sumatra itself suffered greater loss of life.
An agreement between the government and the rebels to share
the distribution of disaster aid seriously weakened the
governing coalition, and Tamil attacks grew. In August the
foreign minister was assassinated. The government invoked
emergency rule, and subsequently called for a renegotiation of
the cease-fire agreement with the Tamil rebels to establish
stronger sanctions for cease-fire violations.
In the 2005 presidential election, Prime Minister Rajapaksa
formed political alliances and came out strongly against
autonomy for the Tamils, while his main opponent, the UNP's
Wickremasinghe, was supported by Muslim and Tamil parties.
Rajapakse narrowly won the presidency, aided in part by
violence and intimidation by the Tamil Tigers that kept Tamil
voters from the polls in the north and east. Rajapaksa named as
prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, a Sinhalese
nationalist who had served in the post during 2000–2001.
By the end of 2005, the cease-fire with the Tamils appeared
more breached than honored. A new round of Norwegian-
sponsored peace talks began in Feb. 2006. In April the breaches
of the cease-fire escalated sharply, and the Tamil Tigers
withdrew from the talks. By the fall, the country had returned to
civil war in all but name, but attempts to restart negotiations
continued. By the end of 2006 the rebels had declared the truce

8. defunct, and the government had readopted antiterror measures
that it had abandoned in 2002.
Fighting led to a government offensive that was initially
focused on the east; it continued into subsequent years and
steadily succeeded in reclaiming territory from the rebels, who
had controlled some 5,800 square miles in 2006. In Jan. 2008,
the government officially ended the truce with the rebels, and in
heavy fighting during 2008, the government made significant
further advances into rebel territory. By Jan. 2009, Sri Lankan
forces had reopened a land route to Jaffna, which had been
closed since 2000.
The military continued to have successes in subsequent weeks,
confining the Tamil rebels to a relatively small coastal strip, but
as many as 330,000 civilians were also trapped in the area.
Many civilians fled the fighting in Apr. 2009, when a breach in
the Tamil defenses allowed them to escape. By late May the
Tamil Tigers had been destroyed as a military force, their leader
Prabhakaran had been killed, and the government had ended
rebel control of Sri Lankan territory. Since the 1980s, more than
70,000 people have died as a result of the conflict; according to
government figures, some 22,000 rebels and 6,200 government
troops died in the last 34 months of fighting. It is unclear how
many civilians died in the last weeks of the fighting when the
rebels were using them as human shields. Government forces
were accused of killing Tamils indiscriminately during its
offensive in 2009, and some estimates place civilian deaths as
high as 40,000 during 2008–9.
In Sept. 2009, some 265,000 Tamil refugees remained confined
to government camps, leading to criticism from the United
Nations and international human rights groups; the government
said that 70% would be resettled by November and all of them
by the end of Jan. 2010. By December, some 130,000 remained
in the camps, with at least 11,000 of those suspected of being
former Tamil Tigers. Since the end of the conflict, the
government has enacted an ambitious program of economic
development projects, many of which are financed by loans

9. from the Government of China. In addition to efforts at
reconstructing its economy, the government has resettled more
than 95% of those civilians displaced during the final phase of
the conflict and released the vast majority of former LTTE
combatants captured by Government Security Forces. At the
same time, there has been little progress on more contentious
and politically difficult issues such as reaching a political
settlement with Tamil elected representatives and holding
accountable those alleged to have been involved in human rights
violations and other abuses during the conflict.
Seeking to benefit from his government's victory over the
rebels, Rajapaksa called a presidential election two years early,
and subsequently defeated Sarath Fonseka, the general who had
led Sri Lanka's forces but who had a falling out with the
president. The campaign was marred by violence, mainly
against the opposition, and by one-sided coverage by the
government-controlled media, and the results were challenged
by the opposition. Fonseka subsequently was arrested by the
military, accused of participating in politics while in uniform
and other charges, and convicted later in the year after two
trials. His trial by courts martial was questioned by legal
experts, who said he should be tried in a civilian court, and his
lawyer accused the army of assembling a group of prejudiced
judges.
The events during the election, the arrest of Fonseka, and
harassment of journalists and the opposition led the opposition
and others to accuse the government of antidemocratic
tendencies. Also in Feb. 2010, the president dissolved
parliament; elections in April resulted in a landslide victory for
the president's party against a divided opposition. Rajapaksa
subsequently named D. M. Jayaratne as prime minister, and in
September secured amendments to the constitution that
abolished presidential term limits and increased presidential
powers. Record monsoon rains in Jan. 2011 led to severe
flooding in parts of the country; some 300,000 people were
forced from their homes. In Sept. 2011, the emergency rule in

10. effect since 2005 was ended, but at the same time new
antiterrorism regulations were adopted that preserved some of
the government's emergency powers. In Jan. 2015, in a
surprising upset, Maithripala Sirisena defeated Rajapaksa in the
presidential elections, ending Rajapaksa’s decade-long term in
office.
Since the end of the conflict, the government has enacted an
ambitious program of economic development projects, many of
which are financed by loans from the Government of China. In
addition to efforts at reconstructing its economy, the
government has resettled more than 95% of those civilians
displaced during the final phase of the conflict and released the
vast majority of former LTTE combatants captured by
Government Security Forces. At the same time, there has been
little progress on more contentious and politically difficult
issues such as reaching a political settlement with Tamil elected
representatives and holding accountable those alleged to have
been involved in human rights violations and other abuses
during the conflict.
People:
The population of Sri Lanka is composed mainly (more than
70%) of Sinhalese, who are Theravada Buddhists. Sri Lankan
Moors, Indian Tamils, and Sri Lankan Tamils are the largest
minorities; there are also Burghers (descendants of Dutch and
Portuguese colonists), and Eurasians (descended from British
colonists). In addition to the Buddhist majority, there are
Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. The official language is
Sinhalese (Sinhala); Tamil is a second national language, and
English is commonly used in government.
Note: This information was adapted from Infoplease.com’s
webpage on Sri Lanka and from the CIA World Factbook page
on Sri Lanka.
Sample Student Response: Dikeledi's Dilemma in "The
Collector of Treasures"

11. If Dikeledi had committed spousal castration in 1993 in the
United States, she may have had the chance for a fair trial and
been found not guilty due to post traumatic stress
syndrome. That’s what happened when, after years of abuse and
rape, Lorena Bobbitt severed her husband’s penis and tossed it
out the car window into a field as she fled the crime scene. In
contrast to Garesego’s demise, Lorena’s husband did not die
from the wound. Both women were pushed over the edge of
sanity by abusive husbands. Dikeledi had no chance of being
found temporarily insane. She was, after all, an African woman
in 1966 Botswana before women’s rights, women’s studies, and
women’s advocates arrived.
Dikeledi knew she would be put in prison for life if she
assaulted her husband, but he was a despicable person. He
abused her when they lived together, and continued to humiliate
her and their children when he moved out of their home. He had
become one of the “success men” (Head 57) who did not
manage his new wealth appropriately. He was a womanizing
drunk who did not pay any attention to his children emotionally
or financially. To further his control over her life, he would not
give Dikeledi a divorce so she could build a new life. Instead,
he kept her forever tied to him in humiliation and hate as she
struggled to support her family.
Dikeledi believed that all men were like her husband. Later,
when she went to prison, she met women who had murdered
their husbands for similar reasons, and one in similar fashion.
Prior to the crime, she met one man, her neighbor Paul, who
showed her kindness and appreciation. She shaped a content life
with Paul and his family as close friends, and built a good
reputation in her community as a helpful, faithful woman. These
“treasures of kindness and love” (61) meant everything to
Dikeledi, and she wanted to protect her treasures at all cost.
Paul and Dikeledi did not have a physical relationship, but
there was affection between them. When Garesego accused them
of having an affair, the added insult of this accusation coupled
with his refusal to help pay for their son’s education distressed

12. Dikeledi so much that she formulated her plan to dismember,
and almost certainly kill, her husband. Just prior to the assault,
she looked in on her sleeping children one last time. Garesego
may have saved himself if he had shown some kindness toward
the children, but he was too self-centered to acknowledge them.
This selfishness seemed to have sealed his fate (63).
It is almost easier to question what took Dikeledi so long to
murder her husband than wonderwhy she did it if she knew she
would never return to her children. It would have been better
for everyone if she would have never contacted him to ask for
money in the first place. Maybe she had the false hope that her
husband could change and be more like Paul. There is no
mention of spiritual conscience in this story as Dikeledi was
neither sorry for the crime nor worried about eternal damnation
for unrepentant sinners. Perhaps the strong friendship with Paul
and his wife gave her the strength to leave her children with the
hope that they would be cared for in her absence, although she
did not have certainty of that until after the crime. Realizing
that she could not escape her husband who told her to prepare
for his visit, and fearing his insistence on sex, she felt trapped.
Another question is why slash the genitals? Why not use
some less messy and more discreet method of murder? Head
described an evil kind of man, prevalent in society, animal-like,
and in a constant state of orgasm as if “he was the only penis in
the world” (44). Clearly, Head equated the penis with male
power over women in this society. When Dikeledi severed
Garesego’s penis, she took control and stripped him of his
power over her life. Lorena Bobbitt probably felt the same way.
The difference is that Lorena went free, and Dikeledi did not.
Works Cited
Head, Bessie. "Collector of Treasures." To Stir the Heart. New
York: Feminist Press, 2007. 36-65. Print.