Chelva Kanaganayakam

Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (Tamil: செல்வநாயகம் கனகநாயகம்; May 7, 1952 – November 22, 2014) was a Tamil Canadian translator, author and academic.

Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam FRSC
செல்வா கனகநாயகம்
Born	C. Kanaganayakam (1952-05-07)May 7, 1952 Colombo, Ceylon
Died	November 22, 2014(2014-11-22) (aged 62) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater	University of Sri Lanka University of British Columbia
Occupation	Academic

Early life and family

Kanaganayakam was born on May 7, 1952 in Colombo, Ceylon.[1][2] He was the son of V. Chelvanayakam, head of the Department of Tamil at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, and Kamalambikai.[1][2][3][4] He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy.[5] After school Kanaganayakam joined the University of Sri Lanka Peradeniya campus but following Osmund Jayaratne's "re-organisation" of universities, he and other language and literature students were moved to the university's campus in Kelaniya.[1][6] He graduated in 1976 with a B.A. degree in English language and literature.[1][2][3][7]

Kanaganayakam was married to Thirumagal.[1][2][4] They had a daughter (Shankary) and a son (Jegan).[1][2][4]

Career

Kanaganayakam was a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Jaffna before joining the University of British Columbia on a Commonwealth scholarship, receiving a Ph.D. degree in 1985 after producing a thesis, supervised by W. H. New, on the writings of Zulfikar Ghose.[1][2][3][7] Kanaganayakam joined the University of Toronto's Department of English in 1989 to research and teach Commonwealth literature.[1][2][7] Appointed a professor in 2002, he went on to become director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and co-ordinator of the independent studies program at Trinity College, Toronto.[1][2][3][7]

Kanaganayakam was a founding member of the Tamil Literary Garden and the Toronto Tamil Studies Conference.[1][2][3] On the morning of November 22, 2014 Kanaganayakam was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada as a fellow in Quebec City.[1][2][3][7] That evening, as he went to a celebratory dinner in Montreal, he suffered a heart attack and passed away.[1][2][3][7]

Works

Kanaganayakam wrote, translated and edited several books:[3]

• Structures of Negation: The Writings of Zulfikar Ghose (1993, University of Toronto Press)[6][7]
• Configuartions of Exile: South Asian Writers and Their World (1995, TSAR Publications)[7][8]
• Dark Antonyms and Paradise: The Poetry of Rienzi Crusz (1997, TSAR Publications)[6][7]
• Lutesong and Lament: Tamil Writing from Sri Lanka (2001, TSAR Publications, editor)[1][8]
• Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian Fiction (2002, Wilfrid Laurier University Press)[1][7]
• Moveable Margins: The Shifting Spaces of Canadian Literature (2005, TSAR Publications, editor)
• History and Imagination: Tamil Culture in the Global Context (2007, co-editors R. Cheran & Darshan Ambalavanar)[1][9]
• New Demarcations: Essays in Tamil Studies (2009, Brown Bear Press, co-editors R. Cheran & Darshan Ambalavanar)[9]
• Wilting Laughter: Three Tamil Poets (2009, translator)[8][10]
• Nedunalvaadai (2010)
• You Cannot Turn Away (2010, translator)[11]
• Ritual (2011, translator)[10]
• World Without Walls: Being Human, Being Tamil (2011, co-editor)[9]
• In Our Translated World: Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry (2013, TSAR Publications, editor)[1][7]
• A History of South Asian Writing in English (2014, Cambridge University Press)[7]
• Uprooting the Pumpkin: Selections from Sri Lankan Tamil Literature, 1950-2012 (2016, Oxford University Press, editor)[1]

References

1. McKean, Matthew (December 26, 2014). "Chelva Kanaganayakam: A 'shining beacon' for Tamil literature". The Globe and Mail.
2. Bhandari, Aparita (November 28, 2014). "U of T prof was admired for compassion, academic contributions". Toronto Star.
3. "Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam passes away". TamilNet. November 23, 2014.
4. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF).
5. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF). p. 36.
6. Halpé, Ashley (January 21, 2015). "A memorial tribute to Chelva Kanaganayakam". The Island (Sri Lanka).
7. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam". University of Toronto.
8. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF). p. 16.
9. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF). p. 17.
10. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF). p. 18.
11. "In Memoriam: Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (1952 - 2014)" (PDF). p. 19.