In Between Fact And Fiction: A Study On The Novel “Village In The Jungle” By Leonard Woolf

Abstract

In the present study I intend to discuss the importance of facts on fiction, using the novel “Village in the Jungle” by Leonard Woolf. Being a novel written during the colonial rule, the novel portrays many socio-political facts regarding the colonial period of Sri Lanka. Among the many significant features of the novel, one outstanding feature is the availability of the diaries maintained by the author and the blue books which are available in print. In this study comparisons are drawn between the novel and the author’s service diaries to show the relationship between facts and fiction. This study is based on a textual analysis of the two books; “The Village in the Jungle” and “Diaries in Ceylon”, by Woolf. Woolf being a government civil servant during imperialism, who served as an Assistant Government Agent (AGA) in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, does not merely recite a story of a village which was romanticized by his imagination, but on the contrary he recreates true events that took place in this rural context in a way that British imperialism is recognized as one of the many factors that trod down the ignorant people of a rural village, the facts that are available in his diaries leave room to understand the social reality behind his novel as well as how a novelist alters and uses facts in creating fiction. Therefore in this study the relevance of the incidents and characters in the novel to the actual facts presented in the diaries will be discussed.