Editing Martin Wickramasinghe (section)

== Literary career ==
His literary career began with the novel ''Leela'' (1914) and an anthology of essays on literary criticism, ''Shastriya Lekhana'' (1919). Shortly thereafter he began a campaign to raise literary standards for the Sinhalese reading public with work such as ''Sahityodaya Katha'' (1932), ''Vichara Lipi'' (1941), ''Guttila Geetaya'' (1943) and  ''Sinhala Sahityaye Nageema'' (1946) in which he evaluated the traditional literally heritage according to set rules of critical criteria formed by synthesising the best in Indian and western traditions of literary criticism.<ref name="Abeysinghe" /><ref name="Wickramasinghe" /><ref name="icon">[http://archives.dailynews.lk/2010/07/23/fea01.asp Martin Wickramasinghe: An icon of world intellectual heritage] by W. A. Abeysinghe (Daily News) Accessed 2016-09-27</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.martinwickramasinghe.org/|title=Martin Wickramasinghe, Sri Lanka's Renowned Writer Biography and Bibliography|website=www.martinwickramasinghe.org|access-date=2017-05-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=2650|title=The Island|last=LTD|first=Lankacom PVT|website=www.island.lk|access-date=2017-05-01}}</ref>

Through the 1940s Wickramasinghe dabbled with the double role of literary critic and creative writer. ''[[Gamperaliya (novel)|Gamperaliya]]'' (1944) is widely held as the first Sinhalese novel with a serious intent that compares, in content and technique, with the great novels of modern world literature. The novel depicts the crumbling of traditional village life under the pressure of modernisation. The story of a successful family in a Southern village is used to portray the gradual replacement of traditional economic and social structure of the village by commercial city influence.<ref name=Wickramasinghe/><ref name=Saparamadu/>

Wickramasinghe followed [[Gamperaliya (novel)|Gamperaliya]] with ''[[Yuganthaya]]'' (1948) and ''[[Kaliyugaya (novel)|Kaliyugaya]]'' (1957) forming a trilogy. After the decay of the traditional life, the story details the rise of the bourgeoisie, with its urban base and entrepreneurial drive, ending with the formation of the labour movement and socialist theology and rise of hopes for a new social order. The trilogy was made into [[film]] by the renowned Sri Lankan director [[Lester James Peries]].<ref name=Ariyadasa/><ref name=icon/>

With the development of a literary criticism movement in the early-'50s, Wickramasinghe presented the works ''Sahitya Kalava'' ('The Art of Literature' 1950) and ''Kawya Vicharaya'' ('The Criticism of Poetry' 1954). Wickramasinghe was appointed a member of the Radio Broadcasting Commission in 1953 and in 1954 was appointed to the National Languages Commission, from which he resigned three months later. He was appointed a Member of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (MBE) in the [[1953 Coronation Honours (Ceylon)|1953 Coronation Honours]] with the ensign awarded by Her Majesty [[Queen Elizabeth II]] in person during her Royal Visit to Ceylon in 1954.<ref name=icon/>

Wickramasinghe's most heralded work came in 1956 with ''[[Viragaya]]''. Due to the significance of its theme and the sophistication of its technique, the novel has come to be hailed as the greatest work of Sinhalese fiction. It follows the spiritual problems of a fragile Sinhalese youth raised in a traditional Buddhist home after being confronted with the spectre of adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it all made more complex with the modernisation of society. First-person narrative is used to put forth the autobiographical story of the anti-hero in impressionistic vignettes rather than in chronological order. It is a seminal work and spawned a spew of imitators, some good on their own right.<ref name=Abeysinghe/>