{"id":4683,"date":"2026-06-01T22:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/?page_id=4683"},"modified":"2026-06-20T18:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:37:49","slug":"volume-19-issue-07-pg-35-46-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/?page_id=4683","title":{"rendered":"Volume 19, Issue 07, Pg. 35-46, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development<\/strong>
\nOpen-access peer-reviewed journal\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/doi.org\/10.64211\/oidaijsd190703<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Child Ordination and Development: A Socioeconomic, Psychoanalytic and Linguistic Reading of\u00a0 Wijenaike’s<\/strong>\u00a0Select Short Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chitra Jayathilake 1<\/sup>,*<\/sup>, Sujeeva Sebastian Pereira 2<\/sup>, Hansamala Ritigahapola 3
\n<\/sup><\/strong>1,2 <\/sup>Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,\u00a0University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
\n3<\/sup> Department of Sinhala and Mass Communication, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,\u00a0\u00a0University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
\n*<\/sup> Corresponding authour: chitra.jayathilake@sjp.ac.lk<\/a><\/p>\n

Volume 19, Issue 07, Pg. 35-46, 2026<\/p>\n

Abstract: <\/strong>Although development scholarship often prioritizes material, infrastructural, and economic development, the child monk experience brings another form of development to the forefront – that of emotional, social and psychological development. Although this type of development may appear less visible than its physical counterpart through infrastructural advances, it is central to human wellbeing and has profound ramifications in social resilience and ethical values. In this regard, the emotional lives of children residing in monastic institutions are not simply personal but intersect with a larger societal context and the developmental imagination. In the case of Sri Lanka, child ordination is sanctioned by no less than policy and public endorsement as an ethically approved method of developing spiritual merit and character education. But beyond this explicit representation, when children are subjects of literary representations of ordination, we encounter complex and messy personal and social development trajectories. In this qualitative research study grounded in interpretive perspectives, we read Sri Lankan author, Punyakante Wijenaike’s (1933-2023) two Anglophone short stories, \u201cRetreat\u201d (1979) and \u201cMonkeys\u201d (1992), with a focus on child ordination in the social contexts of poverty, illegitimacy and social convenience. By employing a triple-lenses framework \u2013 psychoanalytic (Freud), psychosocial (Erikson), linguistic (Lacan), and a critique of Marxist ideology \u2013 we argue that child ordination \u00a0impedes emotional, cognitive, and social development. The limited development of individuals presents broader social implications for societal development and raises both ethical and developmental concerns regarding ordaining children.<\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/strong> child ordination, development, psychoanalysis, Erikson, Lacan, Marxism, Sri Lankan English literature, identity<\/p>\n

Full-text paper download here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development Open-access peer-reviewed journal\u00a0 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.64211\/oidaijsd190703 Child Ordination and Development: A Socioeconomic, Psychoanalytic and Linguistic Reading of\u00a0 Wijenaike’s\u00a0Select Short Stories Chitra Jayathilake 1,*, Sujeeva Sebastian Pereira 2, Hansamala Ritigahapola 3 1,2 Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,\u00a0University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. 3 Department of Sinhala and Mass Communication, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,\u00a0\u00a0University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. * Corresponding authour: chitra.jayathilake@sjp.ac.lk Volume 19, Issue 07, Pg. 35-46, 2026 Abstract: Although development scholarship often prioritizes material, infrastructural, and economic development, the child monk experience brings another form of development to the forefront – that of emotional, social and psychological development. Although this type of development may appear less visible than its physical counterpart through infrastructural advances, it is central to human wellbeing and has profound ramifications in social resilience and ethical values. In this regard, the emotional lives of children residing in monastic institutions are not simply personal but intersect with a larger societal context and the developmental imagination. In the case of Sri Lanka, child ordination is sanctioned by no less than policy and public endorsement as an ethically approved method of developing spiritual merit and character education. Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4717,"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4683\/revisions\/4717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oidaijsd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}