This paper examines the lack of an inclusive pan-Sri Lankan identity in relation to literary representations and understandings of nation, looking specifically at the work of the English language writing of Yasmine Gooneratne and Ambalavaner Sivanandan and the Sinhala writing of Gunadasa Amarasekara. These papers explore the complex and the contested nature of building peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, taking into account the history of the conflict and the current socio-political and economic configurations. The tentative answer to this complex and multifaceted question proposed here is that it is related to the dominance of historical consciousness within the Sri Lankan cultural imagination and the choice of realism as a mode of representation.