A Study of Michael Ondaatje's Novels from a Postcolonial Perspective
by Liu Dan
About This Novel
Diasporic literature is one of the cutting-edge topics in current comparative literature research. Among many diasporic writers, Michael Ondaatje, a writer originally from Sri Lanka and now living in Canada, can be called the leader of this group. The special life experience and cultural background make Ondaatje's works contain multicultural factors that are rare in his mother country or Western literature. His works break the conventions of traditional novels in terms of content, genre, and writing techniques. While the beautiful words and sentences bring readers sensory enjoyment, they also leave many blanks, waiting for them to think and fill in the profound meaning hidden in them from multiple angles. Based on a close reading of the original English novel and its translation, this study draws on theories such as postmodern narratology, deconstruction, postcolonialism, and new historicism to combine text and theory to launch a discussion. Compared with the previous scattered research, this study attempts to grasp Ondaatje's novels as a whole, but also approaches it from different angles when specifically analyzing each work, striving to present Ondaatje's novel art in a more three-dimensional way. The research focuses on both the content level of the novel and the narrative strategy level, and examines the two major themes of "postcolonial criticism" and "subject construction" embodied in Ondaatje's novels in a diasporic context.
What Readers Think
Rating
Community(0)
Rating
Community(0)
