Reframing History Through Myths
Michael Ondaatje's fictional worlds are predominantly concerned with ambivalence and dilemmas of displaced people. He has profound interest in myth and myth-making as storytelling. His novels echo the post modern and contemporary cultural, spiritual, emotional and shared life through the use of myths, folktales and historic legends. In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient and Anil's Ghost search and analyse the frontiers between history and myths. The novels juxtaposes history with fiction; and gives form and meaning to both by employing archetypes from ancient literature, thus bestowing a revisionist interpretation of history from marginalized points of view. The ancient tales and knowledge is the art that can direct the disordered spill of incidents Ondaatje envisages with new perspectives on documented history of modern era. The myth critical approach empowers to uncloak the myth thus displays perfect means to transcend the limitations and difficulties in depicting the postmodern and post-colonial. The revival of myths is indispensable as they are the impeccable means to exemplify the fragmented and disjointed aspect of post-colonial and postmodern world.
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