Hybridity and the Reconstruction of Identity in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient

Abstract

With the advent of post-colonial discourse, hybridity becomes a pivotal concern. A cluster of Post-colonial theorists, like Homi Bhabha, downplay oppositionality and call for an increasing intercultural dialogue and mutuality. They stress the interdependence of the colonizer and the colonized, preferring hybridity to a monolithic, exclusive culture. Indeed, the binary opposition Self/Other seems to collapse in the post-colonial context with the existence of a hybrid culture or a Liminal Space, which is likely to reduce cultural and racial sensitivity. This modest paper examines Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient, which raises fundamental issues of wars, nations and boundaries. It envisages a world, in which different cultures become intermingled, interdependent and hybrid. The novel suggests the possibility of a Liminal World, which crosses borders, a Third space that might fuse people of different races and nationalities, a world in which people forget their narcissistic origin. Resisting the Eurocentric vision of the world, the novel attempts to transcend and tergiversate the traditional manichean thinking, which often leads to wars, oppression and cultural conflicts. It calls for a reassessment of the traditional relationship between the Self and the Other.