engleski

Re-inscribing the margins: Imaginative spaces of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

The paper investigates the choice of Europe as the imaginative space for the narration of the novel The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Using theoretical debates about the relationship between the empire and its peripheries/margins in postcolonial criticism as a background, the paper analyses the choice of Europe in general and a war-devastated Italian villa in particular as the site(s) for a transformation of the received narratives about the relationship between Europe and its “ margins” . The symbolic capital of an Italian villa is analysed as crucial for bringing together a collection of “ marginal” characters: a Canadian nurse, a Hungarian count burnt beyond recognition, and a Sikh sapper, together with an Italian-Canadian thief turned spy - each one of them defying a simple nationalist identification and an idea of belonging to a place, a homeland. The role of European texts as an imaginative space is also analysed - in particular, the re- inscription of the literal margins of these texts by these “ marginal” characters. The re- inscriptions are read as metaphorical challenges to dominant narratives and their re-interpretation through a dialogue with the same.

margins/marginal; empire; periphery; postcolonial; Europe; Canada; re-inscription

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