A Study Of Historical Writing In Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost

Michael Ondaatje(1943—)is an immigrant writer and poet with a complex and multicultural identity.With his unique writing style and profound connotations of his works,he has become one of the most important members of contemporary Canadian and even world literary circles.Anil’s Ghost,published in 2000,which is his only novel set in the Sri Lanka civil war.He uses the medium of literature to recreate the miserable life of Sri Lankan people in the war,presenting the truth of the buried“ghost” of the war.At the same time,it consigns the immigrant writer’s grief and consolation to the disordered justice and the desolate mind of his hometown.Taking Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost as the research object,this thesis intends to study historical writing in the novel by combining case study with theoretical elaboration,using the New Historicism and Postmodernism as the basic methodology.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the main body of this thesis consists of three parts: Chapter two starts from the text content of the novel,examines the presentation and questioning of the historical reality of the Sri Lankan civil war.The bloody and violent description of the Sri Lankan civil war highlights the historicity of the text.And the changing ideas of the historian Palipana in the text reflects Ondaatje’s questioning of the reality of traditional history,highlighting the textuality and fictionality of history.Based on the narrative of the novel,the third chapter further explores Ondaatje’s subversion and rewriting of the traditional historical narratives through the way of postmodern historical writing.Firstly,the postmodern narrative strategies of destabilizing the traditional grand historical narrative in the novel are explored.Ondaatje breaks continuity and wholeness of traditional history through the non-linear and fragmented narrative structure and the uncertain and open-ended plot,highlighting nonlinearity and fragmentation of history.Secondly,Ondaatje turns to personalized and pluralistic historical writing,focusing on to the life experiences of marginal figures and the ghost “Sailor” in non-mainstream society,trying to show history from multiple angles and highlighting the plurality of history,thus rewriting the traditional grand historical narrative.The fourth chapter,starting from the author’s intention and pursuit of writing about the historical conflict.On the one hand,through the process of western human rights organizations sending Anil to investigate the Sri Lankan massacre,the historical and political roots of the Sri Lankan war conflict are traced,and the traces of power operation in the historical discourse and the western “justice” are discovered.On the other hand,through the sacrifice of Sarath and the reshaping of Buddha statue by Ananda,the importance of the consensus of national unity and responsibility in resolving this conflict and reaching reconciliation with the world is emphasized.It shows the immigrant writer’s concern for the fate of his hometown and the political situation,as well as his humanistic concern for kindness and anti-war.This thesis tries to draw the conclusion that Anil’s Ghost is a work combining“text” and “history”.The novel has the paradox of both implanting history and questioning historical reality.While recreating the history of Sri Lankan civil war through the medium of literature,Ondaatje uses postmodern historical narrative to break the boundary between history and text,exposing the constructiveness and plurality of history.The marginal figures once hidden in the history are transformed into the foreground,which subverts the grand narrative of traditional history.And the process of pursuing the identity of the “ghost” is the process of exposing the truth of the historical discourse under the cover of political power.As the novel says,“the problem up here is not the Tamil problem,it’s the human problem”(241).Ondaatje guides readers to re-examine the historical event of the Sri Lankan civil war,which not only reflects the political conflict in Sri Lanka,but also shows the universality of the alienation of human existence and the reality of country secession in the war.His call for the consensus of human ethnic group unity embodies the immigrant writer’s humanistic concern for the fate of his hometown and his yearning for peace,which is of enlightening significance to think about issues related to national and global peace.