Post-Colonial Haunting & Confused Identities

The book examines Michael Ondaatje's presentation of fictional post-colonial migrants and their quest for a post-colonial identity in their new Western surroundings as portrayed in three of Ondaatje's novels: Anil's Ghost, The English Patient and In the Skin of a Lion. The focus of the book is to determine if there is a distinct affinity between Ondaatje's migrants' colonial past and the identity confusion they encounter in their present migrant milieu. Through an analysis of the colonial/post-colonial elements of memory, location, silence and resistance this book explores how and to what extent a modern-day migrant's individual construction of post-colonial identity is disrupted by his/her preoccupation with the collective ancestral colonial heritage. The book reveals how the concept of post-colonial haunting is not one dimensional but multifaceted, as the post-colonial migrant is not only haunted by his/her recollections of the collective historical conscience but also by an anxiety of the emergence of a novel form of colonialism that will oppress him/her anew.