A Thematic Study Of Trauma In Michael Ondaatje's Fictions

Michael Ondaatje,a bright star in contemporary Canadian literature,becomes an excellent representative of postmodernism by his unique art style.His works touch upon such areas as poetry,novel and film.Published in 1992 The English Patient makes Ondaatje well-known around the world.Meanwhile,Ondaatje is the first Canadian writer to be awarded the Booker Prize.Since then,Ondaatje makes a bolder trial in novel creation.Anil's Ghost and Divisadero which were published respectively in 2000 and 2007 can be traced to the same origin with The English Patient both in style and theme.Ondaatje's novels are permeated with ubiquitous threat,unavoidable violence and unforgettable trauma memory.This paper will focus on his three representative works and make a thorough and systematic analysis on the theme of trauma which will offer a fresh perspective on research of Ondaatje's novels.The analysis method is the combination of trauma theory with text reading.Trauma,from the very first a single physical tissue wound,gradually to the psychological level and ultimately a mature theoretical system,has by now penetrated into areas such as history,politics and culture fields.Besides,trauma theory has been widely applied in the literary criticism.Combining trauma theory and literary criticism,this paper not only focuses on the internal research that the texts present all kinds of traumatic symptoms,but also the external research that Ondaatje's traumatic experience and his creation background to explore the reasons of the writer's trauma writing and reveal his implied meaning hidden in the texts.Above all,my paper tries to delve into Ondaatje's attention on people's real living plight and profound humanitarian sentiments behind the works.