Introduction

Sonja Lehmann
Transnational Identities
in Michael Ondaatje’s Fiction
1. Introduction: Transnational Identities in Michael
Ondaatje’s Fiction
Ever since his 1982 fictionalized memoir Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje’s
fiction has been characterized by a concern for the lives of migrants. More precisely,
it predominantly focuses on the questions of identity that result from the
characters’ migrations. Thus, the narrator of Running in the Family travels to Sri
Lanka trying to come to terms with how his long neglected Sri Lankan heritage
influences his identity. Anil, the protagonist of Anil’s Ghost, faces similar questions
and likewise returns to her country of origin to reconnect with her past in wartorn
Sri Lanka. In the Skin of a Lion’s hero, Patrick Lewis, undertakes a more metaphorical
kind of migration by becoming part of Toronto’s Macedonian diaspora in
the first half of the 20 th century, which is contrasted with the Macedonian Nicholas
Temelcoff’s immigration to Canada. Both of them accordingly have to adjust
to their new environment and adjust their self-understanding in the process. The
English Patient’s eponymous protagonist calls himself an “international bastard”
(The English Patient 188) and in a somewhat questionable move extends this label
to the Indian sapper, Kip, who like the patient is part of a multinational commu-