POSTMODERN NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE IN ONDAATJE'S THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Abstract

Postmodernism is an entirely different style of thinking about the world. Structurally Ondaatje’s The English Patient does not have any chronological order narration between the present action in the Italian Villa and the flashbacks to memories of a mysterious desert romance, which is gradually unfolded. In the fragmentary structure the remains of history continue to haunt the present. Fragmentation is one of the significant features of postmodern techniques and it is revealed through fragmented language. The relationship between past and present is not that of a linear progression. Instead, through such fragments, the past is drawn into the space of the present. The glimpses of personalities and shadows of stories merge together.