Canada, the Transnational, and the Self Cultural Identities and Triangular Relationships in Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and Coming Through Slaughter

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Dimino, Andrea

Keywords

Canada, Canadian, Literature, Ondaatje, Homosocial Relationships

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines questions of cultural and individual identity in two early novels by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The thesis's two chapters ostensibly address very different topics: Chapter 1 assesses The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) as a work of �Canadian� literature and Chapter 2 concerns triangular relationships between characters in Coming Through Slaughter (1976). Nevertheless, both are ultimately concerned with rejecting or transcending binary categories in favor of more complex conceptions of multiple or fluid identities. Ironically, both of these novels are set in the United States. Chapter 1 outlines the ways in which The Collected Works of Billy the Kid both is and is not a work of �Canadian� literature. The novel does feature many of the themes identified as �Canadian� by Canadian literary critics of the 1970s, including the hostility of nature, animal victimization, and identity crisis. Yet The Collected Works significantly deviates from other Canadian literary trends in a number of ways, such as its suggestion of a happy future for Canada at a time when many Canadian writers believed their country to be on the verge of cultural extinction. The definition of The Collected Works as a strictly �Canadian� novel becomes difficult. Ondaatje himself is a transnational figure, not just a Canadian one: he was born in Sri Lanka and educated in England before becoming a Canadian citizen. Chapter 2 concerns triangles of desire in Coming Through Slaughter, with a focus on the homosocial relationships between male rivals. �Homosocial� refers to social relationships between people of the same sex, and especially between men. Almost all the males of Coming Through Slaughter fall into two categories: the artistic and emasculated and the powerful and virile. The main character, turn-of-the-century New Orleans jazzman Buddy Bolden, moves between these groups, a portrayal that complicates our view of the nature of the self. Thus Ondaatje's two novel are united in their refusal of binary categorizations, favoring instead multiple cultural and individual identities.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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