South Asian Readings of Gabriel García Márquez

South Asian interest in Gabriel García Márquez and his works has been intense and diverse, and mapping its multiple trajectories offers a historical field of enquiry for assessing the reception of this Latin American writer in the subcontinent. This article uncovers various strands of the conceptual armature at work in the South Asian critical readings of García Márquez and magical realism. These range from approaches that privilege the “Third World” provenance of the genre; to the poststructuralist critique of such Third World nationalism; to the discomfort with an intermediating Euro-American critical apparatus, as also with decolonial readings of García Márquez’s magical realism as a transformative mode charged with a political dimension. The deployment of the “non-mimetic” realist mode in the works of diasporic South Asian writers such as Salman Rushdie or Michael Ondaatje has been noted by critics and is central to positing magical realism as the literary language of postcolonial writers. This article additionally explores the mode’s sturdiness in the works of some of their counterparts in the bhashas, that is, writers of the so-called vernacular languages of the subcontinent. It is in these languages with robust literary traditions such as Bengali, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, and Urdu that García Márquez’s works have been intercepted through translations for the vast majority of readers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, who do not read them in metropolitan languages. The article critically maps these diverse modes of accessing García Márquez in the “lettered cities” of South Asia.

The fictional translator in Anglophone literatures

The use of English is commonly taken to be one of the distinctive features of globalization and Anglophone cultural hegemony. Is the appearance of the fictional translator in English writing an indication of deliberate resistance to “the global parochialism of Anglophone monoglossia” (Cronin 2003: 60)? Or are these imagined translators weak echoes of the same ‘questions of colonialism and cultural hegemony’ raised by Third World postcolonial plurilingual writers, writing in the language of the ex-colonizer? Are these characters the authors’ wistful attempts to construct a bilingual conscious-ness denied them through assimilation? These are the overarching questions that this paper will attempt to answer by looking at the fictional translator as a character and linguistic presence in writing in English through an examination of Michael Ondaatje ’s The English Patient (1992), David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon (1993), and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated (2002). The presence of the fictional translator in Canadian, Australian, and American writing in English suggests that the agent of discursive migration is operative even within regions of stubborn Anglophone monoglossia. If translators are agents of change, how do they operate in Anglophone writing in late modernity? And why is their presence so often awkward, unreliable, and even painful? I will argue that the fictional translator registers anglophone angst in spite of the lan guage ’s powerful global influence and publishing power.

Diversity of Genre in Post-Colonial Literature

The main aim of this article is to outline main tendencies in the development of post-colonial literature in the face of Jean Rhys and her novel Wide Sargasso Sea as a vivid example of starting attempt to break a white-domineering view of Asian countries and build up a new identity. Research attempts to refer to a wider scope of literary texts, including the ones that outline issues and problems related to the so-called invasion narratives. The term invasion narratives is seen as referring to a number of different texts, including English Patient by Michael Ondaatje or the Reader by Bernhard Schlink. One of numerous possibilities of analyzing post-colonial literature is the analysis of the novels by Zadie Smith White Teeth and on Beauty, the latter being a good example of a return to realism and actualizing what is called coined as the meanwhile. Special attention is given to meta-modernism and its function on the contemporary cultural and literary scene, above all with its attempt to start a neo-romantic direct kind of prose, or verse, simple in its form, yet aiming to construct new identities. This kind of prose incorporates the narratives exploring different traumas, including trans-generational traumas.

THE FAITHFUL KNIGHT OF THE KING WITH NO KINGDOM. THE CASE OF LÁSZLÓ ALMÁSY. (THE ENGLISH PATIENT)

The paper will present the sociological and psychological complexities behind the encounter of Charles, last Emperor and King of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and his young admirer, László Almásy at Easter, 1921. The King, withdrawing from power in 1918, and the young man Almásy met in the palace of the Bishop of Szombathely in 1921 in the night hours of Great Saturday. The following morning the King was to make a journey to Budapest to meet Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary, whom he had made Admiral three years before. Almásy was the driver of the car bringing the King to Budapest. Horthy and the King met in the Royal Castle of Buda where Charles had been coronated as King of Hungary in December 1917. The Admiral was unwilling to transfer the power and sent the King back immediately. Almásy had become the knight of the king involuntarily but, as it will be demonstrated, his role in the attempted coup d’etat of the King was far from being accidental. Michael Ondaatje published a novel in 1992 entitled The English Patient. Based on the novel, Anthony Minghella directed a romantic war drama film of the same title in 1996. The character named as the “English Patient” was the Hungarian driver of Charles IV attempting to get his throne back in 1921. The real Almásy, however, had a much more romantic life than his fictitious counterpart.

Mobility Writers in–between Multiculturalism and Transculturality

Ez a tanulmány megvizsgálja a kanadai etnikai kisebbségek esetét a multikulturalizmusról szóló politikai nyilatkozat előtt, majd összehasonlítja azt az etnikai kisebbségek esetével a multikulturalizmus politikájának deklarálása után. A vizsgálat a 20. század eleji kanadai magyar etnikum esetének tanulmányozásával történik. Ezután a tanulmány arra törekszik, hogy feltárja az etnikai kisebbségek esetét Kanadában 1971 után, mivel a megvitatott jelentős kérdés a transzkulturális diskurzus kérdése. A tanulmány középpontjában azok az etnikai kisebbségi írók állnak, akik az Én és a többség kapcsolatát keresik, mivel ezek az írók személyes tapasztalataiktól függenek, amikor egyik helyről a másikra mozognak. Ebben a tanulmányban elsősorban azokra az írókra helyezik a hangsúlyt, akik különféle kulturális gyökerekkel rendelkező bevándorló családokból származtak: magyar – kanadai (John Marlyn), iraki kanadai zsidó (Naim Kattan) és Srí Lanka-kanadai (Michael Ondaatje). Ennek a három írónak a Halál bordái, a búcsú Babilon és a Futás a családban elemzésével készült szövegek elemzésével ez a tanulmány feltárja az etnikai többség szerepét és hatásuk mértékét az etnikai kisebbségek integrációjára a kanadai társadalomban. A multikulturalizmus politikájának hatása etnikai identitásuk és kulturális örökségük megőrzésével elősegíti a kisebbségek beilleszkedését a kanadai társadalomba. E tanulmány megállapításai azt állítják, hogy az etikai kisebbségi írók két célt értek el a kanadai multikulturalizmus politikájának segítségével: egyrészt lehetővé teszik etnikai hovatartozásuk dinamikájának fenntartását, másrészt transzkulturális párbeszéd kialakítását teszik lehetővé a többséggel, hogy segítsék őket beilleszkedni a kanadai társadalomba.

Kim and Kip in the Mirror of Mimicry: A Postcolonial Study

The research paper aims to give an accurate account of how Kirpal Singh/Kip in The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje copies the socio-cultural and linguistic norms of the Europeans (colonizers) unlike Kipling’s Kim who emulates the Eastern people (colonized) and their culture. They are examples of going through a long drawn process of growing up, looking into the mirror of mimicry. Kip joins the English army as a grown up, learns the need to show affinity to the new culture by way of imitation, adopting their ways to weave a comfort zone. Being different could be an assaulting fact for both sides, Kip is quick to realize that. But his childish view of looking down upon his native culture is the irony of mimicry. It wipes out the original being to rewrite a new identity. Kip leaves the small community sprouted accidentally in the Italian monastery, showing traces of a stricken conscience. Kim, by the virtue of living in close company of Indians, adopts their habits and manners without any qualm, in a most unconscious manner. He never worries to look or sound his original self which he has not experienced for long. Thus, a kind of reverse mimicry is his fate and character when we look at him as an outsider living as an Indian native. The ambivalence of their characters, presented by both, is an interesting aspect of mimicry. In the paper, we have used the views of postcolonial and cultural literary theorists on mimicry, deliberating upon how with the effect of both the processes, Kip and Kim, consciously or unconsciously, get their national identity peeled off, affixing new hybrid identity.

Poetological dominants of historical memory in works of asian immigrant writers in Canada

Poetological dominants of historical memory in works of asian immigrant writers in Canada The paper highlights the development of literature related to the historical memory concept of Canadian immigrants from Asian countries. It covers the period of the late 20th ― first decades of the 21st century. The complex of problems, analyzed and structured within the semantic field of the modern historical memory concept, is often applicable both to Canada and Ukraine. The research broadens the knowledge of Canadian literature introducing the names of researchers and writers new to Ukrainian literary studies. The paper overviews the interpretations of Canadian Asian immigrants’ dispositions within the paradigm of modern arts and humanities. The focus is on the issues of double identity, the coherence of ethnic and North American mentality. The researcher generalizes the poetical aspects of the works by Ying Chen, Kim Thui, Joy Kogawa, Michael Ondaatje. Attention has been paid to the definition of discursive parameters, which allow shaping the concept of historical memory in ‘mosaic’ Canadian society; the issues of identities; the main markers of Canadian historical strategies; and versatile patterns of literary texts. The participation of Canada in the global dialog, which involves its culture and literature, plays probably the most important role in the debate on Canadian polyethnic literature. Regional, national, and international features demand some combined definition. The research explicates modern historical memory strategies in the context of conventional territory with its specific spatial and temporal characteristics. The author demonstrates the main local views on peculiarities of the Canadian literary process of the 2nd half of the 20th ― early 21st century and analyzes literary texts. All the novels show profound connection between representatives of Canadian literature, who may seem essentially different but manifest temporal and subjective similarity. The paper lists the names of authors working within the ‘double vision’ formula suggested by N. Frye. This approach focuses on the elements of North American culture pertaining to Canadian multicultural world structure as well as traditional cultures of the writers’ ancestral homelands. The paper also considers the generation paradigm, structured on the basis of social and historical algorithms and psychological markers. The types of generational modes (Kim Thuy, Michael Ondaatje) in literature were combined through a common denominator ― canadianness ― based on a double identity.

Kanadische Gegenwartsliteratur

Kanadische Literatur der Gegenwart ist Weltliteratur – Literatur von globalem Format und Wirkung, prestigeträchtig ausgezeichnet (Nobelpreis für Alice Munro, Booker­Prize und Friedenspreis für Margaret Atwood), hochaktuell und kontrovers. In der Tat liegt der Erfolg der kanadischen Literatur im 21. Jahrhundert nicht zuletzt in ihrer transnationalen und multikulturellen Ausrichtung. Die kanadischen Autor*innen, deren Werke in diesem Band vorgestellt werden, zeichnen sich immer wieder durch das Überschreiten von Grenzen aus. Das können geografische Grenzen sein, wie im Fall der von ghanaischen Einwanderern abstammenden Esi Edugayan oder des singhalesisch­holländisch­stämmigen Michael Ondaatje, deren Figuren zwischen Kanada, den Vereinigten Staaten, Deutschland und Afrika angesiedelt sind. Es handelt sich aber auch um Gattungsgrenzen, etwa die noch immer misstrauisch beargwöhnte Frontlinie zwischen Autobiografie und Fiktion, auf der Sheila Heti zum Grenzgänger wird, oder sogar die zwischen Literatur und Popmusik, wie sich in der erstaunlichen Karriere von Leonard Cohen zeigt. Der vorliegende Band gibt einen Einblick in die Vielfalt der Literatur Kanadas, vom modernen Klassiker bis zur spannenden Neuentdeckung.