Program Overview

English 6510

Selected Writings of Michael Ondaatje

The syllabus for this course is provisional and may need to be compressed or shortened due to time constraints.

Course Outline

• Week 1: General Introduction: Ondaatje and the Postcolonial Diaspora
  • Deepika Bahri, Postcolonial Studies--Introduction
  • Paul Brians, Postcolonial Literature: Problems with the Term
  • New York Times Featured Author: Michael Ondaatje
  • CLC Web: Comparative Literature & Culture 6.3 (September 2004)
• Week 2: The Cat 's Table--Fictionalizing the Evolution of a Writer
  • Michael Ondaatje, The Cat 's Table (2011)
  • Robert McCrum, Michael Ondaatje, The Divided Man
  • The Diane Rehm Show, Ondaatje in Conversation, The Cat 's Table
• Week 3: Putting the J into the Postcolonial --Jazz and the Improvisations of Style
  • Coming Through Slaughter (1976)
  • Anatole Broyard, Review of Coming Through Slaughter
  • Jon Saklofske, The Motif of the Collector and History in Ondaatje's Work
• Week 4-5: Mapping, Homelessness, and the Aftershocks of Empire
  • The English Patient (1992)
  • Arists in Conversations: Michael Ondaatje by Willem Dafoe
  • Beverly Curran, The English Patient and Altered States of Narrative
• Week 6-7: Sri Lanka, the Body of History, and the Divided Self
  • Anil 's Ghost (2000)
  • Amitava Kumar, Ondaatje's Table
  • Richard Eder, A House Divided
  • Marlene Goldman, Representations of Buddhism in Ondaatje's Anil 's Ghost

Additional Readings

For additional readings beyond the course limits, the following are suggested:

• In the Skin of a Lion (1987)
• The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002)
• Selected poetry

Concluding Note

The instructor's door is always open for questions and discussions.