The postcolonial period incorporates such unsettled issues as formation of cultures and identities and to what extent entire decolonization can be achieved not only in the political area but also in the cultural and psychological aspects of the colonized societies. Since the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, discussions on whether identities and cultural properties are fixed and stable or protean and unsettled have been in progress ardently without any unanimity. One of the focal points in postcolonialism is concerned with the prospect of annihilating the morbid heritage of colonialism out of each sphere and constitution in the native land and population. Scholars proposing some sorts of theoretical perceptions as regards
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This is not so astonishing when it is recognized that both Ondaatje and Naipaul have lived in the Western countries far away from their native land and cultural roots, which most probably has a remarkable impact on the constitution of their views on cultural identities. Regarding the existence of blurred frontiers which discredit the idea of sharply drawn lines between nations and societies in Ondaatje’s fiction, Marinkova argues that “Ondaatje’s works contest the violence of both dominant and oppositional monologic discourses” (27). Thus, “spaces” in his writings are revealed as diversity and manifold proceedings, and come into existence as tracks of remaining in existence with “Others”, rather than as acknowledged entities or immutable grounding against which actions occur (Chiu 184). The reason why most of his works touch upon the issues of personal and national identities, immigrants, hybrid and displaced characters who have come about owing to the globalized world is most probably that he has immigrated to Canada (Zepetnek 1). In the same way, Naipaul does not believe that the nations of the Western world and the Eastern territories occupy totally disconnected spheres in which human beings act in compliance with predetermined essentials and roles, so the characters in his novels, like himself, can be best identified with being in a position of non-belonging, placeless and rootless (Singh 4). One of the most critical features of Naipaul is that, as King puts it, “He is part of a generation that had to face the problems and confusions that resulted from the withdrawal of imperial order”
This is not so astonishing when it is recognized that both Ondaatje and Naipaul have lived in the Western countries far away from their native land and cultural roots, which most probably has a remarkable impact on the constitution of their views on cultural identities. Regarding the existence of blurred frontiers which discredit the idea of sharply drawn lines between nations and societies in Ondaatje’s fiction, Marinkova argues that “Ondaatje’s works contest the violence of both dominant and oppositional monologic discourses” (27). Thus, “spaces” in his writings are revealed as diversity and manifold proceedings, and come into existence as tracks of remaining in existence with “Others”, rather than as acknowledged entities or immutable grounding against which actions occur (Chiu 184). The reason why most of his works touch upon the issues of personal and national identities, immigrants, hybrid and displaced characters who have come about owing to the globalized world is most probably that he has immigrated to Canada (Zepetnek 1). In the same way, Naipaul does not believe that the nations of the Western world and the Eastern territories occupy totally disconnected spheres in which human beings act in compliance with predetermined essentials and roles, so the characters in his novels, like himself, can be best identified with being in a position of non-belonging, placeless and rootless (Singh 4). One of the most critical features of Naipaul is that, as King puts it, “He is part of a generation that had to face the problems and confusions that resulted from the withdrawal of imperial order”