Identity Location Rift: Transnational Imagination’s Response to National Morphologies in Ondaatje’s The English Patientand Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Abstract

This research work observes the identities of the characters in On daatje’s The English Patient and Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. Such identity is affected by the involvement of the nationalism’s morphologies. Conversely, the response of transnationalism problematizes the national identity. This conflict between nationalism and transnationalism eventually leads to an identity rift. War, desert, Almasy’s blurred unconscious, narrative techniques implied in The English Patient boost transnational imagination’s reaction to the nationalism which directly affects the major characters’ identities. The loosening of local-global binary and the presence of transnationalism from above and below blur the national territories thereby inviting flux in characters’ identity in The Inheritance of Loss. However, the nationalism’s traces cannot be erased totally from their identities. No matter how much the characters tend to conceal and forget their national identity they are either reminded by others or conscious in themselves of their nationalism by the end of the novels. Such presence of the two opposing forces; nationalism and transnationalism ultimately creates a rift in their identity.