(Re)mapping the journey back to a lost father: traveling back in time and place in Michael Ondaatje`s "Running in the family"

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the autobiographical and ambivalent journey Michael Ondaatje takes to Sri Lanka. The travel to his homeland implies another deeper and more personal journey. Ondaatje's reports are organized as collage of fragmentary narratives, which juxtapose the narrator's past and the search for a father he lost during his childhood. The study discusses the connection between the visit to his country, the emotional journey to his past and the search for his father. It also analyses the images present in the text (photographs and maps, among others) and the varied forms of narratives that inform the narrator's life writing.