Identification Parades: an Interrogation of Identity and History in the Postcolonial Novels Ice Candy Man by Bapsi Sidhwa and Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Abstract

Postcolonial literature becomes a source through which dominant ideologies can be challenged and deconstructed. It is a potential site of resistance that reveals the way in which imperialist power structures strive to oppress, silence or erase the subjugated and the lingering effects of this process upon postcolonial nations. Ice andy Man by Bapsi idhwa and Anil’s host by Michael Ondaate are two postcolonial novels that examine the concepts of identity and history in terms of the marginalizing hierarchies and discourses constructed through different power structures. Ondaate’s Anil’s host examines the political turbulence in ri Lanka during the 1988/89 Insurgency through the lens of the diaspora using the character of Anil, a forensic pathologist who returns to her native country to conduct a Human Rights investigation. Bapsi Sidhwa explores the violence of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in Ice Candy Man through the trajectory of Lenny from being a susceptible young girl to a mature and experienced person. The main research problem addressed in this study is whether the concepts of identity and history are discursively constructed based on underlying hegemonic power structures that are marginalizing and oppressive. These two postcolonial narratives are analyzed by conducting a textual analysis in order to understand how the concepts of history and identity are multifaceted and fluid, thereby challenging hegemonic perspectives that construct a single story. The way in which identity and history are subjectively experienced and constructed will be analyzed from a postcolonial theoretical framework. This study will contribute towards the understanding of postcolonial literature as a point of resistance to hierarchical ideologies or colonial discourses by voicing marginalized narratives.