Cultural Property and Individualism: A Study of Ondaatje's Running in the Family

Abstract

In an attempt to understand how his long-ignored Sri Lankan history shapes his identity, Running in the Family journeys to Sri Lanka. It essentially questions the conventional view of culture, which holds that the past is recorded and interpreted by history. This article's goal is to analyze, from a personal viewpoint, how culture is portrayed in Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, which is characterized as a fictionalized autobiographical memoir. After a lengthy absence, Ondaatje, a Canadian diasporic writer, returns to his birthplace of Sri Lanka and reconstructs his family history and culture through rumors, gossip, and recollections—all of which are subjective and untrustworthy.

Similarly, the narrative used to reconstruct Sri Lankan culture is founded on colonial discourse that mythologizes or even fantasizes about the island. Therefore, by focussing on trustworthy recollections, this essay aims to show how culture is reconstructed and narrated in subjective ways that highlight various ethnicities. In his autobiography Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje examines how his birthplace of Sri Lanka intersects with his cultural background, personal identity, and family history. Questions of how broader historical and cultural influences impact individual recollections and experiences are brought up by Ondaatje's literature. Running in the Family can function as a reflection on the nature of cultural property as well as the human quest for identity because of the mingling of individual and collective tales.