Tracing Heteroglossia in A Decentered Community: A Dialogic Insight of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Abstract

Language being a social phenomenon allows the multiplicity of social voices with their discrete expressions. A free and permissive language of a literary work celebrates the co-existence of variant value systems with anticipation of the contingency of multi-accentuality. Hence the present paper intends to accentuate heteroglossia in the novel The English Patient from a dialogic insight. I argue that shared meanings and harmonious co-existence is possible even in a situation of homelessness, decentered nationalism, and discrete international political affiliations. The objective of this research encompasses locating heteroglossia among the people who are disillusioned by the metanarratives of identity, nationalism, religion, and other belongings. The study of heteroglossia in the people belonging to different socio-political backgrounds can help to find dialogism and benefits of multi-voiced co-existence. The research uses the theoretical framework of dialogism, specifically heteroglossia. It would be helpful for the future researchers to identify shared meanings in multi-cultural societies. This study finds a multi-voiced, dialogical zone amongst the confused and scarred souls who strife to exist after World War II. Also, it traces Heteroglossia in a decentered community showed in The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.