Postnationalism and the Myth of England in Ondaatje’s Warlight
Postnationalism and the Myth of England in Ondaatje’s Warlight

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues that the effects of World War II and the debunking of the myth of England are critical themes in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight, a novel of formation set in post-war London in 1945. As England’s notion of Pax Britannia dismantles, Warlight is a novel that undermines the very concept of nationhood in an era where the United Kingdom’s fervent quest for globalization and international representation is questioned. Moreover, this paper includes an analysis of the British bildungsroman and reviews the commonalities and differences between the European and British novels of formation. Both the British identity and postnational identity of the adolescent protagonist, Nathaniel Williams, are scrutinized. The primary source for this study is the 2018 novel, Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje, a Sri Lankan national who was educated in England and is now a Canadian citizen. Secondary sources include articles by bildungsroman scholars such as Tobias Boes, Jerome Hamilton Buckley, Bridget Chalk, Victoria Clarke, Mike Marais, and Franco Moretti. Sources on nationalism, postnationalism, imperialism and colonialism are used in this paper as well in order to prove the argument further.

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