Lyrical Narratives: Symbolic Representation in 'The English Patient'

<p>As Ralph Freedman says, any lyrical prose is ‘vertically related to the scenes and<br>events, while horizontally, to the symbols and images.' Symbols are emblems that do<br>not work alone but connect with other text elements. Using symbols and imagery<br>together brings lyricism to any literary work, whether poem, drama, or novel.<br>Postmodernism advocates that no work of art is unique and does not emerge without<br>any reference, hence focusing on the context of the text. This article studies the<br>narrative styles of the novel, 'The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje, using<br>various symbols and images interwoven with the text to render a complete<br>understanding of love, cultural identity, and post-war trauma. The twinning of<br>historical, cultural, and war motifs extends lucid progression to the storyline. The<br>reason for writing this paper is to study images and symbols that render a lyrical tone<br>to the novel. The novel, so far, has been studied for various elements like postcolonial, war traumas, and human relationships. It still has a vast research scope for<br>‘rural lyricism,' 'Lyric tense,' 'subtle lyric of the desert,' ' use of lyric in prose,' etc.</p>