The Return Journey - Rasa and the Aesthetics of Desire in Michael Ondaatje’s Poetry and Fiction

Summary: South Asian diasporic literature in English projects a rich vein of desire for spiritual restfulness in the globalised world. This paper focuses on the desire for a physical/imaginative homeland, for complete and spiritual restfulness as both the key subject for texts and as an internal dynamic creating textual power. It attempts to extend current postcolonial contextual and political analysis through attention to textual forms, strategies and values. Distinguishing itself from western reader reception theories which can mask this literature’s distinctiveness, the Theory of Rasa, the classical Indian theory of aesthetics is used to offer a more holistic, incisive and empathetic analysis, re-informing political and cultural content. The development of a new research project, this paper will read selected fiction and poetry by Michael Ondaatje, alongside the Theory of Rasa.