Keywords: Monopolies, representation, textuality, alterity, solitude. This paper explores how Michael Ondaatje in In the Skin of a Lion, uses the form and content of the narrative to explore and practice alterity in its myriad dimensions. There is formed a third space between fact and fiction in the narrative’s lyrical quality. Not only through content, but also through form is the deconstruction achieved. ‘Feel like ripping my white skin off’ If citing white privilege was the aim, they may have had the wrong target in Cluff-Gleason. The idea of representation is further explored by employing themes of ‘darkness and light’ throughout the novel. It can be argued that, the ‘othering’ need not be strictly based on class, race etc but can operate in more complex ways. Every character is projected in such a way that first impressions only evolve to grow depth. The construction workers transcend their identities as just workers and we get an insight into their life too, sharing their emotions of love, grief, longing, solitude etc. Maybe it is Spivak rephrased it is not ‘can the subaltern speak?’ but, ‘the subaltern speaks, are there listeners?’. The working class experiences are thus used to point at the insufficiency and gaps in prejudiced documentation. The story as an experienced space highlight the many sidedness of truth. In the Skin of a Lion / Running in the Family Michael Ondaatje 3.98 279 ratings22 reviews Contains copies of four Michael Ondaatje The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Running in the Family, In the Skin of a Lion, and The Cinnamon Peeler. The mundane is made to appear sublime and polyphonic voices demonstrate how invisibility does not equate with absence. He problematises the textuality of history and uses the novel as a response to biased histories. He revels in his role as a background figurea part of the sceneryin the stories of his acquaintances. Ondaatje toys with the idea of ‘representation’ and subverts the ‘walling in’ and ‘walling out’.

The post-colonial stance aims in destabilising universal monopolies and becoming inclusive of the otherwise ‘othered’.

Alterity in Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion Pages : 447-449, DOI:

In the skin of a lion