The Textual Features and Narrative Strategies of Michael Ondaatje’s ‘Jazz Novel’: A Stylistic Interpretation of Coming through Slaughter

Abstract

Abstract The novel Coming through Slaughter (1976), a story of a talented musician’s pursuit of real art and the true self, is based on Buddy Bolden, a jazz cornet player from New Orleans, Louisiana, in early twentieth-century America. Author Michael Ondaatje shows his originality in creating a ‘jazz novel’ that transcends the boundary between music and literature, in which three jazz-like features – collage, improvisation, and intersubjectivity – are embodied in characterization, theme presentation, and narration. By virtue of the unique free elements of jazz, Ondaatje maximizes the postmodern features of the novel and vividly depicts the complex subjectivity of the characters.