In postmodern art, the key principle of text construction is deconstruction in J. Derrida’s terminology, which implies the penetration of diverse elements of artistic language into various cultural layers. The text becomes a unique structure containing numerous other texts, semantic images, symbolic or archetypal images, and so on. In this way, the boundaries of different textual spaces dissolve, forming a comprehensive system of intertextuality.In deconstructive approaches, reader perceptions are pivotal to the completion of the texts meaning. In this context, the role of the author recedes into the background, while the role of the reader as the perceiver is emphasized. Although the semantic generalization encapsulated within the artistic works meaning-space is inherently implied by the authorial intentions embedded in the perceived work, it nonetheless depends on the readers perceptive-interpretative potential and bears a complex analytical nature.Sometimes, reader interpretations of a text differ significantly from the text’s factual and conceptual information. This information reaches a higher order of organization within a broader scope in reader perceptions. Quite often, it is within this domain that the artistic meaning is clarified and expanded.The fact that intertextuality serves as a means of text construction in postmodern literature is due to the fact that the expression of the core idea—which ensures the structural integrity of the text—is based on citations, allusions, and reminiscences. The phenomenon of citation is of fundamental importance in the postmodern concept of intertextuality. The postmodern text possesses a mosaic character and is constructed from heterogeneous fragments of previous texts through the purposeful correlation of components from other works. Occasionally, a work may even be constructed entirely of citations or completely replicate another work, all while bearing the seal of authorial individualization.

KeywordsKey words: Intertextuality postmodernism deconstruction citation reader perception text construction semantics.

The article examines the deconstruction of cultural identity in Michael Ondaatje’s novel “The English Patient”. According to Stuart Hall and Edward Said, cultural identity is primarily a matter of “becoming”: it is not stable but is shaped over time. In a postcolonial context, this process involves the colonized subject beginning to mimic the colonizer’s culture, resulting in the formation of a hybrid identity. In “The English Patient”, the postcolonial cultural identity also undergoes deconstruction, as a result, the identity becomes unfixed and does not hold a center anymore. Identity is dismantled; however, owing to the distinctive nature of deconstruction, it is eventually reconstructed.

Keywordspostcolonialism cultural identity mimicry hybridity deconstruction binary oppositions reconstruction.