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.