The Absent Presence of Borderlands and Mestiza Consciousness in Island of Thousand Mirrors

Abstract

The present study is a literary analysis of Munaweera’s Island of Thousand Mirrors employing the framework of borderlands, mestiza consciousness and absence presence. The work has been explored earlier utilizing the issues of identity crisis, psychological aspects of dislocation, and senselessness of war, gendered hierarchies, and refugee theories. The present study, however, accomplishes that the selected work reveals horrendous violence and brutality committed on the basis of ethnicity and border conflicts. Unavoidably, borders either physical or mental reflect flagrant boundaries, margins, and limits. Similar schism is observable in the course of events throughout the novel. The characters with the exception of a few, are ensnared in the mesh of tenuous boundaries and fences and are unable to surpass these barriers. I argue that in order to surmount these fences, and to arrive at their essential humanity, the characters of the novel need to resort to mestiza consciousness. As new mestiza deals with differences by nurturing a tolerance for conflicts and reservations (78). There are the stages of mestiza consciousness that are required to be experienced before its complete acquisition. The analysis verifies that the stages of mestiza consciousness that appeared far-reaching in the characters’ positive attitudes are La mezcla and la facultad because of their tolerance building gift. I also argue that the characters remain stranded in their self-presumed variances, which materialize the absent presence of borders that are in actuality nonexistent. Therefore, this state of affairs hedges the story with ensuing gory conflicts and violence, thus making the hypothetical absent borders perceptible as if present. Only a few characters demonstrate the ability to transcend these borders by executing mestiza consciousness.