Dancing Discard: Michael Ondaatje’s Elimination Dance

This article provides a new analysis of Michael Ondaatje's much loved, but critically neglected long poem 'Elimination Dance'. It considers the sparse criticism this poem has received whilst pointing out its importance in understanding Ondaatje's strong relationship with experimental Canadian poets such as bpNichol and Robert Kroetsch. More specifically, it makes clear the ways in which 'Elimination Dance' impels the reader to participate in an ethics of inclusion and rejection and so interrogate the ideological production of literature and language acts.