Week # 11: The English Patient

1. Week #11:The English Patient Professor Poyner-Del Vento

2. Kindly turn off • All cell phones • The wireless component of any laptop computers

3. Room for Exam • Exam is scheduled on Mon, July 25th, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. • If your tutorial is D904, you will take your exam in SUR 5320 • If you have any other tutorial, you will take your exam in SUR 5280 • Short lecture about The English Patient, 1:50 to 2:20, in SUR 5280

4. Overview of lecture • Nations and names • Postcolonialism • Revision • Outline • Brief Exam Review

5. Nations and names

6. The English patient desires to be free of nations and names • “But I wanted to erase my name and the place I had come from. By the time war arrived, after ten years in the desert, it was easy for me to slip across borders, not to belong to anyone, to any nation” (Ondaatje 139).

7. The English patient’s identity is erased • No name • No face • Unclear national identity • Obscured memories

8. Desert as unclaimed and un-owned • “The desert could not be claimed or owned - it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names long before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East. Its caravans, those strange rambling feasts and cultures, left nothing behind, not an ember. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape. Fire and sand. We left the harbours of oasis. The places water came to and touched . . . Ain, Bir, Wadi, Foggara, Khottara, Shaduf. I didn't want my name against such beautiful names. Erase the family name! Erase Nations! I was taught such things by the desert.” (Ondaatje 139)

9. Other characters’ identities are obscured • Heavy use of pronouns • Loss of Kirpal Singh’s name • The sapper • The Sikh • Kip

10. The English patient rejects ownership “‘What do you hate most?’ he asks. ‘A lie.  And you?’ ‘Ownership,’ he says.  ‘When you leave me, forget me.’ Her fist swings toward him and hits hard into the bone just below his eye. She dresses and leaves.” (Ondaatje 152)

11. The English patient claims Katharine as his own • “This is my shoulder, he thinks, not her husband’s, this is my shoulder. As lovers they have offered parts of their bodies to each other, like this” (Ondaatje 156).

12. The English patient claims Katharine as his own • “Are you telling me the English did not believe you? . . . Whereas the only name I should have yelled, dropped like a calling card in their hands, was Clifton’s.” (Ondaatje 250-251).

13. Postcolonialism

14. Twice, the English patient forms a multinational community • As an explorer in the desert—worked with people who are “German, English, Hungarian, African” (Ondaatje 138) • As a patient in the villa • Hana: Canadian • Caravaggio: Italian-Canadian • Kip: Indian • The English Patient (Almásy): Hungarian

15. Villa as utopia • World War II has caused enormous suffering • Four wounded people find healing together • Form an international community

16. Hana and Kip • “Discovering in lovemaking there can be a whole civilization between them, a whole country ahead of them” (Ondaatje 225). • “Hana now received this tender art, his nails against the million cells of her skin, in his tent, in 1945, where their continents met in a hill town” (226).

17. Other connections between characters Hana Kip Caravaggio • Almásy • (the English patient)

18. Movie moment • There are a number of differences between the novel and its film adaptation • In my opinion, the largest difference is that the film version preserves this utopian vision of international harmony

19. A bomb explodes • “One bomb. Then another. Hiroshima. Nagasaki” (Ondaatje 284).

20. A bomb explodes • “Kip. . . . A boy and a girl.” (Ondaatje 288).

21. Postcolonial novel • A novel that directly addresses the after-effects of colonialization • Often from perspective of previously colonized voices

22. Colonized voices • Kip is Indian • Hana and Caravaggio are Canadian • The English patient is assumed to be English

23. Kip embraces Englishness • Joins British military • Considers his job to be important • Loves Lord Suffolk and other English role models • Embraces Englishness DESPITE • Racism from Caucasian people • India’s current struggle for independence

24. Kip rejects Englishness • “There’s a painting . . . David” (Ondaatje 116)

25. David with the Head of Goliath Image from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_-_David_con_la_testa_di_Golia.jpg

26. Revision

27. Most of your grade in the course is still under your control • Outline: 10% • Exam #3: 10% • Final Draft: 35% • Exam #4: 10% • Total: 65% of grade is still unassigned • You still have the means to radically change your grade in ENGL 101W

28. Remember: • Essays aren’t made of ideas; they’re made of WORDS.

29. “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” • Essay by Donald M. Murray

30. “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” • Information • Meaning • Audience • Form • Structure • Development • Dimension • Voice

31. Information • Do you have enough information? • Do you need to reread parts of the novel? • Do you need to find more relevant passages from novel? • Do you need to complete some external research? (Be sure to cite!)

32. Meaning • Do you have a debatable thesis statement? • Are you analyzing the implications of your thesis? • Do you need to perform more Close Reading on passages?

33. Audience • Are you writing for the appropriate audience? • Are you writing for someone who has already read the book? • Are you writing for an audience of literary scholars?

34. Form • Are you comfortable with the form of a university-level literature essay? • Are you fulfilling the expectations for the introduction? • Are you fulfilling the expectations for the body paragraphs? • Are you fulfilling the expectations for the conclusion?

35. Structure • Is your essay structured in the best way possible? • Would a different structure be better? • Should some parts be reordered?

36. Development • Are there any sections that should be developed further? • Are there any parts that should be cut back, with fewer details given?

37. Dimension • Are the different ideas in balance with each other? • Are the different paragraphs in balance with each other? • Are the citations in balance with the original interpretations? • Are the paragraphs strong? Are they unified and coherent?

38. Voice • Are you writing in a formal voice? • Have you addressed Lower Order Concerns?

39. Outline

40. Format for Outline • Thesis Statement: ______________________________________________________________________ • Topic Sentence for Paragraph #1: ____________________________________________________________________ • Supporting evidence: _________________________________ • Supporting evidence: __________________________________ • Topic Sentence for Paragraph #2: ___________________________________________________________________ • Supporting evidence: _________________________________ • Supporting evidence: _________________________________ • Topic Sentence for . . . repeat for remaining paragraphs

41. Visualization of Outline Thesis Topic sentence for Paragraph #1 Topic sentence for Paragraph #2 Topic sentence for Paragraph #3 • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence • Supporting evidence

42. Advantage of Outline • Allows you to see essay as whole • Allows you to focus on HOCs, not LOCs • Resources available on WebCT

43. Format for Outline • Several pages, using point form • Works Cited page, using MLA style • Optional: Acknowledgements page • Will be graded according to rubric • Due dates are based on your tutorial dates • Mon, July 18th • Tue, July 19th • Also turn in via WebCT

44. Brief Exam Review

45. Exam is open book and open notes • Must bring: • Pen or pencil • SFU student ID • Should bring: • Marked copy of The English Patient • Notes from lecture • Close Reading sheet • Specially prepared notes for exam • Scrap paper

46. Exam is open book and open notes • Might bring: • Dictionary • Another book for reference (be sure to cite!) • CANNOT bring: • Anything electronic (e.g., laptop, electronic translator, cell phone) • Anything potentially noisy or distracting • Anything to share with classmates

47. Exam Format • 1 hour long • 2 questions, each worth 50%

48. Passage analysis • You will be given a choice of three passages from The English Patient. • Choose two. • For each passage you choose, write one or two paragraphs that analyze the internal complexities and ambiguities of the material, offering your own interpretations. • Your analyses will probably discuss the passage’s significance to the entire book. • Your answer should focus on an analysis of the passage, not merely a description of the passage or a list of observations about it.

49. To prepare for exam • Practice Close Reading • Choose passages relevant to themes in lecture • Bring examples of Close Reading to office hours

50. Room for Exam • Exam is scheduled on Mon, July 25th, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. • If your tutorial is D904, you will take your exam in SUR 5320 • If you have any other tutorial, you will take your exam in SUR 5280 • Short lecture about The English Patient, 1:50 to 2:20, in SUR 5280