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South Asian Readings. By E-chou Wu English Dep. Providence Univ. 06/10/2006. The English Patient. The English Patient. Michael Ondaatje -- poet, filmmaker, and editor. -- born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in September 1943.
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South Asian Readings By E-chou Wu English Dep. Providence Univ. 06/10/2006 The English Patient
The English Patient Michael Ondaatje -- poet, filmmaker, and editor. -- born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in September 1943. -- moved to England in 1954, relocated to Canada in 1962, -- B.A., the Univ of Toronto -- M.A., Queen's Univ in Kingston
The English Patient Poetic Works: • The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) • There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do (1979) Fictional Works: • Running in the Family (1982) • In the Skin of the Lion (1987) • The English Patient (1992)won a Booker Prize, and adapted into film in 1996 Editor: Brick
The English Patient Settings: • between 1930s and early 1940s • a villa in the hills near Florence, Italy • Cairo • the Libyan desert • England
The English Patient Thematic Concerns: • Poetical Diction – •the tense • the shifting point of view • reverie and hypnosis • a poem or a novel 文字 文字
The English Patient Thematic Concerns: 2. Love – • time, space, and death • as ability • physical or soulful • adultery
The English Patient Thematic Concerns: 3. Body – • the burned body as inscription • body gloss:body as a map (e.g. Katherine’s vaccination scar) • cultured body: ownership • the racialized body (e.g. Kip’s hair, brown skin and lithe body) TEX TEXT
The English Patient Thematic Concerns: 4. Nationality – • personal identity, racial identity, and national identity • spy • the isolated Italian villa (c.f. Huck’s raft) • Almasy’s conception of nationlessness (e.g. 138-39; 176-77) • As a sapper, who defuses bomb, Kip’s reaction to the atomic bomb TEXT TEXT EXT TEXT
The English Patient Thematic Concerns: 5. Death – • in a Holy Place (260-61): e.g. Katherine--cave; Madox--church; Patrick--dovecote • the injection of morphine—death-in life
The English Patient Questions for discussion: • Is love splendid when it is uncommon? E.g. Kath and EP ; Hana and Kip, • Why does humanity change so drastically during the wartime? • What role do desert and aviation play in the novel? • Why “international bastards?” • Discuss the nature of adventure. Is it truly masculine?