Week #10: The English Patient

1. Week #10:The English Patient Professor Poyner-Del Vento

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

3. Overview of lecture • Postmodernism • Fragmented narrative • Memory, trauma, and narrative • Outline

4. Postmodernism

5. Postmodern novel • postmodernism • (complicated term) • reaction against modernism • disbelief in overarching, coherent, rational narrative

6. Definition from Merriam-Webster • postmodern: “of, relating to, or being a theory that involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about culture, identity, history, or language”  Quoted from Merriam-Webster Online: www.m-w.com

7. Definition of Postmodern novel • “Postmodernist fiction is defined by its temporal disorder, its disregard of linear narrative, its mingling of fictional forms and its experiments with language.” --Barry Lewis, professor of English literature Quoted from Barry Lewis’s book Kazuo Ishiguro

8. Structure in The English Patient • “temporal disorder” • “disregard of linear narrative”

9. Traditional Structure of a Novel

10. The English Patient ?

11. Fragmented Narrative

12. Fragmented narrative • A story broken into separate pieces which do not fully make a coherent whole

13. Scraps of stories • “We find jars at Abu Ballas with the classic Greek amphora shape. Herodotus speaks of such jars.” (Ondaatje 140)

14. Scraps of stories “A postcard. Neat handwriting fills the rectangle. Half my days I cannot bear not to touch you. The rest of the time I feel it doesn’t matter if I every see you again. It isn’t the morality, it is how much you can bear. No date, no name attached.” (Ondaatje 39)

15. Flashback • scene from past inserted into present storyline

16. Hallucinations and dreams • Page 22—the English patient’s memories/dreams of the desert

17. Other disorienting features • No chapter names or numbers • Characters often aren’t named • Missing page numbers • Sudden shifts between passages

18. Memory, trauma, and narrative

19. Trauma • The English patient: has been burned beyond recognition, is partially responsible for the death of his lover • Hana: has witnessed death and dismemberment as a nurse, has lost her father in World War II, has lost her lover in World War II, has aborted her unborn child • David Caravaggio: has been tortured for information by the enemy, has had his thumbs removed • Kip (KirpalSingh): has lost his mentor and companions due to explosions, is constantly in danger of dying himself

20. Solace through books • “This was the time in her life that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world” (Ondaatje 7).

21. Books as way out of ruins • “The staircase had lost its lower steps during the fire that was set before the soldiers left. She had gone into the library, removed twenty books and nailed them to the floor and then onto each other, in this way rebuilding the two lowest steps.” (Ondaatje 13)

22. Narrative as way out of trauma • Caravaggio tells Hana about his torture • Hana tells Caravaggio about her losses • The English patient tells Hana and Caravaggio about his past

23. Narrative as fragmented and imperfect • Stories are jumbled, confused, fragmented • Stories are sometimes incoherent • Characters withhold information

24. Fragmented books • “She was not concerned about the Englishman as far as the gaps in plot were concerned. She gave no summary of the missing chapters. She simply brought out the book and said ‘page ninety-six’ or ‘page one hundred and eleven.’ That was the only locator.” (Ondaatje 8)

25. Fragmented Histories “She picks up the notebook that lies on the small table beside the bed. It is the book be brought with him through the fire—a copy of The Histories by Herodotus that he has added to, cutting and cluing in pages from other books or writing in his own observation—so that they are all cradled within the text of Herodotus. “She begins to read his small gnarled handwriting.” (Ondaatje 16)

26. The Histories by Herodotus • Canonical work of Western literature • Greek, circa 450 B.C.E. • Recorded culture and history of Mediterranean and parts of Asia • Forerunner of historical genre

27. Fragmented Histories • “Official” history (Herodotus) is supplemented and overwritten by English patient’s personal history

28. Hana’s fragments • Page 61 • Page 118

29. Outline

30. Two kinds of revision • Higher Order Concerns—big picture issues • Do you have a debatable thesis? • Is your essay well organized? • Are your ideas developed enough? • Lower Order Concerns—small details • Are you writing grammatical sentences? • Are you using punctuation correctly? • Are you using proper MLA Style? • adapted from OWL Website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/690/01/

31. 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

32. 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

33. Elements of Outline:Thesis Statement • Most important aspect of essay / outline • Make sure you have a strong thesis • If you revise your thesis, you must revise all other elements of outline

34. Elements of Outline:Topic sentences of paragraphs • There should be 5-10 topic sentences, depending on how many paragraphs you have • Possible revisions: • Cut weak paragraphs • Add new paragraphs • Reorder paragraphs • Combine/split paragraphs • Significantly revise paragraphs • Work on unity within each paragraph • If you revise a topic sentence, you will need to revise some surrounding elements • e.g., definitely the supporting evidence, often the surrounding topic sentences, possibly the thesis statement

35. Elements of Outline:Supporting evidence • Each topic sentence needs 1-4 pieces of supporting evidence • Supporting evidence= reasons why topic sentence is true • Possible revisions • Cut weak evidence (especially plot summary) • Find new evidence (either new citations or analyses) • Improve coherence • Improve development • If you revise supporting evidence, you will likely only need to revise elements that are within the same paragraph or close by

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

37. 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

38. The English Patient Read until end by next lecture Good luck with your outline!