Dr Philip Holden (email: ellhpj@nus.edu.sg)

The English Patient: An Annotated Bibliography of Research Sources

Brittan, Alice. “War and the Book: The Diarist, the Cryptographer, and The English Patient.” PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 121 (2006): 200-213.

Alice Brittan distinguishes between the two ways books are adopted in the Second World War and in The English Patient. On the one hand, books were used as a tool for hiding secret messages within the text, which are than easily distributed to their allies due to its portability. On the other hand, as seen in The English Patient, books along with statues are used as a way for the various characters to detach themselves from the war. Books played a key role in the war, because it gives the reader power, as books were able to transmit ideas and messages without being restricted by boundaries. This draws the writing and reading of books into the political arena. Cryptographers are confronted by the task of having to establish a code that is difficult for enemies to decode, yet at the same time easy for the agents. Often enemies are able to decode the message and in turn impersonate the agents to send out false information. Thus, the advantages of coded messages become its pitfalls. Alice Brittan contrasts this with the central characters in The English Patient, who use books and statues as a way to counter the political and social impressions caused by the war. By scribbling their own words on top of the existing text, the characters are able to erase the intended meaning and consequences of the text, which was previously used for military purposes. The personal accounts written on the book makes it a private possession, destroying its intention of being used as a military tool. Statues can also be used as an escape from the war, as its size makes it unlikely to be used in the war. One finds solace from statues, as it transcends all cultures and is appreciated by everyone. A statue however, is not empowered with the powers that one gets from books due to its immobility.

Clark, Robert. "Knotting Desire in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient." [Electronic version] Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 37 (2002) 59-70. Retrieved March 14th 2008, from http://jcl.sagepub.com/

In Robert Clark’s “Knotting Desire in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient”, Clark focused on aspects of the text that revolved around the main characters, namely Almasy, Caravaggio, Kip and Hana.

The article touched on the theme of castration, in which the amputation of Caravaggio’s thumbs were portrayed as an act of castration as it served as a removal of his two thumbs, deemed as phallic symbols, and at the same time, rendering Caravaggio “impotent”, as it served to disallow Caravaggio from continuing with his professional as a thief. At the same time, further into the article, Clark talked about the idea of “castration” in tandem with the idea of “maps”. With maps drawing out the boundaries of lands, any form of exile would result in said person being sent out to uncharted territories, away from places that he might have sought solace in, thus the idea of being removed and rendered impotent.

At the same time, the article covered the themes of necrophilia and the sexual connotation of “nursing”, as well as the sexual idea of “oral pleasure” as derived from the way Hana fed Almasy. The sexual connotation is strongest during the description of the way Hana nursed Almasy throughout. The sexual connotation is put forth through descriptions of Almasy’s penis, and a comparison of Hana’s act of nursing to that of a lover. The idea of necrophilia is brought forth from the idea of Hana’s love for Almasy stemming from that of her dead father and dead unborn baby.

In the article, Clark talks about how Hana’s love ultimately results in a final verdict of death, and explains it with examples such as Hana’s unborn baby, the dead father of the baby, and her own father. Clark also talks about how her love for Almasy and Kip, both of which were either destined to die ultimately, or would most likely die.

Clark concludes his article with the concept of duality – the idea of particular imageries and metaphors, such as “images of sandy places that contain oases or the relics of oases” (69). Clark concludes his article by explaining his concept of a nomadic text, in which the story drifts from character to character, with no “name, nation, possession and Law”. (70)

Cook, Rufus: "Being and Representation in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 30.4 (1999): 35-49.

1. The article talks about the various recurring objects and references in The English Patient, such as mirrors, shadows, photographs and works of art such as novels, plays, murals and tapestries. These highlight motifs that illuminate the characterization of Hana, Kip, Carravaggio, Katharine and the English Patient. Especially important are the works of art, which serve a dual function of helping the characters to define their identities, their purposes and their relationships with others, yet at the same time destabilizing the characters’ identities.

Another important representation discussed is the article is characters and events. They are presented more frequently as re-enactments that derive their meaning or significance from some remembered character or event in the novel. In elaboration, no specific incident or episode can be identified as ‘original’, because it may be interpreted as a repetition of an incident or event from the past or present. The article further explains that this recycling of memories and incidents accentuates the sense of entrapment which the characters are in. The characters are each trying to replace losses in their life by sharing and communicating with each other, which is why they are ready to immerse themselves’ in one another’s experience. Kip, in particular, ‘replaces loss’ with ease. The characters share their experiences to an extent that they often become assimilated, making it difficult to determine at times precisely where one character’s experience ends and another’s begins.

The last part of the article discusses the representation of the English Patient. He represents absence and negation, which other characters also share. The English Patient is most thoroughly nullified, and he is the only one who is able to escape the constrictions of a phenomenal existence, to identify with a self that narrates, the self that incorporates in one simultaneous space all the cumulative experiences of lost time.

2. Rufus Cook's “Being and Representation in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient” is essentially about how the way in which the story is told and representation impacts the themes of the novel. Cook first looks at the references to art, explaining that these references help the reader find a beginning point from which they can start understanding the characters. From there, he gets into the matter of representation: characters and the events in their lives occur repeatedly, the meaning of these events continually being deferred to a previous time. Cook argues that the repeated references give a sense of “unity” to the disjointed pieces of the narrative. In other words, it is through the constant search for meaning in another time, another re-enactment, the narrative is actually brought in a circular time, where the present doesn't necessarily feel like the present, but rather, a ghost of another incident or time. The repetition also emphasizes these incidents, although with regard to the characters in The English Patient, the repetition serves to heighten the sense of merging, or assimilation of identities: it is sometimes difficult to tell where one character's story ends and another begins.

Cook then poses the question of whether it is possible to invent your own identity by losing yourself in the outside world. By attempting to integrate themselves with the outside world, the characters are attempting to understand how their lives fit together both internally and externally. He focuses on the English patient as an example of a character who has succeeded in surmounting the constrictions of time and space in understanding himself through his vast knowledge and lack of reliable personal history. In doing so, the English patient becomes “immortal” so to speak, living outside the circular time that exists everywhere else in the novel.

Cook, Rufus. “'Imploding Time and Geography': Narrative Compressions in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 33.2. (1998): 109-125.

The article discusses how Michael Ondaatje collapses the natural givens of time and geography in The English Patient. It explores how the author tinkers with the intermittent nature of Time and the callousness of Geography- the reader wanders through the novel with references throughout the book in the form of objects, scenes and characters that point to the fractious and discontinuous quality of the novel. It effectively discusses Ondaatje’s unique writing style and its effect achieved on subverting the notions of time and geography.

Ondaatje’s fond use of abrupt shifting in tense and the sometimes-conflicting mixing of cultural contexts tend to confound readers. He also uses postmodern techniques such as describing future events earlier, which subverts conventional narrative logic. We constantly see sudden changes in the narrative point of view, which tend to disrupt the natural flow of the novel, and threaten the concept of individuality and selfhood. Also, the time-order is continually changing. Ondaatje veers from the past to the present and back again- time does not progress in linear form. There is also an inter-cutting of scenes and events. The author shifts between scenes of what is happening to Kip and Hana and Caravaggio and the English Patient. Thus he creates an “impression of simultaneity”. Ondaatje is also fond of mixing odd cultural motifs such as medieval with modern. It confounds our sense historical continuity and superimposes the past on the present, assimilating both.

Things like morphine are used, not only to cloud the characters’ senses, but it also helps blend the reader’s temporal and spatial boundaries. We relax our rigid idea of ordering events in its natural order. Ondaatje also has the tendency to leap from one place to another, collapsing the notions of national boundaries. Repetitions of scenes (eg. Marseillaise episode) and a mapping of characters onto each other (Hana’s father and the English Patient) attach mimetic value them. It connects the experiences of the different characters and they also serve as contrasts to each other.

Emery, Sharyn. "Call Me By My Name: Personal Identity and Possession in The English Patient." Literature/Film Quarterly 28 (2000): 210-207. Literature Online. National University of Singapore Lib., Singapore.  7 March 2008 <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/>.

Straddling between both the film and the book, Sharyn Emery explores the notion of identity, conformity and ownership in The English Patient. Emryn focuses on the relationship between Katharine and Almasy, and through this, she traces the nature of the three main ideas mentioned above. She starts of with evaluating how closely linked identity is with name. She points out the stark contrast between Almasy’s way of ‘naming’ Katharine, and Katharine’s own identity for herself.  Almasy ‘name’ for Katherine is influenced by the desert whereas Katharine names herself according to her nationality. It is interesting that Almasy actually has a fixed description for Katharine when his nature is such that he does not like the idea of being limited to a particular boundary. He believes that boundaries do not have to exist and as such, he simultaneously opposes the idea of ownership. To him, he must not be owned by anyone and the reason for his close affinity towards the desert arises from the belief that ownership and boundaries cannot exist in the desert. Emery points out the irony that builds up in The English Patient. Almasy starts out as a man who defies boundaries but as his relationship with Katherine builds up and as the plot thickens, Almasy contradicts himself by wanting to own Katharine, though to him, she is like the desert, an unlimited space of no boundaries. The second irony is it is ‘name’ that causes Almasy to lose Katharine in the end despite his strong opposition to ‘name’; the very thing that creates boundaries for identity. Emery traces the transition of Almasy from a man of firm beliefs to one of contradictions; contradictions that were based on the ironies mentioned above.

Hawkins, Susan E. and Susan Danielson. “The Patients of Empire.” Literature Interpretation Theory 13.2 (2002): 139-153.

The article “The Patients of Empire” discusses both Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient and Anthony Minghella’s film by the same title and analyzes them in relation to themes such as orientalism and historical versus desert romance. It relates the film’s success to Minghella’s decisions to remove the reaction of the characters to the news of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also to privilege Katherine/Almasy’s love story over Hana/Kip’s. Minghella’s decisions, however, are interpreted as colluding in the American culture’s preference for nostalgia and historical misinterpretation in a happily-ever-after love story.

Katherine’s and Almasy’s relationship are discussed in the article in the themes of oriental time, desert romance, pre-national bodies. Minghella’s film presents their relationship as a desert romance, forbidden within normal society, and thus doomed from the beginning. Minghella’s re-creation of the desert sequence is said to depict orientalist clichés about the exotic desert, while Katherine’s body represents prenational bodies that are incapable of resisting European invasion.

The romance between Kip and Hana are discussed in the themes of historical romance and modernist bodies. It is likened to both the historical romance of medieval times and the contemporary one of mutual recognition and respect. However, the film ends by putting Kip and Hana back into the conventions of western romance, when the male lead leaves due to personal guilt and other pressing reasons while the female lead is left to a lifetime of longing.

The article also talks about the film with regards to the cancellation of the Enola Gay exhibit in USA, which was a topic of controversy at the time of the release of the film. Minghella’s decisions in the course of the making of the film thus seem to coincide unerringly with the liberal consensus of portraying USA as a guiltless hero in WWII.

Hillger attempts an exploration of the English Patient through the framework of nomad thought. In the process she utilizes Homer’s Odyssey as an intertextual lense to view the text and show how Ondaatje deviates from the Canadian nationalist writing tradition. In addition, another text, Barometer Rising, is used as a foil to show how traditional Canadian literature uses the Odyssey as an intertext to elucidate the search for Canada’s national identity. While Barometer Rising values the notion of a permanent home and fixed identity, the titular hero of the English Patient embraces a self that has no identity. Despite this, the article also observed that there seems to be a longing for stability which is espoused by the nomad character, Hana herself when she writes to her stepmother. Hillger also analyses the role the desert plays in the novel where it strips the titular character of his national - indeed all – identity when he crash lands there. In addition, the lack of physical landmarks there thus echoes the similar lack of identity references an individual uses for a notion of self. On another note, Ondaatje’s deviation from the Homeric representation of the character of Odysseus – Ondaatje’s version commits suicide – serves as an allegory for mankind’s self-destructive tendencies that were the result of humanity being ‘too cunning for its own good’ much like Homer’s original Odysseus. This misapplication of reason can be seen through Hana’s critique of the decision to use the atomic bomb. The article also deals briefly with a feminist reading of the text by suggesting that Hana, instead of the English patient, being the nomad of the story and thus detract from the essentially male representation of Odysseus. Hana’s role in creating inter-textuality through the reading she does for the patient is discussed.

In the article, The English Patient paralleled marriage and nationalism as authorized alliances forming a family or nation while, in contrast, adultery is presented as deplorable dalliances defying kinship and nationhood. The film illustrates imperialism’s emphasis on physically possessing and parting territories via cartographic vision, which objectifies the desert and its metaphorical equivalent, the body. As embracive extra-national pursuits, dividing and mapping territories are symbolically erotic and adulterous, as reflected by the cartographer Almasy’s insistence on naming and claiming selected parts of Katharine’s body.

Just as the film introduces identities and sexualities eluding established standards of recognition, cartography also exposes unchartered terrains, which the cartographer/colonialist holding ‘the power of the gaze’ utilizes to contrast, and thereby construct, its Self (Hsu 4). The cartographic gaze corresponds with the audience’s adulterated and voyeuristic view of the film, the screen functioning like the boundaries imposed by maps on nations and marriage. As outsider observers the audience is deemed under “paralysis” (7) and incognizant of perceiving a reality other than what the film presents to them, akin to the adulterous lovers who failed to see the reality of normative national and marital boundaries between them.

However, reciprocity between the voyeur and the object of the gaze may break down boundaries. This translates into the blurring of reality and fantasy, which Hsu argues need not necessarily be unproductive as it allows for “permeability” ( 8) of boundaries and a more accommodating construction of the Self. Challenging chronological constraints, Almasy maps his memories onto Hana’s through the film’s use of flashbacks and results in the assertion of the ‘English’ patient’s true identity. The audience as an included, participative feature to the construction of the film (Hsu 9) could infiltrate the cinematic screen, suggesting that lines separating nations from one another, ergo the Self from Other, could also be transcended.

Jasper, David. “Wanderings in the Desert: From the Exodus to The English Patient.” Literature & Theology 18.2 (2004): 153-168.

In Jasper’s article there is the underlying thread of the European need to conquer the desert and posses all of its mysteries. The primary purpose of David Jasper’s article is to magnify, and bring back to mind, the forgotten importance of the desert’s theological wisdom, which is that, I believe, it transcends all differences and encompass everything as one, resulting in God being the place and vice versa. The thread of dualism runs throughout the article, whether it is in talking about the desert and its winds, or the religious impacts and implications related to the desert Jasper brings to the forefront the ancient and on going European obsession with the ‘brown void’, having “burned itself into the western imagination” and the need to possess and lay claim to all of its perceived wonders and mysteries and the fact that even throughout the many battles we have yet to learn the lessons the desert repeatedly teaches its would be conquerors..  Jasper goes on to discuss the ever present theme of wind in desert literature and its many ‘voices’, the two most notable being anger and silence. Silence here is seen as the tongue of the desert, with poetry as its medium through which it is heard. The wind is seen as a unifying force in desert literature, binding it in ways that elude scholars with their many attempts of providing a sense of order to it. On the other hand, the desert is also shown in a non romanticised view, as the “poetry was all in the anticipation’ and the harsh reality of the desert successfully crushing any lyrical notions of the ‘wonders’ and ‘mysteries’ of the desert. Jasper ends by voicing the belief that the desert will never cease to evoke such intense and fierce obsessions and for it to ever become the garden where Allah can walk, it has to be truly empty of all of our beliefs and obsessions, be empty of man.

Jollimore, Troy and Sharon Barrios. “Beauty, Evil, and The English Patient.” Philosophy and Literature 28.1 (2004) : 23-41. Literature Online. National University of Singapore Library, 08 Mar 2008 <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp>.

It is generally agreed that Literature works could teach morality, but the banality argument claims that they are ineffective, because it assumes both author and readers to have common moralistic values, as readers only pick on characteristics they agree with. The article will show through The English Patient that literary works can bring out controversial insights.

Critics argue that the novel distorts known facts through the positive portrayal of Nazis in Almasy, who serves them to save his lover. Here, his private reasons transcend political ones. The discussion stems from the definition of evil:  the intention of causing damage, or not bothering if one’s actions negatively affect others. The problem occurs when the individual is oblivious to the damage he’s causing, making it hard to ascertain if the action is intentional.

One side argues Almasy knows but chooses to ignore the harmful results of his action, labeling him as evil. Opposing it, the Unity View pardons him based on his utopian-like devotion to love, its rationale being if one has certain characteristics that are linguistically “beautiful”, one cannot be evil. This is not realistic since the romantic Almasy contradicts our moralistic judgments.

Beauty and evil can coexist in grey areas where evils are overlooked over artistic ideals. Almasy belongs to extremes of both spectrums - figuratively he is revered, but morally he is among the worst. The argument that the novel portrayed Almasy too positively is overly simplistic. Instead the novel tells us it’s possible to be morally evil and also linguistically beautiful simultaneously.

The article exposes the naivety of the banality argument by showing how complex literature works can be. The novel has shown us that humans could be evil, and yet be beautiful, and that the world is not as simplistic as we would like to envision it.

Kranz, David L. “The English Patient: Critics, Audiences, and the Quality of Fidelity” Literature/Film Quarterly 31 (2003): 99.

1.Anthony Minghella’s film adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient has generated mixed opinions in the academic community regarding the fidelity of the film to the original novel.  Those who find the movie to be true to the text cite that the movie successfully recaptures its stylistic features, and retains the thematic concerns of the novel. Conversely, others find the movie a reduction of the novel that oversimplifies and romanticizes it to pander to commercial tastes. Yet other viewpoints complicate this opposition—while acknowledging the significant alterations and simplifications that were made, the novel’s essence is felt to be preserved.

In a survey more representative of views of a typical audience, the film was found faithful to the novel in its artistic aspects of motifs and narrative flow. The film was indeed simplified in that the novel’s heterogeneity of voices was reduced to a single character. However, responses did not support post-colonial critics’ claim that Kip is a preeminent character, and that the film’s exclusion of Kip’s scenes compromised the original commentary on colonialism. Generally, although the novel’s political, racial and sexual issues did not come across as strongly in the film, it was not as catastrophic a simplification as presented by the critics.

In addition, critics’ condemnation of the film may be unfounded for a few reasons. Firstly, critics’ application of postcolonial or postmodern perspectives may have led to forced readings of the novel which are not entirely accurate, and which are wrongly imposed on the film as well. Secondly, critics may have neglected cinematic nuances which accomplish experiential effects of the novel albeit through different means. Thirdly, they have made the erroneous assumption that the fragmented, ambiguous style of the novel disallows progressive notions of narration and meaning, which come through more strongly in the film.

Alice Yeo Hui Ling

2. David Kranz juxtaposes the perspectives of film students, critics and general audiences on Minghella’s film adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize novel. Kranz elucidates the wisdom in the collective audience’s general acceptance and praise of the film by using harsh and self-limiting interpretations of academicians as a basis for comparison.  By surveying people who had either read the novel only or both the novel and the film, Kranz concludes that most people support the idea that the film reduces the novel’s heterogeneous perspectives but not on the degree of importance of the protagonists. He postulates that Minghella’s film simplifies without reducing Ondaatje’s novel drastically, placing greater focus on love and private relationships, without undermining the issues in the novel. Following his study, Kranz also argues that postcolonial critics misread the ending of the novel because they are strongly influenced by postmodern theory that promotes differences between both literary forms, deals inadequately with the film’s plot and neglects its cinematic elements. This is especially with respect to Kip’s diminished importance in the film. The later part of the article centres on Kranz’s personal interpretation of the film in relation to the novel, delineating how the film offers more linearity of narrative and closure. Through analysis of relationships between characters in the film, Kranz highlights that the difference between novel and film is a matter of degree and not kind. Deviating from classical Hollywood realism, the fragmented film offers multiple perspectives with viewpoints of different characters. Similarly, the novel’s various voices illuminate its various concerns.  An advocate of democracy, Kranz maintains that individual responses are uniquely influenced by cultural backgrounds. He urges readers to interpret the film by taking into account his research, insinuating that critical judgment of literary forms should not be set down by the intellectual elite.

Kyser, Kristina. “Seeing Everything in a Different Light: Vision and Revelation in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient” University of Toronto Quarterly 70 (2001): 889-901

Kristina Kyser argues that with the use of Christian imagery, we can view the book in a different light. Biblical mythology has always been used to exalt the White race’s political agenda, it justifies their actions (for war), and gives them the authority to do so. However, she goes on to mention that it is particularly dangerous to believe in this. The English patient himself provides new perceptions into seeing and we are advised to do thus. We must realise that however powerful the Allies are, they have always based their conquers on the aforementioned, and this is irrational-what gives them the right to do so? Thus there are crucial questions on power and how they can create one’s identity, as discussed in the novel. We are invited to see how this is an interesting way to tell a story as there are different perspectives given with this new revelation. Kyser acknowledges that Ondaatje does not just accept the simple dualism of things, by reversing good and evil or black and white. Any incident is viewed through not only one but multiple perspectives at one time. He acknowledges the complicated nature of things; his novel doesn’t offer two-dimensional answers but reflects complexity of reality. This is reiterated through how the plot is pieced together like a mosaic, not in any chronological order. Another of Ondaatje’s concern is the constant tension between the individual and whole, where the former is suppressed by the latter, resulting in the individual withdrawing into itself, refusing to be reunited with society and the lack of identity that ensues later on. Kyser agrees that Ondaatje is concerned with how the story is interpreted and he does not appeal to anything out of this world, but something the readers can definitely relate to or comprehend.

Lernout, Geert. “Michael Ondaatje: The Desert of the Soul”. Kunapipi 14:2 (1992): 124-126.

Ondaatje has used the desert landscape as a physical manifestation of the lives of the main characters in his novel The English Patient. The desert is beautifully portrayed but in fact is barren and likewise the characters are all equipped with certain skills but end up not benefiting from it. Hana becomes desensitized to death in the course of working as a nurse but collapses emotionally when her father dies in the battlefield. Caravaggio has the ability to sneak in and out of places and when he is caught and mutilated, this skill is not useful. The English patient has good command over language and has knowledge of places but his own story is brought out in a sketchy manner with details missing. He carefully evades the topic of his true identity by continuously talking but morphine finally outwits him. Kip is trained in defusing bombs and yet he is helpless over the issue of the bombing of the two cities in Japan. This leads him to realize that he will always be an outsider though he came to be a part of the group in the villa. The villa serves as a place that is isolated from the outside world where the physically and psychologically wounded characters gain each others’ confidence and reveal their woes so as to be healed. And yet, with the bombing in Japan, the war is brought to the villa and the group disintegrates with the departure of an estranged Kip. The language of the novel is lyrical, full of imageries and is visual but they are all used to put forward a story of individuals who have suffered due to the war.

Longley, Kateryna. "Places of Refuge: Postcolonial Spaces." SPAN 44 (1997): 8-21.

On the basis that the notions of space and spatiality serve as key points in postcolonial studies, Kateryna Longley, in her article, discusses the nature of space and place, and people’s interaction with these two elements. Built on the impetus that the concept of space is important in the recollection of experiences, and in many ways “are the experience” (9), Longley presents the idea that in the postcolonial context, space and place are constantly changing and are never able to provide the sense of belonging or safety to those displaced from their place of origin. She supports her stand with reference to Martin Heidegger and Gaston Bachelard, both of whom agree that space is “infinitely open and elastic” (13), and is thus susceptible to elements from the ‘outside’. In this light, the article refers to Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient to show how the notion of space and the experience of it are related to “issues of personal identity in terms of memory and history” 8), and how the novel uses the notion of the openness of space to reflect on space as “only mak(ing) sense in terms of the way it is occupied by the imagination and lived by the body, as place” ( 17). Longley therefore focuses on the key spaces in the novel, such as the desert and the villa, to highlight this mobility in people’s interaction with space. She also refers to other metaphorical ‘spaces’ in the novel, such as the English patient’s copy of Herodotus’ Histories, and considers other “sheltering spaces” which the characters enter beyond the physical realm (Longley 17). In this manner, Longley’s article iterates the concept of how spatial details affect both people’s interaction with the physical spaces they occupy and the sense of safety and control they feel in them.

Penner, Tom: "Four Characters in Search of an Author-Function: Foucault, Ondaatje, and the 'Eternally Dying' Author in The English Patient." Canadian Literature 165 (Summer 2000): 78-93.

As suggested in the title, the “Eternally Dying Author” in The English Patient forms the basis of the argument in this journal. It explores the “implications of an absent/anonymous narrative creator” 78) using Michael Foucault’s theory of Author-function and as such justifies or refutes the “death” of authorship The English Patient. The four main characters, Hana, Caravaggio, Kip and the English Patient are used as ideal tools of the novel to explain the thanatoid element of Author Function.

According to Foucault, there is a necessity to “name the writer in order to understand the text” (78). In The English Patient, there is an assortment of issues regarding nationality, religion and identity and as a consequence, leads to the requirement for identification of who is speaking what in order to understand the text. However, with the Author Function in place, there is a limitation and confinement to the interpretations of the readers and as such, only the “death” of the author can allow for scope and flourishing of ideas. This argument is magnified then debated through the characters of the novel.

For example, the English Patient and Almasy symbolize the “erasing” and sustaining of the Author. While the former seeks to remove and conceal his identity, the latter reinforces the physicality of names. To Almasy, “maps were his raison d’être”, his focus on location is a representation of the need to locate the author in contrast to the English Patient who seeks to “erase” the author in this sense. Hana, Caravaggio and Kip play similar roles in explaining the thanatoid function of the author. Hana, through her triple role of reader, writer and script; Caravaggio through his desire to pinpoint Almasy’s identity and Kip, through his identity as a bomb “reader” all serve to justify or refute the “death” of the author in some way or another.

Sadashige, Jacqui. “Sweeping the Sands: Geographies of Desire in The English Patient.” Literature/Film Quarterly 26.4 (1998): 242-254.

Jacqui Sadashige’s article on The English Patient has its theme centered on the issue of desire. The main content of the article is divided into two parts. In the first part, Sadashige concentrates on the novel, delving into Ondaatje’s style of writing, citing his use of history, historical figures and intertextuality as key elements, whereby the narrative highlights how history is always being reconstructed through someone’s retelling of it, thus affecting the present narrative. She then highlights how the primary characters are situated within relationships that are transnational and interracial; desire therefore does not enable the characters to escape the national borders which ultimately confine them. In the second part, Sadashige focuses on the adaptation from print to screen by comparing the two. She contrasts the way full closure is achieved in the film as opposed to the novel, the way the plot is constructed with Almásy as the focal character while other main characters in the novel become secondary, the reduction of importance placed on the intertextuality which is prevalent in the novel, and how the narrative of the film allows for characters to define their identities. Over and above all, she points out that the central theme of the film is about love and desire. Sadashige ends off the article by noting the cultural impacts the film has had on society, and how the novel engages and invites readers to interact with the world they are a part of and cannot separate from, unlike the film, which enables us to enter another reality.

Png Xiufang Stephanie

Shin, Andrew. “The English Patient’s Desert Dream.” Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 18.3 (2007): 213-235.

Two stories in The English Patient are examined. The first concerns Almásy’s dream of being nationless and the second involve Kip’s discovery of his Indian identity. Shin also analyzed both stories in the context of two other novels, namely, Rudyard Kipling’s Kim and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. Themes such as Western imperialism and imagery of descent are considered throughout the article.

Kim is briefly introduced to provide a basis for comparison with The English Patient. Parallels between the two novels are seen in various forms, including Kip and Kim’s similar father-quest. Thus, Kip’s story in The English Patient is seen as one of the instances of the postcolonial reinvention of Kipling’s colonial novel. This reinvention explores the relationship between England and its former colonies.

Shin discusses Almásy’s symbolism as the Western power that is undermined by his sentimental yet childish dream of being an outsider. Furthermore, the desert is a feminized landscape where Almásy experiences psychic regression. From this, issues and symbolism of homosociality and infantilization are discussed. Also, the centralization of women characters such as Katherine and her provocative sexuality is considered.

The issue of the Western desire for the East in Passage to India is brought up in TEP and examples discussed are the Cave of Swimmers incident and Kip and Hana’s relationship in addition to femininity and psychosexual symbolism. Then, Shin discusses the castrating effects of the atomic bombs on Kip’s identity struggle and subsequent return to his India. Symbolism of the gaze in TEP is also mentioned. Finally, Shin argues that Anthony Minghella’s 1996 film adaptation depoliticizes and subverts the argument of TEP as it only focuses on aspects such as Almásy and Katherine’s romance. This marginalizes Kip and Hana’s relationship, omitted the atomic bombs and thus, leaves out Kip’s discovery of a national and racial consciousness.

In his article, Douglas Stenberg explores how love in The English Patient is depicted, in both the novel by Michael Ondaatje and the screenplay by Anthony Minghella. Stenberg uses love as the focus from which the novel and the movie span out into their worlds.

Ondaatje feels that the movie has its own “organic structure” within its “dynamic arc”, deepening what was already composed in the book to form a “communal story”. Minghella plunges into the “enormously emotional reservoir” of the novel which he recreates in the film’s romance that has a magnitude transcending time and space. Described as a “catalyst”, love is expressed in relation to motifs and symbols that are used in The English Patient.

The motif of water runs through both works, to form the essence of love. Scenes in the movie of rain, the sea, washing, drinking, and Hana’s tear, echo of water’s recurring significance in the text. Katherine is often alluded to water by Almasy, what he loves taking on the characteristics of each other. People begins to blend into geography too; bodies and landscapes merge, in love taking the essence of Nature that transcends human limitations and weaknesses. The setting of the desert frames Almasy’s affair with Katherine, as she is more than once depicted anthropomorphically. Touch and hands, is a scene that through the visible medium of the movie, take on a greater significance, each move carrying meaning in the relationship. A spiritual realm exists between the 2 lovers. In this space, they are able to build their own world with their own meanings, where love is a way in which time, space, are defied.

In this way, Stenberg’s article links together elements from both mediums of The English Patient to display an acute awareness of how elements of love are constructed.

Whetter, Darryl. "Michael Ondaatje’s 'International Bastards' and their 'Best Selves': An Analysis of The English Patient as Travel Literature." English Studies in Canada 23 (1997): 443-458.

This reference is an analysis of The English Patient as travel literature in the context of the main travels in the narrative, namely those of Almásy through the North African deserts from 1930 to 1939. The analysis is done on two levels: the accuracy of geographical and historical circumstances in which the narrative was set, and, more extensively, its affiliation with the project of story-telling, which is acknowledged to be oral. The English Patient is said to be, although it is fictional, very historically and geographically accurate, citing the heavy intertextuality mainly between the novel and Herodotus’ Histories and publications by the Royal Geographical Society, London. However, despite this intertextuality, several elements are said to serve to keep the narrative oral, in that the reader is invited to participate in, react to, or experience the narrative more than just reading it, through the three main aspects of the traveler’s tale: anticipated communion or community, immediacy and incompletion. These elements include the representation of the landscape as text (which includes an analysis of morphine as a narrative agent as well as the anthropomorphization of text, specifically Herodotus’ Histories), the body as landscape, and the landscape as body, which all serve to stress the communal nature of the experience as undergone by the traveler, the reader, and the desert itself. This community of experience in turn alludes to the communion and anonymity that are accomplished, and are in fact the objective of the “international bastards” that set forth on these journeys, in such travels as in The English Patient that encourages the betterment of oneself (hence attaining one’s best self).

This reference acknowledges The English Patient as a good example of travel literature. It is in-depth and contains extensive quotations from the book and interviews of the author, as well as from other texts. It is, however, very abstract in some areas and requires a strong grasp of the text as well as the discourse on travel literature.

Williams, David. “The Politics of Cyborg Communications : Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and The English Patient.” Canadian Literature 156(1998): 30-55.

This article provides an insightful view from the historical perspective of how the West has been influenced by technologies of communication. Juxtaposing the theories of Innis, McLuhan, Haraway and Baudrillard to media, Williams believes there is a mutual relationship between technology and political and socio-cultural circumstances of a country. Connections between media - film and print, as well as it’s relation to imperialism and postcolonialism is shown through The English Patient, from which he illustrates how both manipulate and influence cultures and lives of society and nations.

The influence of communication media, is a primary cause of social change and each medium embodies a bias towards the socio-political organisation and control of information of a country. Innis believed in media as time- and space-biased. McLuhan cites the signs of film-induced challenges towards print media as breaking margins and borders, creating a 'global village' stimulated by the change in perception provided by the film. Baudrillard’s idea of a hyperreality is seen through Almasy and Katherine’s love affair. To understand the impact of technology, Williams shows it crucial to consider how communication media is deployed as shown in characters of Kip and Almasy. They are portrayed in the image of cyborgs – an entity of a combination of organic and synthetic parts that creates an environment whereby information can easily flow. This may seem to destabilise the social order of society, but in fact, offers some form of potential liberation from the hegemony of the West. Yet, simultaneously, the cost a cyborg has to pay is seen in the sacrifices made by Kip and Almasy - the “border of (their) own skin”.

In conclusion, Williams suggests that technology has and will continue to force humans to be interdependent upon each other acknowledging that while the current world is dependent on cybercommunications, eventually, one would have to return to the privacy of the printed word to 'rediscover' themselves.

Younis, Raymond Aaron. “Nationhood and Decolonization in The English Patient.” Literature/Film Quarterly 26.1 (1998): 2-8.

Younis argues that the film version of The English Patient elides much of the novel’s concerns with nationhood and colonisation. These changes owe mostly to the constraints imposed by the conventions of the melodramatic form of the film: the love story between the patient and Katharine takes precedence over all.

The novel deconstructs nationalism, highlighting its divisive nature and its potential for conflict, destruction and war. The patient’s fluid identity represents a freedom from the polarising constraints of nationhood. However, this is glossed over in the movie as the drama of love and morality is the central focus. The patient in the movie is foremost a tragic hero who sacrifices country for love. Katharine is in turn transformed into a fully fleshed melodramatic heroine, caught in a moral dilemma between fidelity and love.

By contrast, Hana and Kip, the main focus of the novel, are significantly downplayed. Hana’s complex motivations for caring for the patient in the novel (to gain redemption for the care she was unable to give her father) are reduced simply to a nurse’s sense of duty. Kip is just her love interest, while in the novel he is a vehicle for exploring colonisation; his perceptions of India and England challenge the traditional, oppositional view of coloniser and colonised.

While the movie ends with an affirmative image of Hana and her sense of renewal upon the death of the patient, the novel’s affirms the link between Hana and Kip that remains across the gulf of culture, space and time. Thus the novel celebrates the things that connect people, as opposed to the things that separate them. Nationhood and colonisation are such things, and the novel is occupied with dismantling the binaries carried within these concepts. However, as a romantic melodrama, the film does not accommodate these concerns.

Last updated: 20 March, 2008