Marika Mytýzková Kristýna Šedivá Michael Ondaatje The English Patient

Contemporary literature ● Exotic literature: ● Ben Okri – Nigeria, The Famished Road ● J. M. Coetzee – South africa, Disgrace ● Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss ● Canadian literature: ● Yann Martel – Life of Pi ● Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

Our choice ● Well-known film ● Won 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture. ● Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Kristin A. Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche ● The plot of the film is radically different from the novel.

Michael Ondaatje ● *12 September 1943 ● Born in Sri Lanka, lives in Canada. ● Editor of Canadian journal Brick. ● Famous books: ● Anil's Ghost ● Running in the Family ● The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Quotation ● “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 before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East…“ (pp )

What we want to tell you about the book ● Story 1: in Italy in 1945, about the relationship between Carravagio (Canadian thief and spy), Hana (Canadian nurse), Kip (Indian sapper) and burned English patient. We discover the past of the characters, especially of the English patient ● Story 2: in desert and Cairo in 1930s, about the tragic love of the English patient to the wife of his friend. ● Both stories are narrated parallel to each other and the first story is alternatively seen from the point of view of each of the main characters. ● Themes: love/death, war, nationality, love's ability to transcend time and place

What we didn't know before we read The English Patient ● that László Ede Almásy was a real Hungarian desert researcher ● some facts about the desert ● anything about conditions of war in the desert

Conclusion ● The story is about a critically burned English patient without identity, a Canadian nurse, a Canadian thief and an Indian sapper. In the book we discover the life story of the English patient and we learn about the life of the other characters. ● The book has a slightly experimental character - the narrative is non-linear and concentrates on the feelings of the main characters. ● The book was awarded the Booker prize and a film adaptation of this book won 9 Academy awards (Oscars) including Best picture, and the Golden globe.

Resources ● The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, Picador, 1993, London ● ● 7 ● ● ● ● (all websites accessed 10/12/2008)