Transgraniczność: Podróż z Zachodu na Wschód w powieści „Angielski pacjent” autorstwa Michaela Ondaatje
Across boundaries: A journey from the West to the East in The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
PILAR BOTIAS
University of Córdoba
ISSN: 1731-2221
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21784/RH.2016.008
Streszczenie:
„Angielski pacjent” to powieść napisana przez Michaela Ondaatje w 1992 roku i wyróżniona prestiżową Nagrodą Bookera. Na podstawie książki zrealizowano film, który zdobył dziewięć nagród Akademii Filmowej w 1996 roku. Przedstawiona w powieści historia podejmuje takie tematy jak ludzkie korzenie czy utrata tożsamości narodowej. Sam autor wyjaśnia, iż „Angielski pacjent” jest o „Wszystkich ludziach urodzonych w jednym miejscu, którzy żyli w innym miejscu [i którzy] stracili swoje źródło.” Akcja powieści rozgrywa się pod koniec II wojny światowej, co wiąże się z wszechobecnym uczuciem dezorientacji i zagubienia odczuwanym przez większość bohaterów. W tym artykule podejmę próbę zidentyfikowania i wyjaśnienia określonych kwestii postkolonialnych, które książka porusza. Odnośnie do metodologii, jako główne źródło mojej argumentacji będzie mi służyć książka Elleke Boehmer pt. „Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors”z 2005 roku. Postkolonialne wątki, które są poruszane w powieści, będą zilustrowane odpowiednimi cytatami.
Abstract:
The English Patient is a novel written by Michael Ondaatje in 1992. He won the Booker Prize for Fiction due to this novel. Furthermore, The English Patient was made into a film which won nine Academy Awards in 1996. The story covers topics such as people’s own roots and loss of national identity. As Ondaatje himself clarifies, The English Patient is about “All people born in one place who live in another place [and who] have lost their source”1. The novel is set at the end of the Second World War and, therefore, there is a common feeling of confusion, of being lost shared by the majority of characters. In this essay, I shall attempt to identify and explain certain postcolonial issues specifically found in the novel. For instance, the loss of national identity since the World War II left a vast number of people repudiating their own country due to the atrocities committed by the “Whites”. As far as methodology is concerned, I will use Elleke Boehmer’s book: Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (2005) as the primary source to my arguments. Besides, secondary bibliography as academic articles will be employed as well. Finally, I will include quotes from the book to illustrate postcolonial topics that could be found in the novel.
Słowa kluczowe:
„Angielski pacjent”, Michael Ondaatje, tożsamość narodowa, wątki postkolonialne
Keywords:
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, national identity, postcolonial issues
Pełny tekst:
PDF - 76-97
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