Professor Poyner-Del Vento
Kindly turn off
 All cell phones
 The wireless component of any laptop computers
Overview of lecture
 Postmodernism
 Fragmented narrative
 Memory, trauma, and narrative
 Outline
Postmodernism
Postmodern novel
 postmodernism
 (complicated term)
 reaction against modernism
 disbelief in overarching, coherent, rational narrative
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
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
Structure in The English Patient
 “temporal disorder”
 “disregard of linear narrative”
Tension 
Traditional Structure of a Novel
Time
Tension 
The English Patient
?
Time
Fragmented Narrative
Fragmented narrative
 A story broken into separate pieces which do not fully
make a coherent whole
Scraps of stories
 “We find jars at Abu Ballas with the classic Greek
amphora shape. Herodotus speaks of such jars.”
(Ondaatje 140)
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)
Flashback
 scene from past inserted into present storyline
Hallucinations and dreams
 Page 22—the English patient’s memories/dreams of
the desert
Other disorienting features
 No chapter names or numbers
 Characters often aren’t named
 Missing page numbers
 Sudden shifts between passages
Memory, trauma, and narrative
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 (Kirpal Singh): has lost his mentor and
companions due to explosions, is constantly in danger
of dying himself
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).
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)
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
Narrative as fragmented
and imperfect
 Stories are jumbled, confused, fragmented
 Stories are sometimes incoherent
 Characters withhold information
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)
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)
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
Fragmented Histories
 “Official” history (Herodotus) is supplemented and
overwritten by English patient’s personal history
Hana’s fragments
 Page 61
 Page 118
Outline
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/
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
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
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
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
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
Advantage of Outline
 Allows you to see essay as whole
 Allows you to focus on HOCs, not LOCs
 Resources available on WebCT
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
Read until end by next lecture
Good luck with your outline!