Subtitle The English Patient -
The "English Patient" is obsessed with maps, yet he loathes the ownership they represent. His life’s work in the Sahara desert was an attempt to find a space "unmapped and uncharted," free from the names of "powerful men". On The English Patient « Kenyon Review Blog
Despite being Hungarian, Almásy was educated in England and worked for international geographical societies, embodying a "post-national" existence that the war’s rigid alliances cannot accommodate. subtitle The English Patient
Almásy’s burns have removed his facial features, effectively stripping him of the "map" of his race and ethnicity. The "English Patient" is obsessed with maps, yet
The title itself is a misnomer that highlights the fallibility of wartime perception. In the chaos of World War II, the characters at the Villa San Girolamo cling to the label "English" as a shorthand for an identity that has actually been physically and metaphorically incinerated. subtitle The English Patient