Articles: Post Modernism: Narrative Conventions in Literature

Intertextuality is a way in which to inform our reading of one specific text with the reading of others. Although a genre or narrative of a text may set up expectations, it is often the explicit references or allusions that have particular influence in shaping our reading of a text. The English Patient, a post colonial novel written in a post modernist style, includes a number of intertextual references and allusions that support its central ideas, themes and issues.
The interpretation of these themes, such as religion, relationships, identity and history, is largely dependant on previous knowledge of intertextual references. These allusions also have an influence on the character construction within the narrative, and provide a background and clarity to each character. The various print, visual and audio texts alluded to in The English Patient shape its reading and support its narrative structure, core ideas, themes and issues.


The gradual degradation of religion is an idea that is represented by a number of intertextual references within The English Patient. Along with supporting imagery and symbolism, the allusions portray the idea that the importance and value of religion is declining. The primary evidence of this is in the symbol of the English patient; he is referred to as a "despairing saint". His burn-ravaged body with its "hipbones of Christ" becomes a representation of religion, which has become little more than "a ghost". There are a number of allusions to the Bible within The English Patient, beginning with the English patient's time spent in the desert a parallel to Jesus' time where he was tempted by the devil. "Those few callous words in the Bible," are consequently satirized through a number of intertextual references, revealing that, like "all statues of Demetrius", the "nave Catholic" ideas are considered to be essentially "worthless". Demetrius, according to the Book of John 1:12, was a Christian who is spoken of as having a good report of all men, and of truth itself'. Religion within The English Patient is portrayed as "some fable about mankind and heaven". The degradation of religion is further influenced by images of destruction of religious icons echoed in the reference to Savonarola's Bonfire of the Vanities, "And everything was swept away free will.the right to worship Plato as well as Christ". The Villa San Girolamo, was "previously a nunnery" before the Germans moved in and had the Allies take over, causing destruction and leaving it with "sections of the chapelblown up". Hana, taking advantage of it, "carried the six foot crucifix from the bombed chapel and used it to build a scarecrow", affirming the lessening importance of religious items. The ancient historians called in for the battle of Umbria, (the few that realize the importance of art, particularly religious art), those who are brought in to enlighten troops on the best way to get into a fortress town."They spoke of towns in terms of the art in them. At Monterchi there was the Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca". The disregard of religious items by troops is small originally, but gives the impression that it will grow and be fostered, at first, "a twig from the Tree of Good and Evil inserted into the mouth of the dead Adam. Years laterthe bridge over the Siloam was made from the wood of this sacred tree". The old, conservative perception of religion is seen as without free will, and so religion is changing with the time, "a new testament". The number of allusions to religious texts and symbols within The English Patient support and enrich the idea that religion has become a thing of the past.

Identity is a complex and broad theme in The English Patient. Although imperialism and nationalism is criticized, the importance of physical and cultural identity is emphasized. Boundaries have become irrelevant and blurred. Nature and man made construction have become one, religion and war, love and death, nations within nations. Demarcation is lost in the desert, "house and landscape" becoming one, forcing each room to adapt "itself to this wound, accepting the habits of weather, evening stars, the sound of birds." The identity of the characters become uncertain. They are paralleled with other characters and situations from different texts, and therefore become identified by such references. Kip, for example, becomes "the officer Creighton". He becomes the English patients' David, predicting events in the end of the text. He is English by adoption, yet he remains "the foreigner, the Sikh". Caravaggio, the ex-spy, "had felt like a man in the darkness of a room imitating the calls of a bird", not unlike Hana's description of the English patient; "the real bird is the man upstairs." The English patient is Count Lasdilaus de Almasy, who is of garbled memory, who does not want "to belong to anyone, to any nation", with his sole identifying character contained within the text of Herodotus: The Histories. Everything has become indefinite. Borders, ideas of separation and differentiation are only sources of conflict, for "we are deformed by nation states". Beliefs have become contradictory. "And Madox returnedand a month later sat in the congregation of a church, heard the sermon in honour of war, pulled out his desert revolver and shot himself". The allusions become a way to explain the characters, the reasons for their actions and those themes and ideas which are criticized; "How did Odysseus die? A suicide, wasn't it?....Yes, Madox was a man who died because of nations". Identity, as shown within The English Patient, is not concrete, frequently shifting.

Intertextuality empowers the core themes and issues by adding layers and ideas in subtle ways, enabling the reader a more in depth and informed reading of a certain. They provide a different perspective to a text than if it was without allusions, and may alter a reading of a text. The English Patient does not spell out its core themes and issues, but impels a reader who has understanding of the various intertextual references suggested, to sympathize and identify with them. The setting, characters and events are constructed around identity in The English Patient, and are further supported and extended by intertextuality. Relationships are a complex and diverse issue both within text and out, although they are supported and clarified by the allusions made within The English Patient. Although religion could be seen by some readers as neither an obvious or major theme, with the allusions presented in The English Patient, it becomes an important representation of the events and society of the time. Intertextual references add layers to the core ideas embedded within a text and encourage the reader to engage with the texts themes and issues.