<b>The English Patient: the aesthetics of violence and the recontextualization of history in fiction and film</b><br>

Abstract

This presentation explores the theme of violence which permeates Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992) and its transposition into film by Anthony Minghella (1996), for, either from a social-political perspective or from an individual point of view, the theme of violence is rendered in both art forms through scenes and images of passion, betrayal, mutilation, suffering and death. In examining the relationships which can be established among them, in order to reflect upon the essence of violence and conceptualize on the aesthetics of violence in art, we shall also be comparing some of the different narrative strategies used by the novelist and the director.