Introduction

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Sonja Lehmann
pletely cut off from the world that surrounds them. However, if they are not part
of the real world they cannot really be transnational spaces, which would require
an overlap of spaces that cannot take place if their boundaries/separateness are
insisted upon. There is a logical breach at the centre of both transnational spaces
and communities which reveals all transnational connectedness to be only a
dream, which like the patient’s trompe l’oeil only seems true in moonlight (EP 33).
This leaves an apparent paradox since on the one hand the desert and the villa
clearly are described as transnational spaces but on the other hand they are characterized
in a way that makes their existence impossible. The narrative perspective
of these passages clears up the confusion. Hence, the emphasis on the villa’s separateness
from all other communities is mainly voiced from Hana’s perspective or a
description of Hana’s behaviour. She is the one who feels “secure in the miniature
world she had built” (EP 49; my emphasis) and not unlike her father, Patrick
Lewis, she is characterized by a certain degree of blindness. She can be seen “closing
her eyes against the world around her” because she cannot take the trauma in
the war hospitals around her any longer (EP 51). Furthermore, her obsession with
the English patient further stresses her desire to escape reality. She wants to
“throws herself out of the world to love a ghost” (EP 47) because “[t]here was
something about him she wanted to learn, grow into, and hide in” (EP 54). That
she has succeeded in this wish becomes apparent in her way of talking about the
villa. By describing it as a world of its own, she likens it to the patient’s description
of the desert and thereby admits that she has taken up his perspective of these
transnational spaces. This is completely at odds with the model of transnational
connectedness Kip expresses as shown above. This clash introduces a destructive
potential into the space of the villa. It can best be seen in the patient’s and Kip’s
approaches to cross-national situations which, upon closer inspection, are radically
different from each other.
5.3.2. Kip and the Patient as Contrasting Migrant Figures
The English patient and Kip at first seem to be very similar characters since both
are migrants whose lives span several countries. Kip with his Indian background
does not only identify with India as seen above but also with England because in
colonial India he was brought up with traditions from both countries (EP 301)
and during his time in England he started “to love the English” (EP 202). Likewise,
the patient appears to be connected to several cultures and nations. In addition
to English, he can speak German and appears as equally familiar with the
cultures of England and the rest of Europe (EP 101) as with the tribes of the
North African desert (EP 144). As Rufus Cook sums it up, “So extensive is his
learning that he seems to transcend time, place, and ethnic origin; he feels equally
at home among the English, the Bedouin, and the ancient Greeks or Egyptians”