Ian McEwan, together with Martin Amis is regarded as the best-known and controversial contemporary British novelist. He has been regarded as a serious, objective writer who is interested in writing about obsessive behavior, sex and moral corruption. When Atonement appeared in 2001, it received widespread praise from the reviewers, especially in respect of its style and narrative structure. This paper is concerned with the deceptive style of McEwan’s Atonement, with the exposure of the narrative as an artifact. The identity of Briony is discussed from two aspects: on the one hand, she is a character who is as real as others. On the other hand, she finally becomes the real author of the novel, revealing the process of the construction of this story. Thus, by giving Briony two identities, the writer deceives the reader into his beautiful lie and awakens them with the same metafictional device, laying bare its nature of artifice. Through the study and analysis, it is safe to conclude that Atonement possesses the main features of metafiction. The application of deceptive writing renders the novel more aesthetic significance and meaning.
| Published in | English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13 |
| Page(s) | 69-73 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Deceptive Style, Ian McEwan, Atonement
| [1] | Han Jie, “Postmodern Strategies in Ian McEwan’s Major Novels,” Advances in Literary Study, 2014, 2, 134-139. |
| [2] | Peter Childs, The Fiction of Ian McEwan, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 129. |
| [3] | http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307396785 |
| [4] | John Updike, “Flesh on Flesh”, New Yorker (13 March 2002), 80. |
| [5] | Ian McEwan, Atonement. New York: Anchor Books, 2007, p 47, 51, 39, 147, 148, 402, 478. |
| [6] | Zhai Shijing, “The Characteristic of Contemporary Young English Writers’ Works”, Academic Quarterly, 1995, 1, 176. |
| [7] | Earl G. Ingersoll, “Intertextuality in L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between and Ian McEwan’s Atonement”, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 40: 3, (July 2004): 241-258. |
| [8] | http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/reviews/birthday.htm |
| [9] | Peter Childs, The Fiction of Ian McEwan, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 136. |
| [10] | http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400025558 |
| [11] | Linda Hutcheon, The “Real Word(s)” of Fiction: The French Lieutenant’s Women, English Studies in Canada, (1984), 84. |
| [12] | William Palmer, The Fiction of Jone Fowles: Tradition, Art, and the Loneliness of Selfhood, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974, 30. |
APA Style
Han Jie, Zhang Liming. (2020). Deceptive Style of Writing in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(2), 69-73. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13
ACS Style
Han Jie; Zhang Liming. Deceptive Style of Writing in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(2), 69-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13
AMA Style
Han Jie, Zhang Liming. Deceptive Style of Writing in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(2):69-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13,
author = {Han Jie and Zhang Liming},
title = {Deceptive Style of Writing in Ian McEwan’s Atonement},
journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
volume = {5},
number = {2},
pages = {69-73},
doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200502.13},
abstract = {Ian McEwan, together with Martin Amis is regarded as the best-known and controversial contemporary British novelist. He has been regarded as a serious, objective writer who is interested in writing about obsessive behavior, sex and moral corruption. When Atonement appeared in 2001, it received widespread praise from the reviewers, especially in respect of its style and narrative structure. This paper is concerned with the deceptive style of McEwan’s Atonement, with the exposure of the narrative as an artifact. The identity of Briony is discussed from two aspects: on the one hand, she is a character who is as real as others. On the other hand, she finally becomes the real author of the novel, revealing the process of the construction of this story. Thus, by giving Briony two identities, the writer deceives the reader into his beautiful lie and awakens them with the same metafictional device, laying bare its nature of artifice. Through the study and analysis, it is safe to conclude that Atonement possesses the main features of metafiction. The application of deceptive writing renders the novel more aesthetic significance and meaning.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Deceptive Style of Writing in Ian McEwan’s Atonement AU - Han Jie AU - Zhang Liming Y1 - 2020/06/09 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13 T2 - English Language, Literature & Culture JF - English Language, Literature & Culture JO - English Language, Literature & Culture SP - 69 EP - 73 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-2413 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.13 AB - Ian McEwan, together with Martin Amis is regarded as the best-known and controversial contemporary British novelist. He has been regarded as a serious, objective writer who is interested in writing about obsessive behavior, sex and moral corruption. When Atonement appeared in 2001, it received widespread praise from the reviewers, especially in respect of its style and narrative structure. This paper is concerned with the deceptive style of McEwan’s Atonement, with the exposure of the narrative as an artifact. The identity of Briony is discussed from two aspects: on the one hand, she is a character who is as real as others. On the other hand, she finally becomes the real author of the novel, revealing the process of the construction of this story. Thus, by giving Briony two identities, the writer deceives the reader into his beautiful lie and awakens them with the same metafictional device, laying bare its nature of artifice. Through the study and analysis, it is safe to conclude that Atonement possesses the main features of metafiction. The application of deceptive writing renders the novel more aesthetic significance and meaning. VL - 5 IS - 2 ER -
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