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Ian McEwan’s Atonement

Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Atonement is a novel about Writing: . Letters Stories Plays Biography Journals Perspective Truth Lies Words. When writers do this, it is called. Metafiction (above, or looking down from above on the act of writing).

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Ian McEwan’s Atonement

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  1. Ian McEwan’sAtonement

  2. Atonement is a novel about Writing: • Letters • Stories • Plays • Biography • Journals • Perspective • Truth • Lies • Words

  3. When writers do this, it is called

  4. Metafiction(above, or looking down from above on the act of writing)

  5. Consider the English tradition of epistolary novels. In these novels, guess what kind of writing consumes the majority or all of the text? Letter writing

  6. Consider the Epistolary Novel: Letters are used for the entirety of the novel, or for presenting the most important parts of the novel: The Color Purple Dangerous Liaisons Pride and Prejudice

  7. Consider the many ways the written word, in letters, operates in this text: The big letter Letters of information (too much information 78, too little information 192) Love letters that serve as holy relics/talismans ( 194, 213) Letters of evidence/ crime 107 Letters of rejection 294 Letters as correction for writing (metafiction) 295, 339, 340

  8. Stories • Just whose story is this??? • Briony, certainly • Others: Robbie, Cecilia • Others: Lola, Paul, Mrs. and Mrs. Tallis, Nettle and Mace, etc. • Others: the unnamed victims/soldiers of WWII, prisoners with stories • Modern society, modern people who mess up

  9. One thing is for sure . . . • McEwan believes that stories enable us to empathize better than any other medium “The novel is supreme in giving us the possibility of inhabiting other minds. I think it does it better than drama, better than cinema. It’s developed these elaborate conventions over three or four hundred years of representing not only mental states, but change, over time.” (McEwan Interview Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003)

  10. Just a reminder: • This is Ian McEwan’s story . . . He’s made it all up! • The narrative is a “draft of atonement” • The narrative structure of the novel is storytelling by a storyteller who is created by another storyteller . . . . .

  11. Biography/Novel • We readers have to remind ourselves: this is a novel, not a biography. The “author” lies to us. • Pg. 349 • How does Briony make us assume this is her biography? Detail, perspective, authority of I, lies directly told

  12. Plays

  13. The Trials of Arabella • Serves as “bookends” of Briony’s story • The tragedy (three acts) • The unfolding of the drama of the story with characterization central in Act I • Pg 16, 347,348 the play is quoted • The play falls apart, mirrors the action of the narrative

  14. Journals • Briony’s nursing journal: 264-265 • “true self” seen in writing • Names changed, imagination • “no obligation to the truth” • Like Chaucer: characters make a moral point • Reveals connection to her past, to others • “Age of clear answers was over”

  15. Perspective 1. Several perspectives of the fountain scene Cecelia 20-23 Briony 35-37 Young Writer’s ? Perspective 38 Older Writer’s perspective 295 • The famous library scene Briony 116 Robbie 130

  16. Postmodernists distrust the notion of only one

  17. So, how does McEwan play with truth and lies through writing? Multiple perspectives of narrative Moral complexity of plot Level of detail Using non fiction sources of writing to build trust in “characters” All fiction is a beautiful lie that tells the truth

  18. But for a work of metafiction . . .

  19. It’s all about the words: • The word in the Robbie’s letter • Rape, Divorce, Adultery, Prison, “Come back to me,” Dunkirk, Gov’ner, NT, Horror, speaking to the french patient . . . • Watch the power of a single word • Watch the power of single person’s word to commit evil • Watch the power of the military’s word • Watch the power of Briony’s words to make atonement

  20. But is it possible to atone for actions using words?

  21. Works Cited • Atonement book cover. United Methodist Church. United Methodist Church. United Methodist Church. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=3990>. • The Color Purple [Book cover]. Digital image. The Color Purple. Barnes and Noble. 8 Sept. 2008 <http://search.barnesandnoble.com/the-color-purple/alice-walker/e/9780156028356>. • Dangerous Liasons [Film poster]. Digital image. Dangerous Liasons. DVDVideo.co.nz. 8 Sept. 2008 <http://www.dvdvideo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=2055&oscsid=70a27433ae019babff51dad15eb44482>. • Daveblog. Kernals of Truth [Pop corn kernals spell truth]. Digital image. Flickr. 14 Feb. 2006. Flickr. 10 Sept. 2008 <www.flickr.com>. • From Atonement, Beach at Dunkirk. Digital image. Imagining War. Film in Focus. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://http://www.filminfocus.com/article/imagining_war>. • Gabeandchry. IM000947_2.JPG [Photo of old English house]. 2 Dec. 2006. Flickr. 3 Dec. 2006. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabeandchry/313333994/>. • McEwan, Ian. Atonement. New York: Anchor, 2003. • SouthernPixel. Words [Penance and Penalty]. Digital image. Flickr. 28 Dec. 2006. Flickr. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com>. • Thespian masks. Digital image. Off Broadway Acting. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://http://offbroadwayacting.com/img/thespianmask2.jpg>. • Ward, Dave. L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter [Photo of old typewriter]. 23 May 2003. Flickr. 24 May 2003. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveward/15453474/>.

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