A Study Of The Historical Narrative In Ian McEwan’s Novels From The Perspective Of Postmodernism

In British literature, Ian Mc Ewan stands out as a writer who develops within himself a particular fascination for historical writing. In his writing of history in novels, Mc Ewan mainly uses the historical narrative with distinct postmodern features. This thesis studies how Ian Mc Ewan employs his narrative devices in the postmodern context to write about history, to question the reliability of historiography and to subvert and revise historical metanarratives in his two representative works, Black Dogs and Atonement.This thesis commences with the study of factors that have exerted influence on Mc Ewan when he showed his keen interest in writing history in his novels. Then with postmodern narratology, the thesis proceeds to elaborate on the unreliable narrative devices used by Mc Ewan in historical writing to question the credibility of historiography and reveal the fictionality and the nature of construction of historiography. After that this thesis focuses on the discussion about how Ian Mc Ewan subverts and revises historical metanarratives. The thesis holds that Mc Ewan’s novels are distinctively characterized by the fragmentation, spatialization and plurality, which are the main concern of postmodern philosophy of history. In Conclusion, the thesis elaborates on the significance of Mc Ewan’s historical narrative in his fiction. Although Mc Ewan takes a skeptical and postmodern view of the historian’s ability to fully recapture the past, he nonetheless never ceases to pursue historical truth. Mc Ewan takes special initiative to write about history with the postmodern view in order to get close to historical truth and to stand against the oblivion of the past. It is Mc Ewan’s effort to uncover the overlooked small histories of ordinary people and pay his respect to these people. Furthermore, Mc Ewan reminds readers of the violence and evil in human nature, which, if not seriously addressed, will cause the tragic past to recur in the future.