Writing the wound Reading Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' as a narrative of trauma

This thesis reads Ian McEwan's 2001 novel Atonement through the lens of trauma theory as a means of making sense of what is often read as a deceptive, disordered narrative. The repetitive elements of the narrative mark it as being shattered by the traumatic experience of its fictional narrator, Briony Tallis. This reading is further supported by evidence in the text of other markers of trauma such as avoidance and guilt. Briony's narrative reflects a larger narrative of collective trauma, which culminates in the birth of the postmodern aesthetic. Briony's revelation in the coda that the closure provided at the end of Part Three was false dramatizes the way that the fractured postmodern aesthetic perpetuates traumatic aporia; collective healing under postmodernism seems impossible. Thus, it is possible that the text is calling for aesthetic revision and a move beyond postmodernism.