On Point Of View In Ian McEwan's Novels

Ian McEwan is one of the best-known contemporary British novelists. Works by McEwan are notable for the terse style and the vivid descriptions of the inward world. We can witness a good-sized research on Ian McEwan with increasingly diverse aspects abroad, while, few people pay attention to his works in our country.As an important aspect of narrative technique, point of view has been of central importance in twentieth-century criticism of the novel and has received much attention both from the novelists and the critics.This thesis aims to analyze McEwan's characteristic point of view in his major novels on the basis of the related theories in narratology.The Cement Garden, his first novel has been shocking for its authentic description of Oedipus Complex, Patricide and incestuous love, and has received controversial criticism since it was published. The Child in Time combines the depiction of psychology with social reality, and gives up the description of darkness of people's psychology in his early works. The Child in Time stands at such a turning point, in which the writer depicts people's psychological truth under the surface of life and makes the individual fate reflect social reality. The Atonement, as the first novel of the new century, is nominated by the Booker Prize, and arouses wide attention due to the success of his compiled screenplay. Those three novels are generally acknowledged as the representatives of McEwan in his different writing periods, and also represent his skillful narrative techniques.This thesis consists of introduction, main body and conclusion. The introduction part shows the current situation about the study of Ian McEwan as well as his works home and abroad. And also, the main concern and the major realistic significance of this thesis are revealed.The second part of this thesis is the main body which is divided into three chapters.Chapter one is the general introduction to the theory of point of view, which gives us some general ideas of the theory, as the basis of this thesis. This chapter gives the general introduction to the concept, development and division of point of view: the analysis in this thesis is mainly based on the theory of point of view adopted by Professor Shen Dan to interpret Ian McEwan's unique narrative skills in his three major novels.The second chapter analyzes different types of points of view which are adopted in each novel in detail.The third chapter aims to study the functions of various types of points of view appearing in the novels. The diverse types of points of view by McEwan significantly mark his literary identity. The last part of this paper is the conclusion part. Based on the previous illustration and analysis in each chapter, this part serves as a further summarization of Ian McEwan's unique narrative techniques reflected in his major novels. Also in this part, the significance and value of the study are highlighted. Via the analysis of different types of points of view adopted in McEwan's novels from the theory proposed by Shen Dan, the author tries to explore the different functions for adopting certain point of view in each novel, and this thesis throws new light on the civil theory on narratology and stylistics and aims to arouse the attention and interest to McEwan's novels in our country.