Clashes And Perplexities In Ian Mcewan's Saturday

Ian McEwan is one of the most significant British writers since the 1970s. As a novelist, he pays special attention to the shifting complexities of the contemporary world, and always speaks for his nation at times of crisis and shock. His Saturday, published in 2005, was one of the first fictionalizations of the notorious 9/11 attacks as well as a most vivid expression of the historical period.Set on February 15,2003, two years after the 9/11 attacks, Saturday is a novel suffused with anxiety about the impending conflict in Iraq and also about personal conflicts people encounter in a terrorist-threatened contemporary world. Living in a post-9/11 world, the protagonist encounters numerous interpersonal clashes and internal perplexities, and is often forced to reassess his life, his existence, and his relationship with others.This thesis is to analyze the conflicts represented in Saturday. The analytical framework is mainly inspired by Cultural Poetics. Through a close reading as well as an exploration of the historical and cultural background of the novel and McEwan's view of history, this thesis explores the various causes that lead to the conflicts and its impacts on the protagonist. This thesis has four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to McEwan and his works. It also indicates the research purpose and methodology. The second chapter analyzes the interpersonal clashes in the novel while the third chapter focuses on the protagonist's internal perplexities. The final chapter concludes the thesis.