Cubist Narrative In Atonement

Ian McEwan is one of the most influential writers in the British contemporaryliterature world. His works are notable for the terse style and the vivid descriptions of theinward world. Some critics think that the themes of his early novels are ones of the sensesof menace such as murder, violence, incest, etc, but some critics praise Ian McEwan that heis famous for his minute yet detached depiction of the unease and fear lurking in the mindof modern people. The themes he explores in his works are most often concerned withhuman nature, like death, good and evil.With the continuous development and mature of his literary creation, he begins to paymore attention to the inner world of ordinary people and emotional state, shaping us agroup of modern people of inner contradictions. Atonement, one of his masterpieces, hasbeen widespread concerned since published in2001, which pushes McEwan to his highestpoint of creation after Amsterdam. The novel demonstrates the crime forming process ofthe adolescent Briony and her atonement process throughout all her life. McEwan isfamous for his sophisticated manipulation of various writing techniques. Although it hasbeen widely analyzed and commented on different perspectives, a deeper and morethorough study is still needed.In view of this, the thesis aims at analyzing the narrative characteristic by referring toCubist art principle. What presents the most remarkable characteristics of the narrative inthe novel is its adoption of fundamental Cubist artistic tenet, first decomposition and thenreconstruction. The Cubist narrative characteristic of Atonement first manifests in itsdecomposition of atonement through the Cubist techniques of multiple perspectives andfragmentation. Then the Cubist narrative characteristics manifest in its reconstruction ofstructure, narrative clues through the Cubist techniques of juxtaposition and collage.The thesis is composed of three chapters. In the Chapter One, it discusses multiplepoints of view in the novel: internal point of view, first-person external point of view, zeropoint of view.The second chapter expounds the characteristic of fragmentation in structure, storymaterials and dreams, imagination and memories. The third chapter explores the reconstructing characteristic of Atonement throughjuxtaposition in time and space, narrative clues and the collage of inter-textualization.In Atonement, Ian McEwan employs the Cubism narrative skills, such as multiplepoints of view, fragmentation, juxtaposition and collage. In his novel, modern people live ahard life in the reality and fiction. In his creative process, Ian McEwan merges reality andfiction through the fragmented characters and plots, which present a fragmentary picture inreaders’ mind.