Postmodernist Narrative Strategies In McEwan’s Enduring Love

Ian McEwan is one of the most prestigious writers in the contemporary Englishliterature. Enduring Love is one of his finest novels. It is a novel of love, faith, terrorand suspense. After Joe and Clarissa, the protagonists of the novel, witnessed ahot-air balloon accident, the relationship between them came under the most intensepressure and finally broke down when intruded upon by Parry. In this novel,McEwan explores problems inhuman nature which we donot often pay due attentionto.Enduring Love has attracted some critics’ attention in the West. However, thereare few Chinese critics who have studied the novel thoroughly. The author of thisthesis intends to analyze Enduring Love concerning its postmodernist features, i.e.indeterminacy, intertexuality and collage. With the analysis of these three techniques,we may better interpret the themes of this novel and the writing style of McEwan.The use of indeterminacy is remarkable in Enduring Love. McEwan appliesunreliable narration, non-linear narrative and open ending to create an uncertainworld where people become fragile and disillusioned with the loss of trust and faith.As far as intertextuality is concerned, I find there are some intertexts, such as TheBook of Genesis, The Book of Job and John Keats’s poems linked to Enduring Love.Through the comparison of those intertexts, we could deepen our understanding ofthe characters and the themes of love, truth and beauty. It can be deduced thatMcEwan isin favor of the power of faith instead of reason. Collage is applied to thisnovel too. Different types of fiction and non-fiction literary texts are used to present acomplicate and chaotic world. In postmodern society, suffering from differentpressures, human beings become fragile, distrustful and frustrated. The fragility oflove, the weakness of human nature and the helplessness faced by people are exposedthrough the detailed textual analysis. What human beings can do to save themselves isto have a faith. McEwan remarks that,“believing is seeing”. In this uncertain world,what we see is limited to what is presented to us. Faith is joy, which can provide a harbor of love for people in this chaotic world.