Postmodern Children In The Works Of Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan, one of the most important contemporary novelist in England, who is asfamous as Martin Amis. His Early novels center on the dark themes: sexual violence,adultery, grotesque fantasies, which earned him the name “Ian Macabre”. From The Child inTime, he has engaged into more complex and wider social, ethical and political issues. It iscrucial to make an analysis of his postmodern representation of these issues, in the hope that,this may render more aesthetic meaning to his narrative.This dissertation is devoted to the exploration of postmodern children in his two majornovels, The Cement Garden and The Child in Time. It lays emphasis on parody pastiche,intertextuality and the like. Postmodernity seems to be a reworking of past ideas. In TheCement Garden and The Child in Time, Ian McEwan attempts, among other things, to presentand re-present childhood in a family absent of parents in the former novel and in a familyabsent of the child in the latter one.The second chapter probes into the postmodern childhood in The Cement Garden, whichis exemplified by the postmodern characteristics of ambiguity and uncertainty. Postmodernchildren are constantly exposed to a multiplicity of perspectives and thus suffer a loss ofbelief in an objective reality and world. The individual self subject is decentralized.The third chapter centers on the postmodern representation of time in The Child inTime，with the emphasis on postmodern time respectively. Past and present constantlycollide with each other in the novel. The novel is full of past memories, so much that the pastbecomes more accessible than the present. In postmodernity, the dominant form of time asbeing linear and progressive is less dominant, and other forms of time are allowed.The forth chapter is about postmodern representation of children in The Child in Time.Both Charles and Stephen are ‘children in time’, but the main difference between them is that,Charles is so engrossed with the desire for an infantile return that he surrenders entirely to thisdesire, which results in his own demise. Due to the uncertain nature of time Stephenexperiences the shifting and unstable qualities of time. Based on the study in the previous three parts, it is easy to draw the conclusion that themajor novels of Ian McEwan which centers on the child and childhood exemplifies thepostmodern representation features. The application of the postmodern technique gives thenovel more artistic meaning.