The Trauma Under The Control Of Memory-the Study Of Julian Barnes' The Sense Of An Ending

As a Famous contemporary British novelist,Julian Barnes(1946-)won the Booker prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending.It is a novel about memory,which contains an exploration for the unreliability of history.Tony forms and dispels the trauma through the operation of the memory.This novel is developed in the first person narration.The same set of events which presents a different ending is narrated in two sections.Tony tries to dig out the true history and cognize their lives through mystery.In the literary creation of Barnes,he focuses on the issues concerning history.The Sense of an Ending also chooses historical events as the subject,and the impact of events penetrates and extends in the hero's life,which expresses the satire and mockery of Barnes' to the self-righteous personal memory.With the memory being the main line,this thesis will be developed from the aspect of traumatic theme,which aims at analyzing the cause,process and influence of the novel's hero Tony Webster's initial false memories and traumatic experiences.And then it discusses the influence of the modified memory on traumatic experiences.Finally it explores the reason of the universal existence of trauma in western societies and the collapse of the spirit of contemporary western culture.We can have an overall perception of the novel's deep cultural connotation and a comprehensive,profound and systematic analysis of the novel.In addition,this thesis reveals the author's writing intention that he expects people not to be afraid of death and look for hope in “the end” as well as providing a new perspective for the research of the novel.