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How the novel encompasses the genre of postmodernism

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How the novel encompasses the genre of postmodernism

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Han, J., & Wang, Z. L. (2014). Postmodern Strategies in Ian McEwan’s Major Novels. Advances in Literary Study, 2, 134-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/als.2014.24020

New York Essays. 2022.

Metafictional Elements in Ian Mcewan’s Atonement. https://newyorkessays.com/essay-metafictional-elements-in-ian-mcewans-atonement/

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Until the reader turns the page to find the epilogue titled "London, 1999," where the truth that Parts One, Two, and Three were actually written by the 77-year-old Briony Tallis is revealed, shattering this illusion. Because of the information in the epilogue about the events we have just read, the novel is now considered metafiction.

The prospect of atonement through fiction is raised in the epilogue. Instead of being a novel with metafictional asides, the epilogue itself distinguishes this work as metafiction. The novel itself provides proof for its numerous references to the steps involved in creating a credible work of fiction. For instance, the many re-writes that resulted in this final draft, in which the "letters Mr Nettle wrote [her] about Dunkirk" (McEwan, 359) served as the foundation for Robbie's experiences depicted in Part Two, and her "lovers end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement," (McEwan, 370).

This implies that Briony has added and left out more to the manuscript over the years, and McEwan alludes to this earlier in the book when Briony realizes that "whatever actually happened drew its significance from her published work and would not have been remembered without it." (McEwan, 41)
(New York Essays, 2022)

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The Problematic Relationship between Fiction and Reality

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The Problematic Relationship between Fiction and Reality

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‘Atonement’ is a novel about telling stories. Focus areas for the author include writing, creativity, history, and the nature of truth. Imagination is crucial to the development of the plot and the occurrence of the climactic event. The protagonist and underlying writer, Briony, a 13-year-old girl with a wild imagination, best exemplifies the subject of imagination. Her first interpretation error is the portrayal of the fountain scenario, which serves as the foundation for the remaining deceptions. She was unaware of the truth—that Robbie and Cecilia are real individuals, just like her—due to her vivid imagination and her love of writing. As a result, she interprets what she sees incorrectly and transforms a chance occurrence at the fountain into what she calls blackmail. Briony can see Cecilia and Robbie standing by the Triton fountain from the window. She attempts to make sense of the situation and give it meaning, but her interpretation is incorrect. Briony interprets the scenario from the start from the viewpoint of folktales, which is that this should be a marriage proposal, just like the humble woodcutter did in her story.
She then crosses the line into realism and enters the realm of romance.
Briony thinks Robbie is "imperiously" extending his hands to tell Cecilia to take off her clothes. She is also pondering in the meantime "what strange power did he have over her? Blackmail? Threats?” (McEwan, 48) Briony's concept appears to be evolving from a young child's perspective to an adult one. Briony's imaginative twisting of reality results in a catastrophe that alters the course of Robbie, Cecilia, and even her own life, forcing her to atone for her transgressions for the rest of her days. Briony sees what she expects to see and interprets the world in her own way.

This novel explores the uneasy connection between reality and fiction by relating Briony's fantasies and imagination and the miscommunications that follow. Briony uses her imagination to misunderstand, misinterpret, and misconceive other people's lives. She also blurs the line between what is fact and what is fiction.
(Han, 2014)

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The time period covered ‘Atonement’ ranges from 1935 to the present day. The fates of individuals are intertwined with the historical and social realism in the book.. The narrative structure weaves together reality, history, and fiction. Aristotle asserts that there is a difference between poetry and history since the poet could talk of what would or might happen while the historian could only speak of what has already occurred. According to Linda Hutcheon, "historiographic metafiction," a subgenre of the historical novel and a part of the metafiction phenomenon, showcases the most successful fusion of history and fiction.

She refers to it as those widely read novels that paradoxically also claim historical figures and events while also being self-reflective. Such books blur the distinction between fact and fiction and redefine the terms "reality," "history," and "truth." The novel ‘Atonement’ has enormous historical ramifications.
The history, particularly that of the Second World War, is woven throughout the love tale between Robbie and Cecilia.
It becomes a contemporary love epic. The main elements of the story are divided into three sections with an epilogue, which are ordered according to the timeline of the plot. The first section concentrates on Briony's sin and on pre-war country life at the Tallis family mansion in England.
The second and third sections show events throughout the war, with the first one concentrating on the evacuation from Dunkirk and the second one concentrating on London.
The Second World War is now McEwan's focus, calling it "the great disregarded, unignorable subject for a generation of English novelists, who have on the general preferred to deal with it obliquely, as Kazuo Ishiguro did in "The Remains of the Day." McEwan blends historical fact and fiction, blurring the distinction between the two, and retells the past in an innovative way to create a new entirety.
(Han, 2014)

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Ian McEwan draws the reader's attention to the existence of an insecure narrator by making references to classic literary forms.
A reference to Samuel Richardson's ‘Clarissa’ can be found in Briony's melodrama ‘The Trials of Arabella’.
Arabella, the title character of Briony's melodrama, is the name of Clarissa's sister. The drama's choice of name was not an accident, but had artistic value. The treatment of sentiment in the book ‘Clarissa’ will automatically come to mind for the reader after reading this. McEwan made a reference to this book in the passage that describes Cecilia's after-school activities. After graduating from Cambridge, Cecilia also reads ‘Clarissa’ at home as a source of entertainment.
After earning her degree from Cambridge, Cecilia stays at home and reads Clarissa to pass the time. During her conversation with Robbie, Cecilia describes this book as "boring" and states her interest in Fielding which, in Robbie's opinion, is psychologically crass.
Another literary allusion to ‘The Blind Assassin’ by Margaret Atwood can be found in ‘Atonement’. The characterization, settings, storylines, and narrative arts of the two novels are comparable. Both works take advantage of the reader's naivety and use a cunning technique in the narration, the use of an unreliable narrator. Atonement is similar to Kazuo Ishiguro's ‘The Remains of the Day’ in terms of the unreliable narrator.
(Han, 2014)