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Postmodernism in literature is characterized by concepts like the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, intertextuality, self-reflexivity, and historical and political issues.

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1: Postmodernism concept:  Unreliable narrator 

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1: Postmodernism concept:  Unreliable narrator 

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An unreliable narrator in literature stands for a narrator that is not trustworthy. This narrator tends to lie or withhold information from the reader. We see an example of this in the novel through the protagonist Briony which results in the entire novel being questionable. Briony who is still a child narrates parts of the novel and her narration leaves the reader feeling that Briony is dishonest and not truthful.

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2 : Postmodernism concept: Self-reflexivity 

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2 : Postmodernism concept: Self-reflexivity 

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Self-reflection can be defined as a provisional means of exploration based upon the assertion that reality consists of objects and events. As they are clear in “human consciousness” and not of anything independent of human conscious experience, where the self becomes an object to oneself.(123 helpme) . In the novel Atonement, there is evidence of self-reflexivity. Atonement” declared “a conversation with modernism and its dereliction of duty,” as a result he draws attention to his trepidation for modern history and the moral principles of fiction. The novel insinuates that the novel’s modernist inter-text is a “pre-text”. This is a fabricated form of text, which is fictitious to repress the real reason. For self-examination and atonement, a reliving of the author’s early, ethically disturbing works. Atonement revises modernism and McEwan’s early fiction in the reversionary sense of the word. By trying to ask for forgiveness and to mark and name and positively atone for the misdemeanors of the past. (123 helpme)

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3: Postmodernism concept:  Lack of truth 

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3: Postmodernism concept:  Lack of truth 

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There is no absolute reality or truth in Atonement. The only truth is made up by the reader and this is because the reader needs to feed his need for things to follow in order. In the novel, the readers get misled and this leads to the reader making false assumptions. Language as well plays an important role when discussing the postmodern theory of truth. Language is perceived as an instrument creating the world and certainties, although they may not be true at all.⁶ This is also the case in Atonement where the choice of language and Briony’s choice of utterances lead the reader astray in his reading and subsequent interpretation of the words. One example is the description in Part 3 stating that “[…] Robbie stood before them”⁷, although as the reader will learn at a later point Robbie was already dead. Nevertheless, a lot of stylistic devices are used to possibly prevent the reader from being misled, such as metatextuality, an unreliable narrator, and the foreshadowing of the inevitable end. (GRIN)

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The film version of the novel makes use of numerous devices and elected scenes that foreshadow the postmodern theory postulating the nonexistence of an absolute truth and the questioning of the truth. Schier explains this phenomenon of postmodern truth like this: “Nothing is certain, neither what is truth, nor what is lie […]. Yet, it is also not certain that nothing is truth and everything lie.” GRINN)

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Atonement constitutes metafiction elements through reading Part One, Part Two, and Part Three and one comes to realize that Briony Tallis is the one that wrote the epilogue of "London, 1999". As a result, it turns the book Atonement into metafiction

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Atonement is a manuscript written by the 77-year-old Briony Tallis herself. The reader's attention will be drawn to the fact that Briony Tallis made a few changes to her manuscripts to make up for the crime that she committed.  The author makes references early on in the novel about the process of writing and rewriting when creating a piece of fiction. We see an example of this when after Briony saw her sister appear from the fountain outside dripping wet, she thinks of asking her sister to explain the “prospect she was coming close to defining, at least emotionally” This “definition would refine itself over the years”. After this, there follows a long passage fast forwarding 60 years into the future that reveals to the reader that Briony’s fiction from then on was shaped by “an impartial psychological realism which she had discovered for herself” (41) that very morning.

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When reading the rejection letter of C.C it comes to the reader's attention that the suggestions made by C.C in the rejection letter are in fact evident and noticeable when going back and reading Part One again. This is an excellent metafictional technique used by the author. The way Briony considered the advice that C.C gave to her in the rejection letter implies that the rejection letter was indeed the turning point that Briony decided “to use fiction to correct the errors that fiction caused her to commit”

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The metafictional elements used by McEwan imply to the reader the idea of atoning for a 64-year64-year-old through fiction. The references to multiple drafts and creative license in terms of omitting truths are important in foregrounding the writing process, as is the juxtaposition of two versions of events and the entirety of the epilogue, which serves as one big metafictional twist. However, the unreliability of Briony as a narrator convinces the intelligent reader that there is in fact no possibility of her achieving atonement. (newyork essays)

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It is here in the epilogue that the possibility of atonement through fiction is opened up. The epilogue itself is what makes this text a metafiction, rather than a novel with metafictional asides. It contains multiple references to the process involved in writing a convincing piece of fiction, evidence for which can be found in the novel proper. For instance, the “letters Mr. Nettle wrote [her] about Dunkirk” (359) were the basis of Robbie’s experiences detailed in Part Two and the numerous rewrites that led to this final version in which her “lovers end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement” (370). (Newyorkessays)

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The author McEwan implied a metafictional element by bringing it to the reader's attention the possibility of Briony making up for her crime. In the epilogue, we realize that since “a cowardly Briony limped back to the hospital, unable to confront her recently bereaved sister” (371), Briony’s atonement is entirely fictional. In a further metafictional twist, the “imagined or ghostly persona” (329) that Briony could feel walking back to her life as a probationary nurse is in fact the real Briony – the Briony who became a famous novelist. (newyork essays)