Reality Check: Ian McEwan’s Rational Fictions

TLDR: This paper identified a scientific turn in two recent novels by Ian McEwan, arguing that in Saturday (2005) and Solar (2010), literary realism becomes linked with a particular conception of science.

Abstract: This essay identifies a “scientific turn” in two recent novels by Ian McEwan, arguing that in Saturday (2005) and Solar (2010), literary realism becomes linked with a particular conception of science. Science is presented in these two novels as the discourse of objectivity, enjoying largely unproblematic access to the workings of the material universe, and the reality that science describes is seen to underlie the models of realism utilized in each text. Realism, and the scientifically backed reality that supports it, is placed in opposition to a particular type of mindset, embodied by religious extremists, the broadly postmodern humanities, and climate change deniers, all of whom are seen to represent, and be in thrall to, an excessive focus on the subjective world.