(1994). Vandalizing Time: Ian McEwan's The Child in Time. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction: Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 205-218.

(2005). Memory and Storytelling in Ian McEwan's Atonement. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction: Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 82-91.

Vandalizing time: Ian McEwan's The Child in Time

Memory and Storytelling in Ian McEwan's Atonement

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The interplay of trauma and the sublime in four fictions by Ian McEwan.

A SINGLE MAN OF GOOD FORTUNE: POSTMODERN IDENTITIES AND CONSUMERISMIN THE NEW NOVEL OF MANNERS Bonnie McLean, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2015 In my dissertation, I argue that the novel of manners, while sometimes considered a moribund genre, presents itself as a genre relevant to contemporary criticism of social change from consensus politics to privatization both at governmental and domestic levels. I establish both key terms, cultural and theoretical trends, and define the novel of manners in context as a historical genre and a contemporary one. I further explore the novel of manners as a commentary on social and moral problems, particularly in tensions between social morality and individual morality that emerge when manners break down, a concept originally highlighted by Henry James. I interrogate the interplay between nostalgia, manners, and national identity, highlighting the recreation of moribund social and moral values as a means of exerting authority over the family unit and generating profit out of national heritage. Finally, I highlight the means by which literary texts cast consumerism as literal and figurative pornography that transforms the citizen into a consumer. I specifically examine the breakdown of manners through scenes of pornography and material consumption that illustrate moral depravity at the individual and national levels. The seven texts selected for my study in the new novels of manners—Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), Jeffery Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (2011), Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty (2004), Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989), Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time (1987), Martin Amis’s Money (1984), and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991)—engage with neoliberalism and its social effects on individuals. Because citizens were redefined as consumers during the 1980s in both the United States and Britain, I contend that the novelists and novels in my study formulate a critique of social amorality in the same way Henry James’s literary criticism established in the novel of manners’ early study: in viewing the domestic as a politicized space, we can better understand the tensions between social morality and individual morality when the manners of a society break down in public or private spaces.

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A Single Man of Good Fortune: Postmodern Identities and Consumerism in the New Novel of Manners

Ian McEwan's ”Saturday” is a Condition of England novel inspired by the collective fear of destruction embodied in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In this paper I explore the way in which McEwan extends his distinctive engagement with confrontation and destruction through his recollection of historical incidents. McEwan's strategy in recollecting and measuring fear in historical moments, usually in the form of Henry Perowne's soliloquies, provides a chance to reflect upon the contemporary moment and to estimate possible developments of current crises. If fear is something unexpectable, unmanageable, and unimaginable, then recalling memories of past fears will constitute a route plan orienting us towards an understanding of what we are now (by knowing what we were before) and what we will become (by excluding what we will not become).This paper attempts to read fear as represented in McEwan's works in light of risk and fear theories. As this paper argues that fear is unpredictable and unpreventable, it also reveals a social and historical dimension to its complexity. I use Maurice Halbwach's theory of collective memory critically to clarify McEwan's representation of fear in this post-9/11 novel, Saturday. Successive resurgences of historical incidents reconvene a post-9/11 traumatic memory. A collective sense of urgency brought about by the lurking presence of past incidents turns out to intensify the presence of pressing dangers. In this way, personal memory becomes a major site to which a sense of insecurity is summoned and transformed into fleeting moments of fraternity in the wake of disasters. Most importantly, recalling memories of chaos and fear presents a chance for communication, compassion, and reconciliation because it evokes a sense of concurrence which we all inhabit and in which we all survive.

London is “Waiting for Its Bomb“:History, Memory, and Fear of Destruction in Ian McEwan's “Saturday“

Science and Climate Crisis

The Child in Time opens with a harrowing event. Stephen Lewis,a successful author of children's books, takes his three-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. Just like that. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and time itself.

Vandalizing time: Ian McEwan's The Child in Time

Citations

Memory and Storytelling in Ian McEwan's Atonement

The interplay of trauma and the sublime in four fictions by Ian McEwan.

A Single Man of Good Fortune: Postmodern Identities and Consumerism in the New Novel of Manners

London is “Waiting for Its Bomb“:History, Memory, and Fear of Destruction in Ian McEwan's “Saturday“

Science and Climate Crisis

References

The Child in Time

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