Universität Paderborn
Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften
Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Subjective Perspectives in
Ian McEwan′s Narrations

Hausarbeit für die akademische Abschlussprüfung
Magister Artium (M.A.)
vorgelegt von
Eva Maria Brockmann-Mauter

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ... 1

1.1 The Thematic Focus ... 2
1.2 Outline ... 4

2. Narratological Context and Terminology ... 6

3. Subjectivity in Narration ... 11

4. Unreliability in Narration ... 15

5. Subjective Perspectives in Narration ... 21

5.1 Story-Internal Perspectives ... 22
5.1.1 Intrapersonal Dimension of Subjective Perspectives ... 22
5.1.2 Interpersonal Relation of Subjective Perspectives ... 23
- Understanding Other Perspectives
- Misunderstanding Other Perspectives
- No Understanding of Other Perspectives

5.2 Perspectives on the Mediation Level ... 26

5.3 Perspectives on the Textual Level ... 27
5.3.1 The Textual Perspective ... 28
5.3.2 The Perspective of the ′Implied Reader′ or the Recipient′s Role ... 29

6. Subjective Perspectives in Ian McEwan′s Narrations ... 33

6.1 Intrapersonal Dimension of Perspectives ... 35
6.1.1 Aspects of the Intrapersonal Dimension of Perspectives ... 35
6.1.2 Morality and the Ordinariness of Actions ... 45

6.2 Interpersonal Relation of Perspectives ... 54
6.2.1 Understanding Other Perspectives ... 54
6.2.2 Misunderstanding Other Perspectives ... 58
6.2.3 No Understanding of Other Perspectives/Isolation ... 65

6.3 Subjective Perspectives on the Other Communication Levels ... 78
6.3.1 Mediation Level 􀃆 Level of Fabula ... 79
6.3.2 Textual Level 􀃆 Mediation Level ... 86
6.3.3 Reliability of Perspectives on the Textual Level ... 90

7. Conclusion ... 98

Appendix ... 100

Bibliography ... 101

1. Introduction

The quality of [McEwan′s] prose is so high that it is easy to sustain interest throughout many readings. It is terse, dry and evocative of powerful emotions. His grammar is meticulous, his words precise and his style direct. When writing about his work, it is almost impossible to précis anything without losing most of its impact, and one can seldom do better than quote paragraphs wholesale. (Byrnes, 2002: 1)

Ever since McEwan′s first publications, his work has received considerable attention from critics and scholars. Malcolm claims that he is "certainly one of the most noteworthy of contemporary authors." (Malcolm, ix)¹ The flood of reviews that welcome every one of his new publications and the number of publications about his work seem to acknowledge that most critics and scholars share this opinion.

Thus, it is not surprising that McEwan has been awarded with a number of prizes for his work. He received, for example, the Sommerset Maugham award for First Love, Last Rites (1976), the Evening Standard award for his screenplay "The Ploughman′s Lunch" (1983), the Whitebread Prize for Fiction (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time, and the Germany′s Shakespeare Prize in 1999. Enduring Love was shortlisted for the Whitebread Prize in 1997, as were The Comfort of Strangers and Black Dogs for the Booker Prize for Fiction. In 1998, McEwan finally won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam. Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), the National Book Critics′ Circle Fiction Award (2003), the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). For his novel Saturday, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2006.

Ian McEwan′s family background does not suggest such a fantastic literary career. He was born on 21st June 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, as the son of a Scottish sergeant major of the British Army. He spent his childhood on British military bases in England, Singapore, and Libya. During his schooldays at Woolverstone Hall School (1960-66), McEwan developed a keen interest in English Literature. Nevertheless, he took a year off after school, worked for the refuse disposal service and made a trip to Greece before he studied English Literature at the University of Sussex, Brighton, where he received a B.A. degree in 1970. Subsequently, he took a creative writing course taught by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he received his M.A. in English Literature in 1971. During this time, McEwan wrote a number of short stories, several of which were included in his two volumes of short stories First Love, Last Rites and In between the Sheets. In 1972, McEwan made trip to Amsterdam and Afghanistan in his own bus, and after his return, he worked as a teacher for English as a second language in Norwich. Since 1974, he has been living by his writing. In 1982, he married Penny Allen (journalist, astrologer and alternative practitioner), but the marriage was divorced in 1997. He has got two sons from this marriage. In 1997, he married Annalena McAfee, a literary journalist. In 1989, he was awarded an honorary Litt.D. by the University of Sussex, Brighton.

McEwan has written his first short stories in 1970 and managed to publish a view in magazines. However, after publishing his first collection of short stories (First Love, Last Rites [1975]) his career took off. Since 1975, McEwan has published two volumes of short stories (FLLR, and In between the sheets [1978]) and nine novels – The Cement Garden (1978), The Comfort of Strangers (1981), The Child in Time (1987), The Innocent (1989), Black Dogs (1992), Enduring Love (1997), Amsterdam (1998), Atonement (2001), and Saturday (2006). McEwan has also ventured into other realms. He has written a collection of stories for children (The Daydreamer [1995]), three screenplays (The Imitation Game & Other Plays [1980], The Ploughman′s Lunch [1985], and Soursweet [1988]) and an oratorio (Or Shall We Die? [1983]). McEwan′s work has continuously attracted the attention of critics and reviewers, and McEwan has been praised to be one of the leading representatives of the young generation.²

[...]

1 References that refer to a whole sentence (or passage) will be given after the last sentence. However, if the sources merely refer to a phrase or to single words, they will be given directly afterwards.

2 See e.g. Slay (1996), Malcolm (2002), Nünning (1989).