Atonement by Ian Mcewan | Mcewan's Metafictional novel | British 21st Century Novel

A full Class on Atonement by McEwan.

Introduction: Atonement is a 2001 British metafictional novel written by Ian McEwan. Set in three time periods, 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England, it covers an upper-class girl's half-innocent mistake that ruins lives, her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake, and a reflection on the nature of writing.

Atonement is a bildungsroman novel by Ian McEwan. It is a complex text that holds a story within a story. Atonement is a tale of love, loss, and separation, at times set against the backdrop of the Second World War. It was also made into a successful 2007 film starring Keira Knightly, James McAvoy, and Saoirse Ronan. 

Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works, it was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction. In 2010, Time magazine named Atonement in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923. Widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works, it was shortlisted for the 2001  Booker Prize for fiction. In 2010, Time magazine named  Atonement  in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.

The novel is written in a highly literary style, with richly detailed descriptions and a focus on the inner lives of the characters. Atonement is a novel split into three parts. It is in the third person but it is later made clear that events are told from the viewpoint of Briony Tallis, one of the key characters in the novel. The last section of Atonement is set in 1999. 

It is in the form of a diary entry by Briony. It is her novel, also called Atonement. She has written it in an attempt to make up for the suffering she unintentionally inflicted on Cecilia and Robbie. The section in which Briony encounters Robbie in Cecilia's apartment, the two reunited, is fictional.

In reality, Robbie died of his injuries in Dunkirk and Cecilia died during the bombing in the Blitz. Briony believed the two deserved a happy ending after all they had suffered. Atonement is a fictional story contained inside another fictional story. She is thirteen when the novel begins and seventy seven in the story's closing section. The first section of Atonement begins in the Tallis family's large country home in the English countryside in 1935. The family consists of father Jack, who works a busy government job, mother Emily, and their three children, Leon, Cecilia, and Briony. Leon is the eldest and is coming back to the family home to visit his wealthy friend Paul Marshall. Cecilia is also returning after completing her degree at Cambridge University. She attended university with the son of the Tallis family's housekeeper, Robbie Turner. The second part of Atonement begins in 1940, during the Second World War. Robbie has been released from prison on the condition that he joins the British war effort. Cecilia has become a nurse. The two are only able to meet briefly before Robbie is sent to France. 

In the expressional time of the story, Readers see Robbie in Dunkirk is not long before the evacuation. In the story, Both he and the war effort are struggling. He is only sustained by thoughts of Cecilia, and the letters she has been sending him. Robbie collapses on the beach, too weak to carry on. Perspective is key in Atonement, largely because it is so complex in this novel. On the way, Briony sees what unfolds between Cecilia and Robbie through the perspective of a young child that does not understand matters of sexuality. 

This means that the novel is a "bildungsroman", as we see Briony gradually grow up. A "bildungsroman" is a literary genre which mainly shows a typically young character as they grow up and mature. This maturing is usually aided by struggles and challenges. Other well-known "bildungsromans" include James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916) and Jane Austen's Emma (1815). Atonement is set between three time periods: 1935 England, during the World War 2 in England and France, and in 1999 England. 

Atonement, novel by Ian McEwan, published in 2001. An Academy Award-winning film version of the story appeared in 2007. Begun as a science fiction story but then abandoned, Atonement took mature form as a work of literary fiction composed of three distinct stories. In the epilogue, McEwan paints Briony as an aging and dying novelist who is revisiting her past in fact and fiction; in fact, the reader learns that Briony is actually the author of the book, sections of which are untrue and fictionalized. In Atonement, he takes the reader from a manor house in England in 1935 to the retreat from Dunkirk in 1941; from the London’s World War II military hospitals to a reunion of the Tallis clan in 1999.

As Ian McEwan, born on June 21, 1948, in Aldershot, England, is a renowned British author known for his intricate narratives and exploration of complex human emotions. He studied at the University of Sussex, and later pursued an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. McEwan gained widespread acclaim with novels like "Enduring Love," "Atonement," and "Saturday," which delve into themes of morality, guilt, and the human condition. His literary style combines psychological depth with meticulous prose, earning him numerous awards, including the Booker Prize for "Amsterdam" in 1998. McEwan continues to be a significant figure in contemporary literature.