"This book offers a discussion of seven "canonical" novels by Ian McEwan (The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, Atonement, On Chesil Beach), introducing radical new readings, which are offered not as ultimate and conclusive "solutions" of the textual puzzles, but as possibilities to engage with the text creatively, to enrich the critical consensus and restore the interpretative freedom to the readers. This project formulates a strategy of "inclusive reading" - an approach ...
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"This book offers a discussion of seven "canonical" novels by Ian McEwan (The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, Atonement, On Chesil Beach), introducing radical new readings, which are offered not as ultimate and conclusive "solutions" of the textual puzzles, but as possibilities to engage with the text creatively, to enrich the critical consensus and restore the interpretative freedom to the readers. This project formulates a strategy of "inclusive reading" - an approach to the text that does not seek to reduce it to a single interpretation, and yet, is comprehensively informed through the analysis of the primary text, critical discussion, authorial comments and the context of the composition. Each reading demonstrates the metafictional structure of the texts, indicating that McEwan's works may be treated as invitations to roam within their worlds, examining the multiple frames of their structure and the meanings generated thereby. All the chapters share attention to submerged, repressed, or deliberately masked voices. The Cement Garden is seen as a multi-layered dream, with shifting hierarchy of dreamers; The Comfort of Strangers is viewed as an inverted metafiction, with insubstantial characters corrupting more complex heroes; The Child in Time is read as Stephen's book written for his dead daughter; The Innocent - as a memory narrative of Leonard who refuses to notice Maria's role as a spy. In Black Dogs the over-exposure of unreliability is studied as a screen for personal trauma; in the analysis of Atonement Briony's claim to authorship is questioned, and Cecilia is suggested as an alternative narrative agent. Finally, examining On Chesil Beach, both characters' voices are reconstructed in search of the superior narrative power, which in the end is seen to be elusive, as the text seeks to undermine the hierarchy of voices"--
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Add this copy of Ian McEwan: Subversive Readings, Informed Misreadings to cart. $173.79, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2024 by Routledge.
Add this copy of Ian McEwan: Subversive Readings, Informed Misreadings to cart. $219.89, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2024 by Routledge.
