A prevailing ordinariness : society and interpersonal relationships in the fiction of Ian McEwan

Author

Jack Slay

Date of Award

5-1991

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

English

Major Professor

Dick Penner

Committee Members

Mary E. Papke, Norman Sanders, Dwight Van de Vate

Abstract

This dissertation, "A Prevailing Ordinariness: Society and Interpersonal Relationships in the Fiction of Ian McEwan," examines the alliances between men and women presented in the writing of Ian McEwan, a contemporary British author. In his stories, novels, and film scripts, McEwan explores a vast array of relationships, investigating the ways in which these male-female unions—and the codes of sexual behavior which occur as a result of these relationships—are reflections both of the world in general and of the specific environments in which they occur. His earlier writings—First Love, Last Rites and The Cement Garden—are characterized by a conscious desire to repel and to shock the reader. However, beginning with his story collection In Between the Sheets and continuing through his most recent.publications, The Child in Time and The Innocent, this literature of shock metamorphoses into a more socially-conscious literature. This evolution in his writing allows McEwan to illustrate more precisely how the chaotic and turmoiled state of the modern world, especially as it appears in the forms of degenerated cities and corrupted governments, acts as a deterrent for viable, life-affirming relationships. As evident in such works as "The Imitation Game" and The Comfort of Strangers, McEwan is especially adamant in his castigation of the patriarchal hierarchies and ideologies that are created and encouraged by contemporary society. Remarkably, throughout his portrayals of alliances which involve such elements as incest, murder, regression, and chauvinism, McEwan maintains a sense of the ordinary; these extraordinary events, he emphasizes, are not abnormal but normal, not the unusual but the typical; in essence, they are the results of our everyday lives. During the past twenty years, there has been an outpouring of British fiction that has been both critically praised and commercially respected; writers such as McEwan, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie, and Clive Sinclair have written powerful, bold works that have called attention to the foibles and fallacies of contemporary society; unfortunately, there is relatively little critical material on these writers. This dissertation, by examining the fiction of Ian McEwan, will, hopefully, also serve to call attention to this important group of contemporary authors.

Recommended Citation

Slay, Jack, "A prevailing ordinariness : society and interpersonal relationships in the fiction of Ian McEwan. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1991.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/11225