Year 11 English Advanced

Reading to Write

Postmodernism, Metafiction and Atonement

Ian McEwan’s Atonement is very much a postmodernist novel, but what exactly does this
mean?

Postmodernism is the dominant cultural, artistic and literary movement that permeates
Western society post-World War II. In response to the cataclysmic destruction of the war, the
explosion of technology and mass communication, the rise of consumerism and popular
culture, postmodernism came to represent a disparate and fragmented society full of
conflicting messages and ambiguities. Philosophically, postmodernism views truth as a
relative concept, full of multiplicities and uncertainty.

Postmodernist texts often contain the following features:

 Self-conscious awareness of its own construction – this means the text is almost
aware of its own construction
 Self-reflexivity – going a step further. The text references itself
 Intertextuality – references to other texts
 Multiple or fragmented narratives
 Non-linear narratives
 Unreliable narrators
 Metafiction

Metafiction
Linked to all of this is the broad term that crystallises everything. It acknowledges that the
text is the constructed work of an author and that there is a conscious dynamic involving the
reader as an active figure. Arguably the most common type of metafiction is the “story-
within-a-story”, where the reader experiences a fictional story that exists within the larger
text. As we have discussed, Atonement has multiple narrative layers. The main, diegetic
story is what we immediately experience. It has an omniscient, third person narrator and
describes events leading to the assault on Lola and Briony’s
accusation of Robbie’s guilt, Robbie’s experiences at war
and Briony’s subsequent attempt at atoning for her actions.
Above this, however, is the older, “writer Briony”, now frail
and suffering from dementia, who it is revealed has written
the story in a novel. Of course, above this again is Ian
McEwan, who is controlling everything. Think of all of this
being a bit like three babushka dolls.

To best understand this, we are going to do something highly unusual in how we study texts
(this will be a one-time-only thing!) – we are going to jump to the end, and then work
backwards!
The Denouement – The End of the Story
The metafictive nature of the novel is apparent throughout, but solidified in the final chapter
set in 1999. Briony is the first person narrator of this chapter and in a metafictive sense, it
does not belong with the main narrative – it is an addition. This is another way in which the
novel is a series of competing truths. The actual truth is clouded.

Reflecting after Reading

Spend 10 writing your thoughts in response to the following in a piece of free writing. You
can choose to address them separately, or together.

 Observations about Briony’s voice. Think about style, tone and how it is differentiated
from the primary narrative voice.

 Changes – How does the revelation of this chapter reshape our perspective and
understanding of everything we have read? What do we think about differently? What is
clarified and what is further complicated by the metafictive nature of the text?