Disillusion in Ian McEwan's 21st century Novels

• Thesis title in Czech: Deziluze v románech Iana McEwana po roce 2000
• Thesis title in English: Disillusion in Ian McEwan's 21st century Novels
• Key words: Ian McEwan|deziluze|čtenářova očekávání|nespolehlivý vypravěč|sebeklam|21. století
• English key words: Ian McEwan|disillusion|reader’s expectations|unreliable narrator|self-deception|21st century
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2013/2014
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 17.06.2014
• Date of assignment: 18.06.2014
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 01.07.2014
• Date and time of defence: 23.05.2017 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 25.04.2017
• Date of proceeded defence: 23.05.2017
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Klára Kolinská, Dr., Ph.D.

Guidelines

This diploma thesis will focus on the works of Ian McEwan, an acclaimed novelist, screenwriter and winner of The Man Booker Prize for his novel Amsterdam in 1999. McEwan’s novels cover a wide range of issues, for example complicated relationships, feminism in the 1970s and 1980s, or environmental problems. In my thesis, I would like to examine the disillusionment present in the lives of McEwan’s protagonists, as well as the disillusion (or frustrated expectations) experienced by the reader particularly in the novels written in the twenty-first century, namely Atonement (2001), Saturday (2005), On Chesil Beach (2007), Solar (2010) and Sweet Tooth (2012). In his novels, McEwan uses different discourses which allow him to manipulate and influence the reader’s perspective on the novel. These discourses include, among others, most recognizably metafiction or literary discourse in Atonement and Sweet Tooth, medical discourse in Saturday, scientific and journalistic discourse in Solar, and the discourse of the relational level in On Chesil Beach. Each of these discourses alters the reader’s perception in a different manner and emphasizes various features of the text. Moreover, all McEwan’s novels reflect the influence and politics of the time period in which the story is set. I will analyse these discourses used by the author and observe the way in which the given discourse influences or alters the reader’s view of the novel. Furthermore, I will study different types or forms of disillusion used by McEwan, for example the shattered illusions of the main protagonists of On Chesil Beach or Saturday, self-delusion of the protagonist in Solar or the intentional disillusion and disenchantment of the reader in novels such as Atonement or Sweet Tooth. I will also concentrate on the manner in which McEwan operates with the element of disillusionment, how it affects main characters, how it blends and cooperates with the specific discourse used in McEwan‘s novels and what impact it has on the reader.

References

McEwan, Ian. Atonement. London: Vintage, 2001.
McEwan, Ian. Saturday. London: Vintage, 2005.
McEwan, Ian. On Chesil Beach. London: Vintage, 2007.
McEwan, Ian. Solar. London: Vintage, 2010.
McEwan, Ian. Sweet Tooth. New York: Windsor Books, 2012.
Ellam, Julie. Ian McEwan’s Atonement. London: Continuum, 2009 (elektronický zdroj).
Groes, Sebastian. Ian McEwan: contemporary critical perspectives. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
Head, Dominic. Ian McEwan. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.
Bradford, Richard. The Novel Now. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Foucault, Michel. The Archeology of Knowledge, 1969.