Violence, guilt and war in Ian McEwan’s selected novels

• Thesis title in Czech: Násilí, vinna a válka ve vybraných dílech Iana McEwana
• Thesis title in English: Violence, guilt and war in Ian McEwan’s selected novels
• Key words: teror|vinna|násilí|válka|McEwan|poválečná Británie
• English key words: terror|guilt|violence|war|McEwan|post-war Britain
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2021/2022
• Thesis type: Bachelor's 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: 20.12.2021
• Date of assignment: 20.12.2021
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 06.01.2022
• Date and time of defence: 05.09.2022 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 28.07.2022
• Date of proceeded defence: 05.09.2022
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Petra Johana Poncarová, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to describe the use of violence, war, and guilt in Ian McEwan’s selected novels. The analysed novels include Atonement (2001), Saturday (2005) and Enduring Love (1997). Ian McEwan is one of the most prominent figures of contemporary British literature. His work is a prime example of thorough research and attention to detail as well as implementation of allusions and complex themes, which reflect the social and historical context of the given period. This thesis compares the novels written within a decade (1995-2005), the period in which McEwan’s work reached its high critical acclaim (Man-Booker Prize, 1998). Special attention is paid to different forms of war, violence, terror, and guilt, oscillating between their ability to affect personal life and the ways in which they resonate in modern society. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on McEwan’s specific method of representation he uses to incorporate these themes into his stories, such as confrontation of different meanings these terms can have in different contexts, the literal vs. metaphorical use, etc.

References

Preliminary sources:
Arthur Bradley. “The New Atheist Novel: Literature, Religion, and Terror in Amis and McEwan.” The Yearbook of English Studies 39, no. 1/2, (2009): 20-38.
Dancer, Thom. “Toward a Modest Criticism: Ian McEwan’s ‘Saturday’.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 45, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 202-220.
Gauthier, Tim S. “"SELECTIVE IN YOUR MERCIES": PRIVILEGE, VULNERABILITY, AND THE LIMITS OF EMPATHY IN IAN McEWAN'S "SATURDAY.” College Literature 40, no. 2 (2013): 7-30.
Hartsell-Gundy, Arianne and Bridgit McCafferty. Literary research and British postmodernism: strategies and sources. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Hubble, Nick and Philip Tew. London in contemporary British fiction: the city beyond the city. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Jie Han, Zhenli Wang. “Postmodern Strategies in Ian McEwan’s Major Novels.” Advances in Literary Study 2, no. 4
Malcom, David. Understanding Ian McEwan. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002.
McKey, Maria. The Cambridge companion to the literature of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Nünning, Vera and Ansgar Nünning. “The British Novel in the Twenty-First Century: Cultural Concerns – Literary Developments – Model Interpretations.” (2018) 119-138.
Palmer, Alan. “Attributions of Madness in Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love.” Style 43, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 291-308.
Parry, John T. “Finding a Right to Be Tortured.” Law and Literature 19, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 207-228.
Quarrie, Cynthia. “Before the Destruction began: Interrupting post-imperial melancholia in Ian McEwan’s Atonement.” Studies in the Novel 47, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 193-209.