Unearthing the Historicity in Ian McEwan's Atonement

Abstract

This research using the concept of new historicism as conceptualized by Mitchel Foucault and Stephen Grenblatt casts light on how history is discursive and constructed phenomenon throughout the character Briony .This research probes into the unreliable character MrBrionyTallis,who witnesses an event which she knows holds some kind of significance.Yet her limited understanding of adult motives leads her to commit a crime that will change the lives of everyone involved. As she grows older, she begins to understand her actions and the grief that has been caused. Briony has a tendency to lie or, rather, avoid the truth in an attempt to disguise her responsibility for the crime and proceeding events and, more prominently, to satisfy her grieving and somewhat selfish conscience; one could even go so far as to say it is a confession and an impersonal account told to the memories of her deceased sister, Cecilia, and the wrongly accused, Robbie. However, she withdraws her own narration in the course of novel. Briony’s narrative turns to be constructive and fictitious at the end of the novel.