Unearthing the Historicity in Ian McEwan's Atonement
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Department of English
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.