Reflections of London in Ian McEwan's Novels and Short Stories

The term "reflection" is bound up with the theory of mimesis in ancient Greek philosophy. Plato underlines that art should imitate nature, while Aristotle highlights the creativity the poet should possess in the process of imitation. Thus, the term "reflection" stresses that artistic creation involves the fusion of facts and fiction. As regards McEwan's London narratives, it is directed both at reality and the novelist's representation of this city. Reflections, in truth, are inclusive of multifarious phenomena, images, and impressions. This book analyzes Ian McEwan's literary reflections of London in First Love, Last Rites, The Child in Time, and Saturday from perspectives of entropy, space, and spectacle to interpret the novelist's negative aesthetics of the city. It attempts to show that Ian McEwan's representation of urbanites' traumatic experience, his literary investigation of the ecological and socio-cultural crises of contemporary London and other metropolises, and his meditation on the boundary between barbarism and civilization all shed light on contemporary urban narratives.

Auteur

The author obtained her M.A. and Ph.D degrees in English Language and Literature from Shanghai International Studies University, China. Then she joined English Department, School of Foreign Languages, University of Jinan, China. Her research interests include contemporary British Fiction, urban studies and psychology.

Texte du rabat

The term reflection is bound up with the theory of mimesis in ancient Greek philosophy. Plato underlines that art should imitate nature, while Aristotle highlights the creativity the poet should possess in the process of imitation. Thus, the term reflection stresses that artistic creation involves the fusion of facts and fiction. As regards McEwan s London narratives, it is directed both at reality and the novelist s representation of this city. Reflections, in truth, are inclusive of multifarious phenomena, images, and impressions. This book analyzes Ian McEwan s literary reflections of London in First Love, Last Rites, The Child in Time, and Saturday from perspectives of entropy, space, and spectacle to interpret the novelist s negative aesthetics of the city. It attempts to show that Ian McEwan s representation of urbanites traumatic experience, his literary investigation of the ecological and socio-cultural crises of contemporary London and other metropolises, and his meditation on the boundary between barbarism and civilization all shed light on contemporary urban narratives.