What is it about?
The present study is concerned with ideology representation of Second World War and social class in Atonement. Atonement is a historical novel that recounts a critical period in the history of England. It details the events of Second World War particularly the retreat of the British army to Dunkirk in 1940 and the arrival of the wounded to London hospital. The novel also discusses social class in the British society during this period. However, this presentation is not in the form of a narrative historian. It is ideologically loaded and therefore it can be ideologically interpreted. It reflects McEwan's own attitude toward history, war, and social class.
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Why is it important?
Results of the study showed that war and social class constitute an important part in the novel. McEwan presents these two concepts using the categories of naming and describing, representing actions/events/states, negating, priotrizing, hypothesizing, implying and assuming, presenting others" speech and thoughts, and representing time, space and society. Each of these categories has its own linguistic realization and function in the novel.
Perspectives
Applying critical stylistic analysis to one of the literary works reveals new insights and adds new meanings to the novel being investigated. It also reveals hidden ideologies of the author of the novel. Therefore, I think this approach can be very helpful for stylistics and critics of literary works.
Doha Abdel-Moety
Tanta University
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This page is a summary of: The Ideologies of War and Social Class in Atonement: A Critical Stylistic Analysis, Prague Journal of English Studies, July 2018, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/pjes-2018-0010.
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