Seminar Ian McEwan Novels and Short Fiction

Ian McEwan is one of the best-known British authors writing today and held in esteem by academics as well as the public. He began his career writing the sparse, sinister short stories of First Love, Last Rites (1975) and In Between the Sheets (1978) which, together with his first 2 novels The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), earned him the nickname -Ian Macabre-. These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s one of which earned him the Man Booker Prize (Amsterdam, 1998). In 2001, he published Atonement, which came to be his most successful novel yet, especially after being adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Aside from his famous novels and short fiction, McEwan also wrote screenplays (last year’s blockbuster The Imitation Game was based in parts on his television play from 1981) as well as children’s fiction, oratorios and librettos. Time permitting this course will also explore these less renowned works. The main focus, however, will be on McEwan’s early writings and his development of an individual style, voice and topicality which mark his oeuvre today. Beginning with his grotesque and taboo-breaking short stories dealing with incest, sadism, child abuse etc. we will move on to his first novel The Cement Garden which still seems to draw on similar themes. Looking at Atonement, published more than 20 years later, we will try to trace some of McEwans early thematic and stylistic idiosyncrasies in order to find out how they have evolved and changed – in terms of subject matter as well as narratological technique. Reading McEwan within the context of postmodern literature, our theoretical concerns will be with theories on the grotesque and the macabre, on unreliable narration, intertextuality as well as on Postmodernism in general (with its devices of questioning established realities, (gender)identities and norms of morality). Class Requirements: • regular and active participation • oral presentation (team work) • termpaper (15.000 - max. 18.000 signs) Literatur Buy and read before the beginning of term: Ian McEwan (Vintage) • First Love, Last Rites (1975) http://www.amazon.de/First-Love-Last-Rites-McEwan/dp/0099754819/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1455897843&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=ian+mcewan+atonement+vintage • The Cement Garden (1978) http://www.amazon.de/Cement-Garden-Vintage-International/dp/0679750185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1455897944&sr=1-1&keywords=mcewan+cement+garden • Atonement (2001) http://www.amazon.de/Atonement-Vintage-War-Exp-McEwan/dp/0099597632/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1455897884&sr=1-1 All these books are available at Words Worth's. Please no Kindle or other digital versions as you can not quote from them in your term paper. Buy and read before the beginning of term: Ian McEwan (Vintage) • First Love, Last Rites (1975) http://www.amazon.de/First-Love-Last-Rites-McEwan/dp/0099754819/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1455897843&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=ian+mcewan+atonement+vintage • The Cement Garden (1978) http://www.amazon.de/Cement-Garden-Vintage-International/dp/0679750185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1455897944&sr=1-1&keywords=mcewan+cement+garden • Atonement (2001) http://www.amazon.de/Atonement-Vintage-War-Exp-McEwan/dp/0099597632/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1455897884&sr=1-1 All these books are available at Words Worth's. Please no Kindle or other digital versions as you can not quote from them in your term paper. Leistungsnachweis als Übung: Thesenpapier als Seminar: Seminararbeit Anmeldung Anmeldung (über LSF) 3. - 12. Febr. 2016 Department III - Anglistik und Amerikanistik als Übung: Thesenpapier als Seminar: Seminararbeit LMU München SoSe 2016 Dr. Pink Katharina