McEwan Enduring Love And Postmodernity
1. Introduction The present thesis will analyse Ian McEwan’s late novel Enduring Love in light of the theories of postmodernism. The aim is to reveal postmodernity as the subject matter of the given novel. Enduring Love’s inherent debate over the change of the approach to science in aftermath of the demise of the pro-Enlightenment modernity will be identified. The main protagonist’s tendency to suppose an “objective” truth, his relentless endeavouring of rationalizing the reality and providing a unified account of it, will be described, along with the related postmodernist interest in deconstructing notions of truth and rationality. The thesis supposes the central character’s liking for a “universal” judgement, his tendency to “totalize.” Besides, the notions of subjectivity, the “self”, and knowledge’s relation to power will be touched upon. The postmodernist idea of Enduring Love is that no kind of knowledge has a privileged access to reality and its explanation. That is to say, postmodernism’s central values are multiplicity and difference. Therefore the ethical subsoil of postmodernity takes into account the need for tolerance of heterogeneity. The present paper will consider the main protagonist Joe Rose’s approach to this postmodern “obligation.” Does he value diversity entirely? Rose’s treatment of the “other” (characters) will be outlined. Postmodernism’s distrust of the modernity’s project of rationality becomes the leitmotif of Enduring Love. The thesis will attend to the “schizophrenia” of Enduring Love’s narration. The narrating charater Rose will be considered ambivalent, hence “unreliable.” The aim is to suggest inconsistencies in Rose’s thinking and the consequent subversion in the narration. The narrator’s purposeful telling in retrospect bears importance. The simultaneous prominence of contradictory discourses pervades Enduring Love. Nevertheless, the disunity of Rose’s train of thought throughout the text initiates the character’s
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