Studies in Literature and Language
An Analysis of Ian McEwan’s Saturday From the Perspective of Space
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the spatial narrative of Ian McEwan’s Saturday in terms of physical space, social space, mental space and textual space. Through the spatial images of the protagonist’s home, the city square, and the nursing home, McEwan shows the strained relationship between him and his surroundings. By highlighting the prevalence of media’s coverage of the forthcoming Iraq war, McEwan constructs a social space that is fraught with chaos and anxiety. By depicting the protagonist’s spiritual space influenced by commodity fetishism and mass media, McEwan underscores the subtlety of intangible mental control and the consequent psychasthenia. By employing the writing strategy of stream of consciousness and the settings of multiple space types, McEwan reflects the loss of social authenticity and urbanites’ lack of sense of security in the post 9/11 era.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/8603
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