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Metafiction in 'Atonement' Notes
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Here are some notes I made about the metafictional status of Atonement and the significance of this.
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How does ‘Atonement’ meet its metafictional status?Metafiction, by definition, is ‘a style of prose narrative in which attention is directed
to the process of fictive composition. The most obvious example of a metafictive
work is a novel about a novelist writing a novel, with the protagonist sharing the
name of the creator and each book having the same title.’ In this respect,
‘Atonement’ in this respect fulfils the status of metafiction in that McEwan produces
a novel about Briony constructing a novel called ‘Atonement’, where she uses the
novel form to atone for her sins.
The character of Briony is a key part of the metafictional style. McEwan explores the
line between fiction and imagination, as well as the reliability of the author. In
‘Atonement’ examines the relationship between reality and truth. He makes the
point of his style, that it doesn’t matter whether Briony is real or not she ‘exists
between the frame of the novel’. He establishes her importance as the author.
When Briony leaves Robbie and Cecilia at the tube station, having promised that she
will write to her parents and to lawyers admitting that she lied some six years earlier
when she testified to Robbie being a rapist. "She knew what was required of her. Not
simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin." This
reference highlights that the novel is her attempting to atone and put right the
wrong that she committed at the start of the novel.
Furthermore, at the start of the novel, her initial play ‘The Trials of Arabella’ mirrors
Briony’s own story and the plot of her novel. Even the noun ‘trials’ suggests the
legality of her actions and the events that she has to encounter throughout her life.
We see Briony as a writer in the early stages of the novel, controlling the characters
and the actors. Ironically, Briony’s play, ‘The Trials of Arabella’, has some similarities
to the story that later unfolds; the fact that they never get to act out the play she has
written seems to be in the back of Briony’s head when witnessing the events that
take place before her naïve eyes later that same day. In the novel Briony does,
however, state that the reason for her play’s failure is that “halfway through” the
rehearsals, Briony “had decided to become a novelist” (McEwan 369). Briony is a
writer, it is what she defines herself as and it is what defines her. It also serves as
proof of how important imagination is to her; it is a tool which she uses in order to
feel in control.
The metafictional status of the novel is heightened at the end with the initials ‘BT’.
There is a resounding moment where the reader recognises that they themselves
have been victims of Briony’s overactive imagination and been manipulated, the way
many of the characters in the novel have been duped.
London 1999 - The first-time reader puzzled and then the place and date are
repeated as the heading for the next section of the novel, "London 1999". The reader
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