Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement
This paper proposes to look at two contemporary British novels that, contrary to traditional practice, use their final pages to unsettle the conclusion reached earlier, and leave the reader in a state of uncertainty. Both A. S. Byatt’s Possession, a Romance (1990) and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001) p...
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5751 |
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| author | Armelle Parey |
| author_facet | Armelle Parey |
| author_sort | Armelle Parey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper proposes to look at two contemporary British novels that, contrary to traditional practice, use their final pages to unsettle the conclusion reached earlier, and leave the reader in a state of uncertainty. Both A. S. Byatt’s Possession, a Romance (1990) and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001) play games with their readers when, rather than being part of a deflating and decelerating process of conclusion, the closing pages prolong and encourage rather than put an end to “retroactive reading” and “retrospective patterning”. Indeed, the last textual sections of each novel point to discrepancies or indeed constitute disjunctures themselves. In order to fully appreciate the means and effects of the dissonance established by the final textual section of these novels, this paper first looks at postscripts and epilogues as unlikely places for disruption before considering how the final dissonance affects the sense of poetic justice previously reached. Finally, the paper examines how this last-minute reversal (or confirmation) of poetic justice is linked to the powerful figure of the storyteller. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4f2688e1c9a74811acbf16eb6309497e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-4f2688e1c9a74811acbf16eb6309497e2025-01-30T13:46:57ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022018-07-012410.4000/sillagescritiques.5751Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s AtonementArmelle PareyThis paper proposes to look at two contemporary British novels that, contrary to traditional practice, use their final pages to unsettle the conclusion reached earlier, and leave the reader in a state of uncertainty. Both A. S. Byatt’s Possession, a Romance (1990) and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001) play games with their readers when, rather than being part of a deflating and decelerating process of conclusion, the closing pages prolong and encourage rather than put an end to “retroactive reading” and “retrospective patterning”. Indeed, the last textual sections of each novel point to discrepancies or indeed constitute disjunctures themselves. In order to fully appreciate the means and effects of the dissonance established by the final textual section of these novels, this paper first looks at postscripts and epilogues as unlikely places for disruption before considering how the final dissonance affects the sense of poetic justice previously reached. Finally, the paper examines how this last-minute reversal (or confirmation) of poetic justice is linked to the powerful figure of the storyteller.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5751endingByatt (A. S.)AtonementdissonanceepilogueMcEwan (Ian) |
| spellingShingle | Armelle Parey Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement Sillages Critiques ending Byatt (A. S.) Atonement dissonance epilogue McEwan (Ian) |
| title | Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement |
| title_full | Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement |
| title_fullStr | Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement |
| title_short | Unsettling postscripts and epilogues in A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Ian McEwan’s Atonement |
| title_sort | unsettling postscripts and epilogues in a s byatt s possession and ian mcewan s atonement |
| topic | ending Byatt (A. S.) Atonement dissonance epilogue McEwan (Ian) |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5751 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT armelleparey unsettlingpostscriptsandepiloguesinasbyattspossessionandianmcewansatonement |