This proseminar aims to acquaint students with the works of fiction representing the key stages of Ian McEwan’s development as an author. McEwan has evolved as a writer, adopting different styles and genres to suit the ideas and situations he finds most urgently in need of expression and writing prose that gains him international respect for its ‘technical beauty, emotional timbre and intellectual depth’ (Wells 2010: 11). As a writer, he is known for engaging his readers in social and ethical debates as in Amsterdam (1998), which invites us to step into the shoes of Vernon Halliday, who suddenly loses his position as Chief Editor of The Judge. McEwan is both loved and hated by critics, and much as the reviews of his works may have been ‘laudatory’ or ‘unfavourable’, they have never been ‘neglectful’ (Dobrogoszcz 2019: 3). This course is designed to analyse McEwan’s writing style and the modes of readers’ engagement in fiction. Above all, the aim is to engage its participants in a series of debates concerning current social, political and ethical issues, e.g. Brexit, climate change, sensationalism in the media, AI and various other ethical and social problems in the modern world.
Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz. 2019. Family and Relationships in Ian McEwan’s Fiction. Lexington Books.
Wells, Lynn. 2010. Ian McEwan. London: Palgrave MacMillan (New British Fiction Series).
- Teacher: Urszula Kizelbach