Emotional Survival: Trauma and Healing in the Works of Ian McEwan
Keywords:
Atonement, Emotional recovery, Ian McEwan, Narrative trauma, Psychoanalytic fictionAbstract
This paper investigates how trauma and emotional survival are represented in the works of Ian McEwan, one of the most psychologically acute writers in contemporary British fiction. Through a close examination of Atonement (2001), Enduring Love (1997), and The Child in Time (1987), this study analyzes how McEwan depicts trauma’s immediate psychological effects and the long-term process of healing and emotional reconstruction. The research draws on trauma theory, psychoanalytic literary criticism, and narrative studies to explore how McEwan’s narrative strategies—such as interior monologue, focalization, temporal distortion, and symbolic imagery—mirror the disrupted consciousness of trauma survivors. Each novel engages with different forms of trauma: war, sudden loss, obsessive delusion, and the guilt of past actions. However, they converge on a shared concern with how characters respond emotionally to catastrophic disruption and whether healing is ultimately possible. The analysis reveals that McEwan portrays trauma not only as psychological damage but as a deeply existential and moral phenomenon, embedded in the structures of memory, time, and narrative. His fiction often avoids neat resolutions, instead highlighting the ambiguity and complexity of emotional recovery. The study concludes that McEwan’s work reflects a literary ethics of witnessing, one that values psychological nuance and resists reductive portrayals of either victimhood or closure. This paper contributes to trauma literature by demonstrating how fiction serves as a critical site for exploring the emotional intricacies of survival and healing.
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