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9 - The Novellas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2019

Dominic Head
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Summary

One aspect of McEwan’s celebrated status as a stylist is his distinctive contribution to the novella, a genre that arguably reached its pinnacle in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Novellas like Amsterdam (1998), with its focused critique of the left-leaning elite who did well in the Thatcher era, and On Chesil Beach (2007), with its (apparently) precise anatomy of sexual mores, reveal how McEwan uses the novella as an incisive instrument of cultural analysis. Embracing, as well, The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), this chapter considers what it means to be an accomplished contemporary novella writer by making the case that, throughout his career, McEwan has continued to work with great skill in an overlooked literary form, once thought to be the most sophisticated mode of shorter fiction.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • The Novellas
  • Edited by Dominic Head, University of Nottingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Ian McEwan
  • Online publication: 24 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108648516.010
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  • The Novellas
  • Edited by Dominic Head, University of Nottingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Ian McEwan
  • Online publication: 24 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108648516.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Novellas
  • Edited by Dominic Head, University of Nottingham
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Ian McEwan
  • Online publication: 24 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108648516.010
Available formats
×