Resisting loss: Guilt and consolation in ian Mcewan\u27s atonement

Ian McEwan\u27s Atonement re-traces the development of twentieth-century fiction from modernist amorality to postmodern relativism, incorporating their shared acknowl-edgements of the subjectivity of narrative. However, the novel both draws upon and moves beyond these modes of subjectivity as part of an ethically committed exploration of memory and history. On the one hand, McEwan\u27s writer-figure, Briony, fails to grapple ethically with historical memory, preferring consolation to the real historical record. McEwan\u27s novel itself, in containing Briony\u27s work within a measure of critical distance, does not offer consolation. Rather, it creates an experience in which readers must move beyond Briony\u27s shortcomings and toward a more nuanced acceptance of history\u27s traumas, of the damages of war, and sexual violence: a way to truly do justice to historical memory