The Society Of The Spectacle In Solar

As one of the most influential contemporary British writers, McEwan’s books have been both critically and academically acclaimed and popular among the readers and critics across the world since his debut First Love, Last Rites received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. With diverse writing styles and relaxed creative attitude, his novels treat issues that are central to our times. Solar also combines the hot topics in current society, alluding to the problems in today’s society. It mainly narrates the dramatic changes of the protagonist, a former Nobel laureate without much latter achievements, Michael Beard’s life and career under the control of the spectacle in his older years, revealing us a society of the spectacle, where what is in real existence is replaced by what is presented as images. Through Guy Debord’s theory of the society of the spectacle and its related comments, this thesis attempts to set about from the antihero character Beard and discuss the deep causes of his ups and downs with the construction and collapse of the spectacular society in Solar to reveal the author’s criticism and interpellation on the truth of the mass culture in modern society.This thesis is divided in to three parts, the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. The introduction introduces the author’s life, the ideology of the spectacular society reflected in his novels, the story line of Solar, research status on the author and Solar and the research task, aim and structure of this thesis.The first chapter in the main body discusses Beard as the spectacle. Firstly, it introduces the meaning of "spectacle". Then it discusses Beard’s acceptance of the materialized value of the spectacular society, his pursuit for the spectacle and his spectacularity generated from the media, the consumption and the architecture, all of which make him a spectacle. The media generates Beard’s stardom and certifies his scientific gravitas, which brings him lots of earning chances beyond his specialty. Consumption of high-grade commodities and plenty in materials make Beard bear more public’s illusions beyond the commodities. And the escape from the stiff architectural space in his working area reflects his power and freedom.The second chapter discusses the influence of Beard as the spectacle. Labeled with brand of power and assets, Beard makes full use of his iconic power, patriarchal power, his professional authority, the natural ecological crisis and the power of science to generate and manipulate new spectacles to the public. He intends to generate new popular culture by his new clear energy project, controlling he public’s ideology with his spectacularity and the spectacularity of natural ecological crisis and science to make the public follow him blindly and finally gets himself more power and assets.The third chapter analyzes the underlying causes of the disillusionment of Beard Myth and reveals the operating system of the spectacular society. As stealing other’s research achievements is exposed, the public makes out the truth of Beard’s plan, and then Beard’s life and career comes to an end. Beard is exactly a link in the operating system of the spectacular society. His spectacularity stems from the spectacular society and then intensifies and serves for it. His life flourishes with the constructing of the spectacle and his failure likewise stands for the collapse of the society of the spectacle. In the meantime, the prosperous popular culture’s invisible control and suppression to the individual’s ideology and subjectivity in the contemporary society emerge in front of our eyes.The conclusion part is the summary of this thesis and comes up with the conclusion. Solar is reflective of Ian McEwan’s critical tone in the open and diverse mass culture’s implicit confusion and fraudulence on the public’s ideology and subjectivity in independent thinking and free voice. It brings us more inspection and more interpellation to the current popular things and deeper thought of the materialized value to excessively pursue for power and wealth held by most modern people in the current society.