Between The Post-modern And Gothic

Ian McEwan, one of the most active contemporary British literary writers, is famous for crazy subjects and abnormal characters full of dark Gothic colors in his early works, and he turned from frightening themes to the wider world, presenting reflection towards post-modern society as well as times in the history. He integrated "Gothic" and "post-modern" features together to form his own writing characteristics.Firstly, this feature is depicted by the Gothic presentation of postmodern time and space. Inheriting and developing the Gothic literary tradition, McEwan usually develops his stories in closed spaces, changing the locale from the cold castle to post-modern cities. At the same time, he strengthens God Gothic atmosphere in the aspect of processing time and creating atmosphere, highlighting distinctive features of Post-Modern. Secondly, the writer combines Gothic murder plot conflicts, such as murder and violence, edge of taboo, crisis and transition, with the daily life and historical picture, reflecting his solemn thinking of history and modern people’s survival crisis. Thirdly, abnormal characters with unique Gothic temperament and complex characteristics often appeared in McEwan’s novels, the tendency that he turns inward allows him to tap into the depth of these characters’inner world, exploring the dark sides in their heart as well as underlying causes. Finally, by the use of "meta-fiction" narrative structure, "black humor" narrative style and stylistic hybridity narrative strategy, McEwan combines Gothic horror, grotesque elements and post-modern fragmented and diversified narrative style to create a unique post-modern Gothic atmosphere.From the analysis above, McEwan organically integrated "Gothic" and "post-modern" in his novels. Based on the traditional English Gothic literature, he employs post-modern creative skills to create terrible and grotesque characteristics in Gothic novels, corresponding to various scenes in modern urban alienation, which not only shows his profound reflection upon post-modern society but also differentiates his novels from those Gothic novels in the sense of Post-Modernism.