Paradox And Transcendence

Ian McEwan(1948-)is one of the most influential novelists in contemporary British literature.His novels focus on the living conditions and the human nature of modern people.The Children Act(2014)is the 13th novel by McEwan and its central issues are religion and law.Based on the existing research and theory of Poetic Justice,this thesis studies the nuclear episode of The Children Act,and analyse what did the judge rely on to give the verdict when there was a life-and-death conflict between religion and medicine in modern society.This thesis consists of five parts.The first part introduces previous studies of Ian McEwan and The Children Act,as well as the research questions and emphases of this thesis.The second part studies the case of conjoined twin babies,which s the first important case in the novel.Explaining the court’s judgment is based on the humanistic spirit of protecting human rights.The third part studies the blood transfusion case of Jehovah s witnesses,which is the second important case,as well as the core plot of the novel.And this part illustrating that poetry and music help the judges make judgments.The judge made a poetic adjudication rational emotion and imagination.The fourth part studies the key figure who solves the two conflicts-Judge Fiona,she is the embodiment of transcendence.Her unique personal talents,the emotions that benefit public reason,and practical reasoning ability play an important role in judicial trials.The follow-up episodes of the leukemia boy illustrates Fiona’s imbalance between emotion and reason and its impact on justice.The fifth part summarizes that rational emotion and imaginationcontribute to judicial decisionsand the realization of poetic justice mainly depends on judges.However,the judge’s behavior cannot be forever righteous and perfection.Fiona’s self-examination points to a possibility of transcendence.