Department of English Language and Literature

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Angel or Demon? The Child in Contemporary Fiction: Ian McEwan’s Atonement
(2020-06) Aida YAHI, Manal AMROUNE
Childhood is the most memorable time in anyone’s life. It is the starting point of all our stories and adventures, and the origin of most of our persistent sadness, hopelessness, and buried worries. Therefore, this thesis addresses the problematic representation of children in contemporary fiction, such as Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Moreover, this study provides a view on the theoretical framework that encompasses the emergence of the concept of childhood. It discusses various literary depictions of children from the medieval period to the postmodern era in order to understand its significant changes over time, as well as the reasons behind the shift in such representations. Furthermore, this study examines the psychological development of Atonement’s protagonist through Freudian concepts in addition to the development stages proposed by Erik Erikson in order to understand her fears, insecurities, disturbing behaviors, and her feelings of guilt and atonement. It further explores the protagonist Briony Tallis as a representative of the child image in contemporary fiction so as to find out whether she is an angel or demon, or a mixture of both. To achieve this goal, the psychoanalytic approach is used, mainly Freud’s “Family Romance,” and Erikson’s stages of development.