Narrative techniques and structure Flashcards
Multiple Points of view
The first part of the novel is narrated ffrom mustiple POVs, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and elusiveness. Some of the paradoxical scenes (i.e. the fountain and the library scene), must be reiterated to make the events elusive.
Narrative montage
A method of connecting different film/scenes in a specific manner to achieve dramatic effect.
McEwan creatively links the past with the present, the memory to the truth, with the employment of montage and flashbacks, and the division of structure enables the writer to break the limitation of time and space and focus on a specific period of time or place. Though different in place part 2 and part 3 occur at the same time (1940) and share a similar theme of war, forming a parallel structure, which allows the theme of war to run through the novel.
McEwan uses parallel and cross montage to allow for leaps of space (i.e. from France to England), steps of time (i.e from past to future), and relationships/emotional states (i.e Robbie and Cecili’a longing for one another) to be displayed.
McEwan breaks the linear development of time throughout the novel. The movement of time, either backwards or forwards, controls the readers’ anticipation and understanding of the event.
Story lines
The novel adopts two story lines:
- Briony’s sin and her journey of atonement
- the tragic love story between Robbie and Cecilia
The former line brings about the tragedy in the latter one. Meanwhile, the tragedy forces Briony to fulfill her journey of redemption.
Hybrid nature of the narrative
McEwan combines different genres and styles of writing into the framework of metafiction. Atonement presents itself as a realistic novel, with its fidelity to life, rich characterisation, and seemingly conventional plot, but also exhibits some modern experimental techniques such as stream of consciousness, points if view and montage.
homodiegetic narrtion
A narrator who is also a character in the story - usually in first person.
The narration is initially heterodiegetic but ultimately revealed to be homodiegetic at the end, as Briony is a character within the story.
heterodiegetic narrator
A narrator who is not a character in the story they are telling, offering a perspective outside the story’s events.
This is how the novel begins- with a seemingly omniscient, third-person narrator. The revelation at the end that Briony is also a character in the story introduces the concept of narrative unreliability.
