An Analysis of Post-modern Narration of Atonement from the Perspective of Historiographic Metafiction

In Atonement, McEwan combines the narrative strategies of historiography and metafiction in an original way.The narrator, with plenty of historical material, presents the possible world which is close to history. The use of these strategies not only provides the reader with a broad reading space but also shows the plentiful expressive force of the text. This article analyzes Atonement from the perspective of historiographic metafiction. It gives prominence to revealing the post-modern narration which is characterized as the combination of the fictionality and narrativity of history by interpreting the use of self-reflection, self-disclosure, and other skills in metafiction, as well as the way of revisiting and reconstructing history.