The Ideologies of War and Social Class in Atonement: A Critical Stylistic Analysis

Abstract The present study is concerned with the representation of ideologies in fiction. It attempts an analysis of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement and aims at revealing the ideologies of war and social class by analysing textual conceptual functions. It applies a critical stylistic analysis based on Jeffries’s (2010) framework. The study addresses the following questions: How are the concepts of war and social class presented in the novel? Which categories are used to introduce war and social class in the novel? What is the linguistic realization of the categories selected? What does Atonement reveal about British society and the period during which the events took place? To what extent are McEwan’s ideologies reflected in the novel? The results of the study show that war and social class constitute an important part in the novel. There are references to them from the very beginning of the novel. They are presented ideologically through the categories of naming and describing, negating, representing actions/events/states, prioritizing, hypothesizing, implying and assuming, presenting others’ speech and thoughts, and representing time, space and society. These categories employed specific linguistic realizations that helped the author achieve his purpose and influence readers. The results also reveal the way Atonement portrays the circumstances of British society before, during, and after the Second World War. Moreover, they indicate the existence of historically accurate information related to war. Finally, the results demonstrate that the representations of war and social class in Atonement are ideologically loaded. These representations reflect McEwan’s own attitude toward history, war, and social class.