Coming to Terms with Crisis

Disorientation and Reorientation in the Novels of Ian McEwan

By (author) Swantje Moller

Book cover: Coming to Terms with Crisis

Extent: 204, 204 pages

Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter

Subjects: Literary Studies

Series: Anglistische Forschungen

Series volume number: 415

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(August 2011)

ISBN: 9783825358808

6.5 x 9.65 inches

Price: $43.00

In stock

Most of the 399 drawings published in these three volumes document the remains of ancient buildings in Rome and the surrounding countryside that survived in the first half of the seventeenth century. The group comprises specifically commissioned drawings as well as earlier fifteenth- and sixteenth-century material acquired by Cassian


This study offers a critical reading of Ian McEwan’s novels by placing them in the discourse on postmodernity and ethics. Starting from the assumption that as human beings we have a fundamental need for ethical orientation which is of particular importance in a postmodern world characterised by contingency and change, this study investigates how the themes of crisis and reorientation are negotiated in McEwan’s novels. Acknowledging the central role of alterity in these novels, the study draws its theoretical framework largely from ethicists in the Levinasian tradition who, rather than arguing for normative codes of behaviour or notions of virtue, understand ethics in terms of the interactive encounters between individuals. This study therefore aims to contribute not only to the growing body of scholarship on Ian McEwan and, to a certain extent, to reorient our understanding of his writing, but also to take part in the ongoing debate about the relationship between literature and ethics.

  • By (author) Swantje Moller