Deconstructing and Reconstructing Englishness: National Symbolism of the County House in McEwan’s Atonement

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article extends previous readings of Atonement’s representation of the English country house by examining it in relation to a nostalgic version of Englishness that still appeals to a contemporary audience. It argues that the novel both deconstructs and reconstructs the idea of rural Englishness endorsed by the heritage culture. By disclosing the constructedness of the timeless England, Atonement shows that rural Englishness is crafted out of a fantasy of seamless historical continuity that has never existed. McEwan indicates that the projection of the aristocratic patriarch’s private property as a repository of English values and culture obscures the class and gender oppression embedded in the country-house power structures. The progressive politics of Atonement is further seen in its refiguration of the elitist, exclusive version of Englishness as a more democratic and inclusive form of Britishness. It justifies the vision of multicultural British identity by appealing to the shared past of Heritage England and immigrants from the old empire. This shared past is revealed in the novel through subtle allusions to the hidden connections between English estate houses and Britain’s colonial enterprise. Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. See Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), p. 292; and Susie L. Steinbach, Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture, and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London: Routledge, 2016), p. 22.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [20BWW041].Notes on contributorsKui ZengKui Zeng is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, China. His research interests include British rural novels (with a focus on English country-house novels), Sino-British literary relations, and postcolonial criticism. His work has appeared in international journals such as the Journal of Language, Literature and Culture and Renaissance Studies.Hongbin DaiHongbin Dai is a professor at the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, China. He specializes in the fields of modern English literature and has published three monographs and more than thirty articles in various journals at home and abroad, such as Critique, Scottish Literary Review, Modernism/modernity, Foreign Literature Studies, Religions, and Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature.