Ian McEwan’S Saturday as a New Atheist Novel? A Claim Revisited

Abstract

In the first decade of the 21st century, atheism has seen a renaissance as a result of a series of bestselling publications by authors such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, which advance atheism as a social and political force. These publications have been subsumed under the term “New Atheism”. In the course of its wide public reception, New Atheism has also had repercussions on contemporary English literature. Especially, Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday has been reviewed as New Atheism cast into fiction. This article re-examines this claim. After discussing McEwan’s relationship with New Atheism and contextualizing Saturday as a New Atheist novel, a close reading of two passages will be offered. The analysis of these passages will demonstrate that Saturday, in spite of McEwan’s affiliation with New Atheism, construes a much more complex, even conflicting worldview and is as much a New Atheist novel as it is the decon-