GENDER REPRESENTATION IN IAN MCEWAN’S ATONEMENT (2001)

Abstract

Gender is one of the most important subjects being tackled in our century since the development of women's role in society and the spread of feminism across the world. It is not considered only with sex or trans people but it exceeds to every aspect of life since every human has a gender role and identity. They can affect and get provoked by the society. People's identity can be changed and formed by the circumstances and the society around them. The effect of gender has extended to be included and presented in literature by many authors in their works. It was discussed from different aspects in many novels such as: Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice and Atonement by Ian McEwen. The paper focuses mainly on highlighting the gender rules included in the Atonement and unveil gender performance of the characters of the novel. To achieve this objective, we relied first on reading and understanding gender then reading the novel to analyze it and reveal the presentation of gender in it. We came through to discover different roles of gender including role of women and men and women's sexuality.