Trauma in Post 9/11 Fiction: Case study of Mandanipour and McEwan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Tehran University

2 Shiraz University

Abstract

Abstract
This paper studies the landscapes in Ian McEwan’s Solar and examines the narrator’s epistemological lens in his description of the landscapes. The research draws upon David Harvey’s definition of built environment, which contributes to the generation of a more practical definition of landscape, and argues that the narrator and the focalizer’s realistic descriptions of the landscapes have their origin in their scientistic mindset and firm reductionist belief in (neo)liberalism. With regard to such descriptions, the paper focuses on how, since the late twentieth century, the earth, as the cradle of nature and location of countries with definite political borders, is transformed into a landscape of a (blue) planet without any political or spatial borders on it. Using Harvey’s Marxist critiques of capitalism and neoliberalism, this study also analyzes the narrator and focalizer’s belief in science as a savior and the single avenue towards understanding the world. It is concluded that the ecological stance in the story is grounded in the very epistemology from which the man-made climate change arises.
 

Keywords


Abbasi, Pyeaam and Ali Saeedi. "Techneekhaye Ravaee: Rooykardi Sakhtgerayane be 'Senobar va Zan Khofte' Shahriar Mandanipour." (Narrative Technics: A Structuralist Approach to "Senoubar Va Zan-e-Khofteh"). Pazhouhesh-e- Adabiat-e- Moaser-e- Jahan [Research in Contemporary World Literature/ Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji], vol. 20, no.2, 1394/2015, pp. 317-338.

Alexander, Jeffrey C., Ron Eyerman, Bernard Giesen, Neil J. Smelser, & Pioter Sztompka. Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Berkeley: University of California, 2004.

Alizad, Esmaeel and Nima Shojaee Baghini. "Karborde Tarikhe Shafahi dar Enekase Tromaye jameei: Barasiye Ravesh Shenakhti Asar Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich" (The Application of Oral History in the Reflection of Collective Trauma: Methodological Investigation of the Works of Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich.). Faslnameh Anjoman Iraniye Motaleat Farhangi va Ertebatat/Quarterly of Cultural Studies and Communication, vol.13, no. 49, 1396/2018, pp. 49-77.
Carlini, Matthew Francis. The "Ruins of the Future": Counter-Narratives to Terrorism in the 9/11 Literature of Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Ian McEwan. 2009. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.MA Thesis.
Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2010.
DeLillo, Don. Falling Man. NY: Scribner, 2007.
Estévez-Saá, M. and Noemi Pereira-Ares. "Trauma and Transculturalism in Contemporary Fictional Memories of 9/11." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol. 57, no, 3, 2016, pp. 268-278.
Green, Susan. "Consciousness and Ian McEwan’s Saturday: 'What Henry Knows.'" English Studies, vol. 19, no.1, 2010, pp. 58-73.
Havis, Steven. The interplay of trauma and the sublime in four fictions of Ian McEwan. 2015. School of Humanities. The University of Adelaide, M.Phil. Thesis.
Khadem, Amir. "Cultural Trauma as a Social Construct: 9/11 Fiction and the Epistemology of Communal Pain." Intertexts, vol. 18, no. 2, 2014, pp. 181-197.
Khanmohammadi, Ali. "Hafeze va Troma Farhangi." Ensanshenasi Irani (Iranian Anthropology). 1397/2018. accessed: http://iraniananthropologist.com/.
Malmir, Teymour and Masume Mantashlu. "Tahlile Revayate Yazdah Septambr dar Majmueh Abi Mavara Bohar."(Analysis of the September 11th Story in “Ultramarine Blue”). Pazhuheshname Naqd-e Adabi va Balaghat (Journal of Literary Criticism and Rhetoric), vol. 7, no. 2, 1397/2018, pp.173-194.
Mandanipour, Shahriar. Abiye Mavaraye Bohar (Ultramarine Blue). Tehran: Markaz, 1382/2003.
McEwan, Ian. Saturday. London: Jonathan Cape, 2005.
McEwan, Ian. "Only Love and Then Oblivion. Love Was all They Had to Set against Their Murderers." The Guardian 15 September 15, 2001, 1. Accessed: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/15/september11.politicsphilosophyandsociety2.
Mohammadi, Mohammad Hosein and Tahere Karimi. "Pishnemoon va anvae an dar dastanhaye Mandanipour" (Prototype and its variants in Shahriyar Mandanipour's stories). Faslnameh Takhasosi Motaleat Dastani (Narrative Studies), vol.1. no.1 1391/2012, pp.96-109.
Mohammadi, Ebrahim, Jalillolah Faroughi Hendevalan and Reza Moseli. "Barham koneshiye Ostoore va Esteare dar Dastane Kootah Shahriar Mandanpour" (The Interaction between the Myth and Metaphor in Short Stories by Shahriar Mandanipour). Matn Pazhuhi Adabi (Literary Text Research), vol.17, no. 58, 1392/2013, pp.29-45.
Mohammadi, Ebrahim, Jalillolah Faroughi Hendevalan and Somaye Sadeghi. "Ostooreie Shodan Zaman dar Chand Dastane Kootah Shahriar Mandanpour" (Mythicization of Time in Shahriyar Mandanipour’s Short Stories). Faslname Zaban va Adabiyate Farsi (Persian Language and Literature Quarterly), vol. 19, no. 40, 1390/2011, pp.137-166.
Pirnajmodin, Hossein, & Peiambarpour, Motahare Sadat. "Ian McEwan and Ensangeraeeye Liberal, Naqdi bar Romane Shanbe." (Ian McEwan and Liberal Humanism, a Critique of Saturday) Pazhouhesh-e- Adabiat-e- Moaser-e- Jahan [Research in Contemporary World Literature/ Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji]. vol. 23, no.1, 1397/2018, pp. 183-208.
Pitt, Daniela. "The Representation of Trauma in Ian McEwan's Novels Atonement and Saturday." 2009. University of the Witwatersrand, MA thesis.
Rostami, Fereshte. "Sakhtare Seda dar Dastanhaye Mandanipour: Naqshe Zavieh Deed dar Sedaye Dastan" (Sound Structure in the Stories of Mandanipour: the Role of Point of View in the Story.) Boostane Adab/Journal of Boostan Adab, vol.2, no. 2, 1389/2010, pp. 99-125.
Schaap, Geraldine T. 9/11 Fiction and the Construction of Cultural Trauma. 2015. University of Calgary, Alberta, PhD dissertation. Trauma. American Psychological Association, 2019. Accessed from:
Zokaei, Mohammad Saeed. "Motaleat Farhangi va Motaleate Hafeze."(Cultural Studies and Memory Studies). Majaleh Motaleat Ejtemaee Iran (Iranian Social Studies), vol. 5, no. 3, 1390/2011, pp. 72-96.