Allegory and Human Nature in Ian McEwanâs Solar

Johannes Wally

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Chapter 9 Allegory and Human Nature in Ian McEwanâs Solar

In: Green Matters

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Johannes Wally

Johannes Wally
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 171â184

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004408876_010

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Abstract

In 2010, Ian McEwan published the novel Solar. Although it was praised as the first major novel to âtackle global warming successfullyâ (Cohen 2010: online), most reviews were rather negative. One reason for such reviews might lie with the novelâs narrative structure. Solar is untypical of a novel about global warming. Whereas most novels concerned with ecological crisis head towards a climax of ecological disaster, Solar presents readers with a catastrophe on a micro-scale. It tells the story of Michael Beard, an insatiate scientist, who allegorically represents humanity in general: he is an everyman, greedy and egotistic, yet not all bad and capable of something great. Hence, rather than a novel about global warming, Solar is a novel about human nature, which specifically poses two questions: (i) is human nature stable or changeable and (ii) are human beings cognitively equipped to answer this question. This article traces how these philosophical concerns are developed in Solar. Thereby, it also analyzes whether the novelâs epistemological and ontological concerns combine to produce a subtle ethical imperative â an imperative, which was perhaps another reason why Solar was received poorly by some critics.

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Green Matters

Ecocultural Functions of Literature

Series:Â Nature, Culture and Literature, Volume: 15

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004408876

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 22 Oct 2019

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 9 Allegory and Human Nature in Ian McEwanâs Solar

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Chapter 9 Allegory and Human Nature in Ian McEwanâs Solar