Welcome to Atonement

What we'll try to do (the order might vary, at first based on the first part, then the whole novel):

1) Background search on different contexts (share sources and info):

* Ian McEwan as the author

* Britain in 1935

* the class system in Britain between World Wars

2) Finding non-literary texts that would allow us to revise different text types and enlighten us about something related to this novel at the same time (ongoing work)

3) Putting together a detailed timeline

4) Compiling character profiles

6) Describing how the Tallis household functions (social class and power issues)

+ Briony reads The Waves by Virginia Woolf --> read (fragments) here if interested (6 different viewpoints interspersed with detailed descriptions of the sea, which function as means of moving from one consciousness into another):

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.html

After reading the whole novel:

Ongoing work on the timeline, character profiles (with quotes, and events that bring about changes in the characters), finding non-literary texts, and discussing important issues.

+ Discussion questions

(See this, too, for one opinion: https://jacquemoreau.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/the-tallis-household/)

+ Brian Finney essay: http://web.csulb.edu/~bhfinney/mcewan.html

+ Convince me to like or hate Briony

+ Object descriptions

+ Fiction and metafiction

+ Metonymy and class

+ Watching the film

+ Some creative writing (if you'd like to have some)

Some useful resources for the background search:

Ian McEwan homepage: http://www.ianmcewan.com/

Britain 1930s timeline (if you google this phrase, you'll get a lot more, maybe some even better):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/worldwars_timeline_noflash.shtml

1935 in the UK: 

Everyday life in Britain in the 1930s: http://www.localhistories.org/1930slife.html

Thirties Britain (The National Archives):

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/thirties-britain/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2641959/British-Council-film-archive-reveals-life-1930s-40s-Britain.html

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7483/economics/the-uk-economy-in-the-1930s/

http://www.capx.co/what-did-britain-really-look-like-in-the-1930s/

Some on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpNcHTG4uM (poverty, 12:25)

A short video on the stately house in which part 1 of Atonement was filmed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LFB6EdlR08 (Stokesay Court, 6:16)

Google for pictures: British manor houses 1930s

You can listen to a bit of Minding the Manor: the Memoir of a 1930 English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran here: http://www.amazon.com/Minding-Manor-Memoir-English-Kitchen/dp/0762796839

The fate of Britain's historic homes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2101933/Englands-lost-Downtons-Or-endless-homes-ended-bypasses-office-blocks-golf-courses.html

Task: When reading, if you notice anything mentioned that might have existed in real life (people, places, politics, etc.), google them and find out more, e.g. Bernini's Triton in the Piazza Barberini in Rome (p18 in the 2002 Vintage publication I own, first page of Chapter 2)

Read for background and a video-related task:

https://g20languageandliterature.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/atonement-background-context/

https://youtu.be/CvuVfgZ9wcI (26:41)

Poem about Kambili

 Kambili, a gentle soul, so kind
Her spirit shines, makes us blind
Aunty Ifeoma sees her grow

Her courage like a flower in the snow
From darkness, she has risen to light
Her heart, shining bright
Aunty Ifeoma holds her close
Her future, a path with hope

A purple hibiscus, so rare
Her spirit, a symbol, of what's there
Aunty Ifeoma is proud of her
Kambili, a flower of power

Poem

 About my thoughts and feelings, that I have in my mind

Of a daughter named Kambili, whom I love with all my heart

But with my actions, I've torn us far apart.

She's gentle like a hibiscus flower, delicate and fair

With a soul that shines brighter than the sun, beyond compare.

But I've chased power, wealth, and control, with a heavy hand

And in the process, I've hurt her, breaking her spirit and command.

I've silenced her voice, that was once so soft and sweet

And left her in fear, with no peace in her feet.

I regret the pain I've caused, the love I neglected

And I want to make amends, to heal what I've affected.

So, Kambili, I ask for your forgiveness, and to take my hand

Together, we'll heal, and find a better land.

Atonement

 Can be read here but not downloaded:

https://www.studocu.com/en-au/document/the-university-of-notre-dame-australia/english-3/ian-mcewan-atonement-pdf/20996449

Jaja as Persona - Poetry o'Fred

Truth's hurt

Papa launches a missile at our dinner, after I refuse to cower

His feckless, hissing words, pleading God! for power

Mama's face - seething grows, breathing tough from behind long-lost boos

She wilts like a flower

My truth hurts you, because embedding is sour

Kambili, words struggle this hour

Your hurt's true too 

What more could bravado do

Let's sit and join, merrily devour

'd by the Wrath

Yet this path is no truth 

to Power