When Ian McEwan published a new novel, The Innocent, at the beginning of 1990, after three years of silence, many reviewers were rather perplexed. The Innocent seemed to be a traditional, linear spy story, apparently without any postmodern winks to deeper hidden meanings. It did not reveal, either, any metafictional or auto-referential elements disguised as popular fiction tricks. It was just a spy story, belonging to a “minor” genre, even though it was written by a major author. This is why, while looking for all the possible interpretations suggested by the novel’s title and the subtitle – A Special Relationship – in this essay I take into account the specificity of spy fiction as a genre, on the one hand, all possible readings springing from the usual scenario of spy stories, and the deeper meaning the novel acquires thanks to the author’s explicit or implicit reference to narrative and filmic intertexts. More than twenty years after The Innocent, McEwan published another spy story: Sweet Tooth. In a way, Sweet Tooth seems to be a light the counterpart of The Innocent, because the tone of the narration is almost cheerful, there is no violence and narrative tricks substitute suspense. Here McEwan does what he did not do with The Innocent: that is to say, he uses a spy fiction plot for other purposes. While the story of The Innocent was first and foremost a spy thriller, with a tinge of noir, Sweet Tooth is a metafictional tour de force contrived as a spy story. It is apparent that, despite all the references to the Cold War, the miners’ strikes, the power crisis, the IRA, the soaring crime rate, we are a long way from spy fiction. Or maybe we are not. According to an unconfirmed quote, McEwan believes that “All novels are spy novels […] as all writers are spies”.

Albertazzi, S. (2016). Ian McEwan’s Innocent Spies. Milano : Mimesis.

Ian McEwan’s Innocent Spies

ALBERTAZZI, SILVIA
2016

Abstract

When Ian McEwan published a new novel, The Innocent, at the beginning of 1990, after three years of silence, many reviewers were rather perplexed. The Innocent seemed to be a traditional, linear spy story, apparently without any postmodern winks to deeper hidden meanings. It did not reveal, either, any metafictional or auto-referential elements disguised as popular fiction tricks. It was just a spy story, belonging to a “minor” genre, even though it was written by a major author. This is why, while looking for all the possible interpretations suggested by the novel’s title and the subtitle – A Special Relationship – in this essay I take into account the specificity of spy fiction as a genre, on the one hand, all possible readings springing from the usual scenario of spy stories, and the deeper meaning the novel acquires thanks to the author’s explicit or implicit reference to narrative and filmic intertexts. More than twenty years after The Innocent, McEwan published another spy story: Sweet Tooth. In a way, Sweet Tooth seems to be a light the counterpart of The Innocent, because the tone of the narration is almost cheerful, there is no violence and narrative tricks substitute suspense. Here McEwan does what he did not do with The Innocent: that is to say, he uses a spy fiction plot for other purposes. While the story of The Innocent was first and foremost a spy thriller, with a tinge of noir, Sweet Tooth is a metafictional tour de force contrived as a spy story. It is apparent that, despite all the references to the Cold War, the miners’ strikes, the power crisis, the IRA, the soaring crime rate, we are a long way from spy fiction. Or maybe we are not. According to an unconfirmed quote, McEwan believes that “All novels are spy novels […] as all writers are spies”.
2016
Plots and Plotters. Double Agents and Villains in Spy Fiction
9
24
Albertazzi, S. (2016). Ian McEwan’s Innocent Spies. Milano : Mimesis.
Albertazzi, Silvia
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/549425
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