Beginnings

About the lecture

In this module, we provide a brief introduction to Ian McEwan himself before discussing the resonances of the word atonement. In Christian theology, Atonement describes the reconciliation of God and mankind through the death of Jesus. Who is the sacrificial victim here? who is being reconciled? and what is the crime for which reconciliation is needed?

About the lecturer

Allison Adler Kroll is finishing a DPhil on the Whig aristocracy at Merton College, Oxford. She completed a previous doctorate in Victorian and modern literature at UCLA and has lectured at UCLA, Loyola Marymount, and UC Irvine. She has published essays on Tennyson and Hardy, in Victorian Poetry and Nineteenth-Century Contexts respectively, and is currently revising her literary thesis, National Faith: Heritage Culture and English Identity from Tennyson to Byatt, for publication in book form.