The Neoliberal Nostrum: Spatial Fix in Ian McEwan’s Solar

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor of English Literature, University of Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of English Literature, University of Tehran, Iran

3 PhD Candidate of English Literature, University of Tehran, Iran

10.34785/J014.2021.743

Abstract

Ian McEwan’s Solar has been the subject of many a debate, mostly due to its controversial representation of climate change’s cause and the solution offered for the global disaster. The paper explores the novel’s judgment over climate change’s fountainhead and the protagonist’s vain project to save the earth. The scope of the study encompasses the narrator’s accounts of the characters and events in the story. In the light of David Harvey’s notion of ‘spatial fix,’ the study, through a close reading of the novel, focuses on the context within which the story unfolds in order to elaborate on the transformation of the earth into a globalized monolithic built environment called ‘the planet’ for the sake of efficiency and free flow of capital and commodities. It also argues that the protagonist’s solar energy generation project is a neo-liberal initiative to replace a less lucrative production mode and tackle the system’s critical spell of overaccumulation, rather than global warming.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 12 September 2020
  • Revise Date: 22 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 18 January 2021

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