Authorial Signature and Moral Imagination: An Auteurist Reading of Ian McEwan’s Fiction

This article examines the fiction of Ian McEwan through the lens of Auteur Theory, a critical framework that foregrounds the creator as the central organizing force of a text. While traditionally associated with film criticism, Auteur Theory can be productively applied to literature to analyze recurring thematic patterns, stylistic consistencies, and the author’s ideological imprint across works. McEwan’s novels, including Atonement, Enduring Love, and Machines Like Me, reveal a distinctive authorial signature characterized by moral inquiry, psychological depth, and narrative experimentation. This study argues that McEwan functions as a literary auteur whose works consistently engage with themes of guilt, responsibility, ethical ambiguity, and the fragility of human perception. Through close textual analysis, the article demonstrates how McEwan’s narrative strategies and thematic preoccupations establish a coherent artistic vision, positioning him as one of the most significant contemporary authors in English literature.