Atonement has been highly concerned since its publication, with critical focus on the narrative ethics, metafictional and historical significance, psychological and postmodernist characteristics. The essential attributes of “heterogeneity” in the novel haven’t been given enough attention. This paper attempts to disclose and analyze the “heterogeneity” in Atonement from four respects: the contradiction of the identity of the narrator, the complexity of narrative lines, the ambiguity of reality and fiction in the plot, and the “parasite” condition of intertexts. To analyze Atonement from the view of “heterogeneity” is to discover the essential attributes ignored in the literary works. It is hoped that such an analysis may open up infinite and boundless space of structure and meaning, and contribute to a more creative and multiple understanding and interpretation of language and literature.
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