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【Abstract】Regarded as the most sweeping and expansive novel of the Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan， Atonement tells a story about love， crime and war with an impressive feature of construction and deconstruction. This paper seeks to analyze the novel’s narrative structure and its language strategy from the perspective of the defamiliarization theory. The former shifts from one character to another while the latter manifests itself in fragmentization and retardation of information.
【Key words】Atonement; Defamiliarization; Narrative Structure; Retardation
【作者簡介】李珺婷（1999.01.28-），女，汉族，江苏徐州人，上海外国语大学国际教育学院，本科在读，研究方向：语言文学。
I. Introduction
The major events of the novel occur one day in the summer of 1935. Briony Tallis， a hyperimaginative 13-year-old girl who sees her older sister Cecilia mysteriously involved with their neighbor Robbie Turner， a fellow Cambridge student subsidized by the Tallis family， mistakenly identifies him as the one who assaults her cousin Lola on the ground that night; on her testimony alone， Robbie is jailed. Five years later， she begins to come to terms with what she has done and offers to make amends to him and Cecilia， now together as lovers. However， the novel discloses itself in the epilogue that all above is just a literary confession which has taken Briony a lifetime to write. Contrary to the work， Robbie died of septicemia in the Retreat of Dunkirk in 1941 while Cecilia was also killed in the blast at Balham Underground station.
In the work， McEwan masterfully employs the technique of defamiliarization， in which case， he challenges the readers’ expectations and jars their sensibilities as they explore. Readers are forced to see the story from a different perspective and thus achieve a prolonged aesthetic experience.
II. Application of Defamiliarization in Atonement
The concept of defamiliarization is first introduced by Viktor Shklovsky in his seminal essay “Art as Device” （often translated as “Art as Technique”） in 1917. It refers to the artistic technique of presenting common things to audiences in an unfamiliar or strange way in a bid to enhance perception of the familiar （Lawrence， “Victor Shklovskij”209-219）. Both the author and the reader are involved in this process （see fig. 1）.
Fig. 1. Effect of Defamiliarization; Mei， Ziman. “the Aesthetic Effect of Defamiliarization” Journal of Zhejiang Business Technology Institute 3（2004）： 48.
In Atonement， the process is more complicated and ingenious. Due to the fact that the first three parts of the novel （Text 2 in Picture 2-1） are created by the protagonist， set as a writer as well， readers have to interpret Briony’s work before McEwan’s. They are forced to reexamine and correct their judgements of characters and events （Defamiliarization 3 and Defamiliarization 4 in fig.2） when they detect inconsistent information in different versions. Such kind of constructing and deconstructing dramatically increase the length and difficulty of their comprehension and great possible effect can be attained by this impediment and slowness of perception. Fig. 2 . Effect of Defamiliarization in Atonement; Du， Weiping. “Ian McEwan’s Free Realm——On Defamiliarization of the Narrative Structure of Atonement.” Journal of Shanxi University （Philosophy
【Key words】Atonement; Defamiliarization; Narrative Structure; Retardation
【作者簡介】李珺婷（1999.01.28-），女，汉族，江苏徐州人，上海外国语大学国际教育学院，本科在读，研究方向：语言文学。
I. Introduction
The major events of the novel occur one day in the summer of 1935. Briony Tallis， a hyperimaginative 13-year-old girl who sees her older sister Cecilia mysteriously involved with their neighbor Robbie Turner， a fellow Cambridge student subsidized by the Tallis family， mistakenly identifies him as the one who assaults her cousin Lola on the ground that night; on her testimony alone， Robbie is jailed. Five years later， she begins to come to terms with what she has done and offers to make amends to him and Cecilia， now together as lovers. However， the novel discloses itself in the epilogue that all above is just a literary confession which has taken Briony a lifetime to write. Contrary to the work， Robbie died of septicemia in the Retreat of Dunkirk in 1941 while Cecilia was also killed in the blast at Balham Underground station.
In the work， McEwan masterfully employs the technique of defamiliarization， in which case， he challenges the readers’ expectations and jars their sensibilities as they explore. Readers are forced to see the story from a different perspective and thus achieve a prolonged aesthetic experience.
II. Application of Defamiliarization in Atonement
The concept of defamiliarization is first introduced by Viktor Shklovsky in his seminal essay “Art as Device” （often translated as “Art as Technique”） in 1917. It refers to the artistic technique of presenting common things to audiences in an unfamiliar or strange way in a bid to enhance perception of the familiar （Lawrence， “Victor Shklovskij”209-219）. Both the author and the reader are involved in this process （see fig. 1）.
Fig. 1. Effect of Defamiliarization; Mei， Ziman. “the Aesthetic Effect of Defamiliarization” Journal of Zhejiang Business Technology Institute 3（2004）： 48.
In Atonement， the process is more complicated and ingenious. Due to the fact that the first three parts of the novel （Text 2 in Picture 2-1） are created by the protagonist， set as a writer as well， readers have to interpret Briony’s work before McEwan’s. They are forced to reexamine and correct their judgements of characters and events （Defamiliarization 3 and Defamiliarization 4 in fig.2） when they detect inconsistent information in different versions. Such kind of constructing and deconstructing dramatically increase the length and difficulty of their comprehension and great possible effect can be attained by this impediment and slowness of perception. Fig. 2 . Effect of Defamiliarization in Atonement; Du， Weiping. “Ian McEwan’s Free Realm——On Defamiliarization of the Narrative Structure of Atonement.” Journal of Shanxi University （Philosophy