Concrete Innocence: A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Cement Garden

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences 2026 Open access

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Authors: V. Sarad Deepak, P. Kusuma Harinath
DOI: 10.22161/ijels.111.3
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden (1978) endures as a pivotal contribution to contemporary British literature, distinguished for its audacious engagement with themes of adolescence, trauma, familial disintegration, and social alienation. This expanded study reinterprets the novel with a heightened scholarly lens, interrogating its historical underpinnings, narrative design, symbolic richness, and psychoanalytic density. Through an interdisciplinary framework encompassing gender theory, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies, the analysis positions the novel as both an intimate portrait of familial collapse and an emblematic commentary on the fragmentation of modern society.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Contemporary Literature and Criticism Evelyn Waugh and Hans Urs von Balthasar Studies Short Stories in Global Literature

Publication details

Journal / source
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
018–020
Publication date
1 January 2026
Language
EN