A Study on the Narrative of “Things” in Cement Garden

Abstract

“The Cement Garden” is a Gothic novel written by British author Ian McEwan. The narrative function of “objects” in the novel is often underestimated. This paper uses Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Jane Bennett’s Vital Objects as frameworks to focus on the performative capabilities of basements, cement, books, and diaries in “The Cement Garden”. It explores how objects deconstruct anthropocentric narratives through spatial discipline, sensory penetration, and textual intervention, and how they construct interactive relationships between humans and objects. The paper also reveals the mechanisms by which post-industrial British society alienates family ethics through the reverse dominance of objects over people in the context of the family ethics crisis in post-industrial Britain.