Abstract：Ian McEwan’s early short stories are often considered to question the moral dilemma and empathy failure in contemporary British society by employing themes such as violence, gro¬tesque and desire. However, in My Purple Scented Novel, McEwan turns to media spectacle for displaying the dangers of empathy and the possibilities of ethics. His usage of media spectacle in this story not only limits the identity construction of middle-class intellectuals, but also displays the games of discourse. McEwan’s picturing of media spectacle implies his examination and ne-gotiation of the relations between emotion and truth. The characters seek the truth of the plagia¬rism incident with empathy, making truth telling an affective narration, and the ironic tension hence exposes media spectacle as a barrier to developing human emotional response and under¬standing. In McEwan’s view, the reflexivity of media spectacle not only reflects the affinity be¬tween emotional dependence and media violence, but also expresses the possibility of empathy for virtue in a society of the spectacle.
Key words: My Purple Scented Novel; media spectacle; empathy; truth
