Ian McEwan’s waterworld
Introduction
Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know presents a satirical vision of a future flooded Britain while also telling a compelling story about marital duty, guilt, and moral responsibility. Set in a submerged 22nd‑century England, the novel combines doomy futurism with sharp campus satire, before evolving into a gripping narrative about secrecy, care, and ethical failure.
As The Observer notes, McEwan daringly links “the domestic and the geopolitical,” asking whether private moral failures can be separated from public catastrophe. The New York Times highlights the novel’s exuberant plotting and moral ambiguity, while The Guardian frames it as a meditation on the moral consequences of global catastrophe and the judgment of future generations. See quotes below.
Lesson Focus
Students explore how Ian McEwan combines private guilt, historical responsibility, and future judgment in a novel set in a climate‑damaged future. The lesson emphasises literary interpretation, critical reading, and discussion, rather than theoretical complexity.
What We Can Know is a satirical vision of a future flooded Britain – and a gripping story of marital duty and guilt. Set in a flooded 22nd-century Britain, the novel mixes doomy futurism with a spiky campus satire about the fate of literature in an uncaring world, before finally taking shape as a gripping page-turner about marital duty and guilt. The movement between the domestic and the geopolitical hasn’t always been smoothly managed in McEwan’s work, but it’s carried off here with winning audacity. The Observer.
“What We Can Know” follows a scholarly quest amid the ruins of civilization.
Ian McEwan’s new novel, “What We Can Know,” is brash and busy — it comes at you like a bowling ball headed for a twisting strike. It’s a piece of late-career showmanship (McEwan is 77) from an old master. It gave me so much pleasure I sometimes felt like laughing.
McEwan has put his thumb on the scale. This is melodramatic, storm-tossed stuff. There is murder, a near kidnapping, a child hideously dead of neglect, multiple revenge plots, buried treasure and literary arson. Writers treat other writers’ manuscripts and reputations the way Sherman treated Georgia. No one is a moral paragon. The New York Times
A century from now, a literature scholar pieces together a picture of our times in a novel that quietly compels us to consider the moral consequences of global catastrophe. The Guardian
Starter activity
Ask students to respond briefly (written or oral):
Question:
Can future generations judge us morally for what we do—or fail to do—about climate change today?
Optional follow‑up:
- What information do we have today?
- What excuses do people use for not acting?
While Reading / Core Work
Focus Areas (simplified)
Students work with three main perspectives on the novel:
- Private life and guilt
- Marriage, care, secrecy
- Personal responsibility and moral choices
- Knowledge and interpretation
- A future scholar trying to understand the past
- Limits of documents, archives, and memory
- Misunderstanding the past despite evidence
- Climate and historical responsibility
- Flooded future Britain
- Collective failure
- Moral judgment by future generations
Teachers may assign:
- one perspective per group, or
- one perspective per lesson.
Short Text Work
Students analyse short excerpts (teacher‑selected) and answer:
- What does the character know at this point?
- What does the character choose not to act on?
- How is private responsibility connected to larger consequences?
Central Lesson Question
Which critical frame best explains the novel?
- Domestic guilt
- Scholarly quest
- Literary melodrama
- Climate catastrophe
- Satire
- Moral judgment
Advanced version:
How does McEwan combine private guilt, literary investigation, and global catastrophe to explore what can—and cannot—be known about the past?
Discussion (Whole class or groups)
Core questions (choose 2–3):
- Is this novel mainly about climate change, or about personal moral failure?
- Does the future scholar judge the past fairly?
- Do ordinary personal choices really matter in the face of global catastrophe?
- Why does McEwan mix serious themes with dramatic or melodramatic plot elements?
- What does the novel suggest about knowing versus acting?
Discussion Task
Question:
How does McEwan make private guilt echo public catastrophe?
Possible line of argument:
McEwan places intimate moral failures alongside civilizational failures. The private world of marriage, care, and secrecy mirrors the public world of denial, neglect, and delayed action. In both spheres, people know enough to act differently, but choose hesitation, rationalization, or concealment instead.
In this sense, the title What We Can Know refers not only to historical uncertainty, but also to moral evasion: people often know far more than they are willing to admit—or act upon.
Final Task
Option 1: Short written response (400–600 words)
How does What We Can Know connect private guilt with global responsibility?
Option 2: Oral group presentation
- One key theme
- One quotation
- One explanation of how the future perspective changes our view of the present
Option 3: Reflection task
What might future generations misunderstand about our time—and what might they judge us for?
Learning Objectives
After working with What We Can Know, students should be able to:
Reading and Interpretation
- read and interpret a modern English literary text
- identify central themes such as guilt, responsibility, knowledge, and judgment
- analyse how setting and narrative perspective shape meaning
Critical Thinking
- discuss how literature reflects ethical and societal challenges
- compare private moral choices with collective responsibility
- reflect on how future perspectives can reinterpret the present
Oral and Written Communication
- express interpretations clearly in spoken discussions
- write coherent analytical or reflective texts in English
- support opinions with examples from the text
Culture and Society
- explore how literature comments on climate change and human responsibility
- reflect on how historical events are remembered, judged, or misunderstood
