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An advanced critical and evaluatory compilation
Author and International Iris Murdoch Society member Tammy Grimshaw, Ph.D., wrote her doctoral thesis on the representation of gender and sexuality in Iris Murdoch's fiction. In Sexuality, Gender, and Power in Iris Murdoch's Fiction, Grimshaw continues her in-depth scholarly analysis of the British author. Chapters discuss the social construction of homosexuality in Murdoch's fiction, feminist perspectives of Murdoch's fiction, meticulous Foucauldian scrutinies of "The Bell", "A Fairly Honorable Defeat", "A Severed Head", "The Time of Angels", and representations of bisexuality and transvestism in "Henry and Cato", "The Book of the Brotherhood", "The Philosopher's Pupil", "The Green Knight", and "The Black Prince". An advanced critical and evaluatory compilation recommended for college library shelves devoted to literary studies and literary criticism. ... Read more

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The novels of Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing and V.S.Naipaul are studied in the light of statements they have made inessays and interviews regarding the ethical implications ofwriting fiction. The purpose of this research is to examine the nature ofthe problems they have identified in the creative process ofwriting and the strategies each has used to address the ethicalproblems they perceive, and to assess the relative success of theirchosen methods. It can be seen that, although for each of them thequest for truth is their highest concern, they have each developed verydifferent ways of dealing with the problems they believe areconnected with writing truthfully, and in addition, they have defined theparticulars of these problems in different ways. It is concluded that themore carefully examined and individually defined these problems are,the greater the internal consistency and credibility which isachieved by the strategies they have developed to address theproblems, and the more their work has developed in the course of theircareers. ... Read more

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A full and revealing biography of one of the century's greatest English writers and an icon to a generation.Dame Iris Murdoch has played a major role in English life and letter for nearly half a century. As A.S.Byatt notes, she is 'absolutely central to our culture'. As a novelist, as a thinker, and as a private individual, her life has significance for our age. There is a recognisable Murdoch world, and the adjective 'Murdochian' has entered the language to describe situations where a small group of people interract intricately and strangely. Her story is as emotionally fascinating as that of Virginia Woolf, but far less well known; hers has been an adventurous, highly eventful life, a life of phenomenal emotional and intellectual pressures, and her books portray a real world which is if anything toned down as well as mythicised.For Iris's formative years, astonishingly, movingly and intimately documented by Conradi's meticulous research, were spent among the leading European and British intellectuals who fought and endured World War II, and her life like her books, was full of the most extraordinary passions and profound relationships with some of the most inspiring and influential thinkers, artists, writers and poets of that turbulent time and after.Peter Conradi was very close to both Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, Iris's husband, whose memoir of their life together has itself been the subject of an enormous amount of attention and acclaim. This will be an extraordinarily full biography, for there are vast resources in diaries and papers and friends' recollections, and while it is a superlative biography it is also a superb history of a generation who have profoundly influenced our world today. ... Read more

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Examines the conceptual parallels concerning selflessness, knowing the void, and degrees of attention in Weil's and Murdoch's moral philosophy, and considers how these concepts find expression in Murdoch's fiction. The study discusses similarities in their backgrounds; uses psychoanalytic theory to examine selflessness, the void, and destabilized identity in the novels; and concludes with a discussion of their moral philosophy which underwrites traditional feminine roles within Western culture while implying radical changes for masculine roles. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Iris Murdoch," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Iris Murdoch in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Iris Murdoch when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Iris Murdoch, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Word count: 6553. ... Read more

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In this work, the author uses literary theory to offer re-readings of various major texts. "Hamlet" is used as the key to understanding the psychological and narrative structures in the works discussed which include "Tom Jones", "Great Expectations" and "Father and Son". The question, why do Fielding's "Tom Jones" and Dickens' Pip in "Great Expectations" watch performances of "Hamlet?", lead the author to re-examine these and the other texts. Combining insights drawn from neo-Freudian, feminist and post-structural critical practice with historical context, he reveals the extent to which Fielding and Dickens shaped these fictions in accordance with their perceptions of the Oedipal structure of "Hamlet". He also shows how Hamlet raises the level of feminist consciousness in Fielding and Gosse and shows that for them, as well as for Dickens, the Ophelia icon is a sign of the possible redemption of women from patriarchial tyranny.The redemption of Ophelia is also, the author demonstrates, the triumphant theme of Iris Murdoch's "The Black Prince", a study of sexual difference in which Murdoch impersonates the autobiographical voice of a middle-aged writer obsessed with Shakespeare's play in order to try to rescue not just Ophelia, but the world of words for the woman writer. ... Read more

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Explores the religious narratives woven into Murdoch's work alongside the psychological ones. It traces the influence of specific psychoanalytic texts on her work and shows that Freud and Jung are useful to understanding more than Murdoch's portrayal of the psychological side of the self. ... Read more

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This study reveals the visual arts as vital inspiration for many thematic and formal aspects of Iris Murdoch's fiction. It relates the paintings that appear in the novels to her experimentation with form, her attempts at rendering consciousness and to her philosophy. Finally, a study of characters who experience spiritual revelations in front of famous paintings endorses the centrality of the sublime in Murdoch's fiction and demonstrates how painting serves to liberate characters and readers alike from an illusory fantasy world. ... Read more