The Philosophical Deadlock in Iris Murdoch's The Bell and The Sea, The Sea


Abstract

The fiction of the contemporary British novelist Iris Murdoch hinges on the successful mingling between the epistemological and philosophical on the one hand and the artistic and aesthetic on the other. There is an overriding and recurrent postulate in her fiction: the disparity between one's conscious and deliberate plans and what one eventually achieves. This philosophical view forms the constituent elements of two of her famous novels, The Bell (1958) and The Sea, The Sea (1978). This study explores the problematics of how this leitmotif is manifested in these two novels and the mechanism of showing that as well as the salient characteristics of her art and writing.

Authors

Sabbar S. Sultan

DOI

Keywords

References

  1. Bergonzi, Bernard. (1970). The Situation of the Novel. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  2. Bloom, Harold. (ed.). (1986). Iris Murdoch. London : Chelsea.
  3. Bradbury, Malcolm. (1989). No, Not Bloomsbury. London: Arena.(1993). The Modern British Novel. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  4. Byatt, A.S. (1976). Iris Murdoch. London: Longman.
  5. Conradi, Peter. (1986). Iris Murdoch: The Saint and the Artist. London: Macmillan.
  6. Dipple, Elizabeth. (1982). Iris Murdoch: Work for the Spirit. London: Methuen.
  7. Gasiorck, Andrzej. (1995). Post-War British Fiction: Realism and After. London: Edward Arnold.
  8. Gindin, James. (1963). Post-War British Fiction: New Accents and Attitudes. Berkley: University of California.
  9. Howells, Christina (ed.). (1992). The Cambridge Companion to Sartre Cambridge: CUP.
  10. Johnson, Deborah. (1987). Iris Murdoch. Bloomington: Indiana.
  11. Mason, Richard. (1998). 'Ludwig Wittgenstein'. In Stuart Brown ,Diane Collinson& Robert Wikinson (eds.) One Hundred Twentieth Century Philosophers, 201-203.London &NY: Routledge.
  12. Levenson, Michael. (2001). 'Iris Murdoch: The Philosophic Fifties and The Bell', Modern Fction Studies, 47, 3:558-579.
  13. Lewis, Margaret B. (1983). 'Iris Murdoch'. In George Woodcock (ed.) 20th Century Fiction,472-475. London: Macmillan.
  14. Murdoch, Iris. (1958). The Bell. London: Chatto &Windus.(1961).' Against Dryness', Encounter XV,Jan.:16-20.(1973). The Black Prince. london: Chatto & Windus.(1976) . Henry and Cato. Harmondsworth: Penguin.(1978). The Sea, The Sea. London: Chatto & Windus.(2001).'Interview with S.B. Sagare', Modern Fiction Studies, 47, 3:496-515.
  15. The New Encyclopedia Britannica. (1994), 12. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.
  16. Scholes, Robert. (1967). The Fabulators. NY: Oxford UP.
  17. Todd, Richard. (1984).Iris Murdoch. London: Macmillan.
  18. Weese, Katherine. (2001). 'Feminist Uses of the Fantastic in Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea', Modern Fiction Studies, 47,3: 630-655.