Iris Murdoch and Morality

by Anne Rowe, A. Horner (Editor)

Overview

Iris Murdoch and Morality provides a close focus on moral issues in Murdoch's novels, philosophy and theology. It situates Murdoch within current theoretical debates and develops an understanding of her work as a crucial link between twentieth and twenty-first century writing and theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230224452
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/29/2010
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

PETER CONRADI Emeritus Professor of English, Kingston University and Honorary Research Fellow, University College, London, UK TAMMY GRIMSHAW Freelance writer ROB HARDY Department of English, Open University, UK SIMON HAINES Professor of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong MARK LUPRECHT Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, English Department, University of Tennessee, USA PRISCILLA MARTIN Tutor, English and Classics, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, UK SCOTT H. MOORE Associate Professor of Philosophy and Great Texts and Director of the Great Texts Program, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA BRAN NICOL Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature, University of Portsmouth, UK PAMELA OSBORN PhD student, Kingston University, UK WILLIAM SCHWEIKER Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, University of Chicago, USA FRANCES WHITE Assistant Director of the Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies, Kingston University, UK

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Notes on Contributors x

Notes on References and Abbreviations xiii

Introduction: Art, Morals and 'The Discovery of Reality' Anne Rowe Avril Horner 1

Part I Morality and the Novel

1 Murdoch's Mannered Realism: Metafiction, Morality and the Post-War Novel Bran Nicol 17

2 The Preacher's Tone: Murdoch's Mentors and Moralists Priscilla Martin 31

3 Stories, Rituals and Healers in Iris Murdoch's Fiction Rob Hardy 43

4 Laughing at Something Tragic: Murdoch as Anti-Moralist Peter J. Conradi 56

5 'Refinements of Evil': Iris Murdoch and the Gothic Avril Horner 70

Part II A Moral Union: Philosophy and Literature

6 Iris Murdoch, the Ethical Turn and literary Value Simon Haines 87

7 Murdoch's Fictional Philosophers: What They Say and What They Show Scott H. Moore 101

8 Death and Goodness: Bruno's Dream and 'The Sovereignty of Good over Other Concepts' Mark Luprecht 113

9 Jackson's Dilemma and 'The Responsible life of the Imagination' Frances White 126

Part III Morality without God: Iris Murdoch's Secular Theology

10 'The Dream that does not Cease to Haunt us': Iris Murdoch's Holiness Anne Rowe 141

11 'A Story about a Man': The Demythologized Christ in the Novels of Iris Murdoch and Patrick White Pamela Osborn 156

12 Do not Seek God outside your own Soul: Buddhism in The Green Knight Tommy Grimshaw 168

13 The Moral Fate of Fictive Persons: On Iris Murdoch's Humanism William Schweiker 180

Index 194

Editorial Reviews

'...this excellent slection of essays would no doubt broaden the readership and would be most welcome in the current economic climate...this collection is both a welcome addition and a necessary marker in contemporary studies of her work.' - Miscelanea

From the Publisher