Contingency In Iris Murdoch S Under The Net

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim, course: British Literature of the 50's, 22 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: All human beings have a deep need for necessity in their lives. We want to know why we exist, we want to understand the world and its secrets, and we want to know our place in the world. Concepts like religion and philosophy are concerned with those questions and try to provide answers to them. Nevertheless, there are still no satisfying explanations. This is due to the fact that "our actual lived experience has no form or unity in itself, but is full of contingent rubble, accident, and unsystematized detail which may resist our attempts at unity" (Antonaccio & Schweiker, Human Goodness 111). As our world is contingent, it cannot be completely understood. Consequently, we should accept its contingency instead of denying it by trying to find an explanation to everything. The stress ratio between contingency and necessity is also the theme of Iris Murdoch's first novel Under the Net. Throughout the novel, the protagonist Jake Donaghue searches for his own identity and for a master theory which is able to explain the world (cf. Porter, Leitmotiv 379). In the end, he realizes that he has to change his attitude towards contingency. In the following, I will try to find reasons for the change of Jake's attitude, and I will describe the consequences of this change. In order to be able to do this, I will first provide a definition of the term 'contingency' and place it in the context of philosophy in chapter 2. Afterwards, I will explain some essential aspects of contingency in the novel in chapter 3. In chapter 4, I will have a look at Jake's changing attitude towards contingency in the course of the novel in order to, finally, be able to find reasons for the change and to describe its consequences in chapter 5 and 6.

The sea: turbulent and leaden, transparent and opaque, magician and mother... When Charles Arrowby, over sixty, a demi god of the theatre- director, playwright and actor - retires from his glittering London world in order to `abjure magic and become a hermit', it is to the sea that he turns. He hopes at least to escape from `the woman' - but unexpectedly meets one whom he loved long ago. His Buddhist cousin, James, also arrives. He is menaced by a monster from the deep. Charles finds his `solitude' peopled by the drama of his own fantasies and obsessions.

This study looks at the comic dimension and ironic tone of Iris Murdoch's work and argues that these elements are as important to an understanding of her novels as is her use of mythic patterns and philosophical ideas.

This book explores different aspects of Murdoch's work including her philosophy and fiction, focusing on a wide variety of issues ranging from reading "Murdoch as a fabulator" to the central role Murdoch plays in the "ethical turn." Approaching Murdoch's work from multiple perspectives, this book is of interest for Murdoch scholars, literature and philosophy students, as well as for general readers.

This book is an eclectic mix of essays that reposition Murdoch's work in relation to current debates in philosophy, theology, literature, gender and sexuality, and authorship. The essays refine, develop or contest previous readings, and blur the distinction between liberal humanist and theoretical positions, suggesting negotiations between them.

"Iris Murdoch was one of the most interesting and wide-ranging philosophers in recent British history. In addition to her five works on moral philosophy and existentalism, including Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, she was the author of twenty-five works of fiction, including The Sea, the Sea, winner of the Booker Prize, and The Black Prince, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. This collection reassesses her literary and philosophical output, focusing on her key literary works and the influence she had among contemporary philosophers" --

This volume is the third volume in Palgrave' Macmillan's new Iris Murdoch Today scholarly series. Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination is the first major collection of literary essays since her centenary in 2019. It brings together leading Murdoch scholars from across the world who expand the boundaries of recent criticism offering work not only on the novels, but on her unpublished poetry and archival materials. This collection discusses her interest in, and use of, Japanese literature; her relationship with, and reader-response to her, in Australia; Murdoch in the post #metoo era; her lifelong interest in the supernatural, same-sex relationships and friendships; as well as the use and abuse of biographical material. The collection widens the field of Murdoch studies and marks a new waypoint in the development of her critical reception.

This largely chronological study of Iris Murdoch's literary life begins with her fledgling publications at Badminton School and Oxford, and her Irish heritage. It moves through the novels of the next four decades and concludes with an account of the biographical, critical and media attention given to her life and work since her death in 1999.