iris murdoch's novel-plays

182 Pages·2009·1.04 MB·English

IRIS MURDOCH’S NOVEL-PLAYS: THE IMPACT OF THE USE OF
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS ON IRIS MURDOCH’S FICTION

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY

FARZANEH NASERI SIS

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

MARCH 2009
Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

___________________
Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata
Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree
of Doctor Philosophy
____________________
Prof. Dr. Wolf König
Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully
adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.

___________________ _____________________
Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Yrd.Doç.Dr. Margaret Sönmez
Supervisor Co-Supervisor

Examining Committee Members
Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz (METU, FLE) __________________
Yrd. Doç. Dr. Margaret Sönmez (METU, FLE) __________________
Dr. Valerie Kennedy (BILKENT. İng. Dili ve Ed) __________________
Dr. Berkem Gürenci Sağlam (BAŞKENT. AMER) __________________
Doç. Dr. Ünal Norman (METU, FLE) _________________
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained
and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I
also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited
and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last Name: Farzaneh Naseri Sis
Signature:

iii
ABSTRACT

IRIS MURDOCH’S NOVEL-PLAYS: THE IMPACT OF THE USE OF
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS ON IRIS MURDOCH”S FICTION

Naseri Sis, Farzaneh
Ph.D., English Literature
Supervisor: Prof. D. Nursel İçöz
Co-Supervisor Yrd. Doc. Dr. Margaret Sönmez

March 2009, 173 Pages

Murdoch’s fiction has been influenced by dramatic elements,
particularly comic elements. This influence has been revealed as parody.
Murdoch parodies the comic character types of the eiron, alazon, buffoon and
agroikos by exaggerating and mixing their functions and themes of love,
separated lovers and metamorphosis in her novels, The Nice and the Good, The
Black Prince, and The Sea, The Sea. In addition, she makes parodic uses of
Shakespearean plays, As You Like It and Love's Labour's Lost, Hamlet, and The
Tempest, in her novels in question. Her use of parody as a weapon against the
genre of romantic comedy, its character types and main themes is the result of
her philosophical view of drama and the dramatic. She argues that comedy and
tragedy deal with appearance whereas drama and the dramatic ought to involve
reality. In her novels in question, she shows that the dramatic is the conflict of
selfish self with itself to reach self-knowledge. Murdochian self- knowledge is
the knowledge of what lies beyond self. This kind of knowledge is achieved by
unselfing, a process through which a solipsistic self recognizes its solipsism
and challenges it by means of love and art.
Keywords: intertextuality, parody, comedy, comic character types, solipsism,
unselfing

iv
ÖZ

IRIS MUDOCH'UN ROMAN- OYUNLARI: DRAMATIK OGELERIN
KULLANIMININ IRIS MURDOCH'UN ESERLERINE ETKISI

Ferzaneh Naseri Sis
Doktora, İngiliz Edebiyatı
Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz
Yard. Tez Yöneticisi: Y. Doç. Dr. Margaret Sönmez
Mart 2009, 173 Sayfa

Murdoch’ın romanları, komedi ögeleri başta olmak üzere drama
ögelerinden etkilenmiştir. Bu etkilenme kendisini parodi olarak göstermektedir.
Murdoch, The Nice and the Good, The Black Prince ve The Sea, The Sea adlı
eserlerinde ele aldığı aşk, birleşemeyen aşıklar ve metamorfoz temalarını ve
işlevlerini karıştırarak ve abartarak eiron, alazon, buffoon (soytarı) ve de
agroikos komik karakter tiplerinin parodisini yapar. Bununla birlikte, Murdoch
bu eserlerinde, Shakespeare’ın As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet
and The Tempest adlı oyunlarını da parodi amacıyla kullanır. Romantik komedi
türüne, bu türün karakter tiplemesi ve temalarına karşı bir silah olarak parodiyi
kullanması, romancının drama ve dramatik anlayışının bir sonucudur. Yazar,
komedi ve trajedi görüntüyle ilgilenirken, drama ve dramatik olanın gerçekliği
ele alması gerektiğini öne sürmektedir. Bu çalışmada kullanılan romanlarında
Murdoch, dramatik olanı bencil durumda olan benliğin kendini tanıması
amacıyla yine kendisiyle olan çatşması olarak gösterir. Murdoch’ın
romanlarında karşımıza çıkan bu “kendini tanıma” benliğin ötesinde yer alan
bilginin kendisidir. Bu türden bir bilgi/anlama benlikten sıyrılarak başarılabilir.
Bu, ben-merkezli benliğin solipsizminin/tekbenciliğinin farkına vardığı ve
buna karşı aşk ve sanatla karşı koyduğu bir süreçtir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: metinlerarası ilişki, parodi, komedi, komedi karakter
tiplemesi, tekbencilik, benlikten sıyrılma

v
To my brother, Ardeshir Naseri Sis

vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Chief among those who have been indispensable to my efforts are, my
supervising professor, Dr Nursel İçöz, who has taught me Iris Murdoch and has
patiently helped me throughout my research, and my co-supervisor, Dr.
Margaret Sönmez, whose invaluable insight has encouraged me.

I am also indebted to Dr. Valerie Kennedy whose erudite comments I
have benefited from. I would like to thank other jury members, Dr. Berkem
Gürenci Sağlam, and Doc. Dr. Ünal Norman.
The last not least, I am also grateful to my dear friends, Mustafa Zeki,
Mustafa Kırca, and Mehrdad Alizadeh Mizani’s help, and my very dear
parents, my sisters, and my brother.

vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM …………………………………………………………. iii

ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………. iv

ÖZ …………………………………………………………………….… v

DEDICATION ……………………………………………..…………. vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………. viii

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………… 1

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1. Introduction …………………………………………………. 9

2.2. Intertextuality and Theories of Genres ……………………... 10

2.3. Theories of Comedy and Comic Features …………….……. 14

2.4. The Concept of Parody, Parodic Genres, Comic characters
Comic characters and Themes and Shakespearean Plays .... 22
2.5. Murdoch’s Philosophical View of the Dramatic …………..... 25
3. THE NICE AND THE GOOD

3.1. Introduction ………………………………………………….. 35
3.2. The Parodic Character Types and Parodic Themes of Love,
Separated Lovers and Metamorphosis ……………………..... 36
3.3. The Parodic Uses of As You Like It and
Love’s Labour’s Lost…………………………………………. 50
3.4. Murdoch’s Philosophical view of the Dramatic in The Nice and
the Good …………………………………………………….... 65
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Conclusion ……………………………………………………….... 75
4. THE BLACK PRINCE
4.1. Introduction ………………………………………………….... 76
4.2. The Parodic Character Types and Parodic Themes of Love,
Separated Lovers and Metamorphosis …………………….... 77
4.3. The Parodic Uses of Hamlet …………………………………. 89
4.4. Murdoch’s Philosophical view of the Dramatic in The Black
Prince………………………………………………………….. 99
Conclusion ………………………………………………………... 109
5. THE SEA, THE SEA
5.1. Introduction …………………………………………………... 110
5.2. The Parodic Character Types and Parodic Themes of Love,
Separated Lovers and Metamorphosis ……………………..... 112
5.3. The Parodic Uses of The Tempest …………………………..... 122
5.4. Murdoch’s Philosophical view of the Dramatic in
The Sea, The Sea .…………………………………………...... 130
Conclusion ………………………………………………………..... 143
6. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………...... 144
REFERENCES ………………………………………………………...... 149
APPENDICES
1. Turkish Summary……………………………………………...... 158
2. Vita………………………………………………………………. 173
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CHAPER I

INTRODUCTION

The curtain ascends in 1989. Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince, the play
adaptation of the novel The Black Prince is performed – with the cast cut to six
main characters. Subsequently, the play is criticized for not being as mature as the
novel; however, the Hamlet-like soliloquies of the protagonist, Pearson, work well
on the stage. Iris Murdoch has also adapted A Severed Head and The Italian Girl
for the stage. She has published two one-act plays, The Servants and the Snow and
The Three Arrows as well as Acastos (Platonic Dialogues). Murdoch's writing
plays, her adaptation of some of her novels for the stage, and her admiration of
Shakespeare (who is alluded to explicitly and implicitly throughout her works)
show her interest in drama. Some critics, namely, Dipple, Conradi, Stevens
Heusel, Phillips, Bradbury and Kennedy also believe that she employs dramatic
techniques in the three novels selected in this dissertation, The Nice and the Good,
The Black Prince, and The Sea, The Sea. Allan Kennedy notes that "her work is
often built around allusion to the drama" (Kennedy 277), and Malcolm Bradbury
thinks that “Theater and opera seem heavily to have guided both the staging and
the ceremonial of her latest books [the three novels in question]; there is also a
clear new texture of Shakespearean allusion and a sense of art shaped by the laws
of his later comedies” (1987 247). To quote Phillips:

The importance she attaches in her novels to the introductory chapters
(and especially to the opening scene) which serve to sketch the
background against
which the plot will unfold, to introduce the leading dramatis personae
and to summarize past events that have led to the present situation; the
composition of a plot ending in a climax followed by a catastrophe; the
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