Title: Art as immanent liberation : a Deleuzean study of the role of art in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2023, vol. 49, iss. 1, pp. 113-127
Extent
113-127
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2023-1-6
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.78901
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Rights access
open access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Art has a critical place in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn (1963) where it is closely intertwined with freedom. However, to date this aspect of the novel has been largely overlooked. The present study adopts a Deleuzean approach to examine the liberating role of art in this novel as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's concept of "minor art" can shed new light on the novel's thematic structure. The present study shows the effects of (minor) literature and music on the protagonist, namely Hannah Crean-Smith. This study, then, offers a Deleuzean reading of the intertextual relations in The Unicorn to explore the potential of the other texts addressed in the novel and to investigate their impact on actualizing Hannah's will to power. The results show that the virtual powers of the novel Hannah reads, together with her interest in music, de-subjectify and liberate her from the bounds of familialism and organism.
References
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[31] Ghaffary, Mohammad and Ghiasuddin Alizadeh (2021) The tragedy of love: A study of love and death in Jacques Lacan's thought, with special reference to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 57 (3–4), 596–629. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.2021.2021827
[32] Ghaffary, Mohammad and Melika Ramzi (2023) "'The salmon's spring out of the water': A Deleuzean reading of freedom in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn." Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances (JALDA) 10 (2), 227–244.
[33] Goldsmith, Elizabeth C. (1998) Lafayette's first readers: The quarrel of La Princesse de Clèves. In: F. E. Beasley and K. A. Jensen (Eds.) Approaches to Teaching Lafayette's The Princess of Clèves. Modern Language Association of America, 30–37.
[34] Hasty, Christopher (2010) The image of thought and ideas of music. In: B. Hulse and N. Nesbitt (Eds.) Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 1–22.
[35] Hirsch, Marianne (1981) A mother's discourse: Incorporation and repetition in La Princesse de Clèves. Yale French Studies (62), 67–87. https://doi.org/10.2307/2929894
[36] Hubbell, Janet Curby (1971) La Princesse de Clèves and the modern reader [Unpublished master's thesis]. United States: Emporia Kansas State College.
[37] Kuehl, Linda (1969) Iris Murdoch: The novelist as magician/the magician as artist. Modern Fiction Studies 15 (3), 347–360.
[38] Lafayette, Madame de (2004) The Princesse de Clèves (R. Ross, Trans.). London: Penguin Books.
[39] May, Todd (2005) Gilles Deleuze: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[40] McDowell, Frederick P. W. (1963) "The devious involutions of human character and emotions": Reflections on some recent British novels. Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 4 (3), 339–366. DOI 10.2307/1207285
[41] Medcalf, Stephen (2000) Introduction. In: I. Murdoch, The Unicorn. London: Vintage, vii–xx.
[42] Murdoch, Iris (2000) The Unicorn. London: Vintage.
[43] Nesbitt, Nick (2010) Critique and clinique: From sounding bodies to the musical event. In: B. Hulse and N. Nesbitt (Eds.) Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 159–179.
[44] Olkowski, Dorothea (2019) Freedom's refrains, Deleuze, Guattari, and philosophy: Introduction. In: D. Olkowski and E. Pirovolakis (Eds.), Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy of Freedom: Freedom's Refrains. New York: Routledge, viii–xxi.
[45] Parr, Adrian (2010) Deterritorialization / reterritorialization. In: A. Parr (Ed.), The Deleuze Dictionary (Rev. ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 69–72.
[46] Read, Daniel (2019) The problem of evil and the fiction and philosophy of Iris Murdoch [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. England: Kingston University.
[47] Slaymaker, William (1992) Myths, mystery and the mechanisms of determinism: The aesthetics of freedom in Iris Murdoch's fiction. In: L. Tucker (Ed.), Critical Essays on Iris Murdoch. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 19–32.
[48] Stewart, Jack (2002) Metafiction, metadrama, and the God-game in Murdoch's The Unicorn. Journal of Narrative Theory 32 (1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1353/jnt.2011.0000
[49] Trench, Genevieve Hutchings (2000) Elements of medieval romance in Iris Murdoch [Unpublished master's thesis]. United States: Indiana University.
[50] Wolfe, Peter (1966) The Disciplined Heart: Iris Murdoch and Her Novels. Missouri: University of Missouri Press.
[51] Woo, Elizabeth Annette (1974) The enchanter figure in the novels of Iris Murdoch [Unpublished master's thesis]. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
[2] Backus, Guy (1986) Iris Murdoch: The Novelist as Philosopher, the Philosopher as Novelist; The Unicorn as a Philosophical Novel. United States: Peter Lang.
[3] Bogue, Ronald (2001) Deleuze and Guattari. London: Routledge.
[4] Brandabur, A. Clare (2016) Time's Fool: Essays in Context (B. C. Tharaud, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
[5] Buchanan, Ian and John Marks (2000) Introduction: Deleuze and literature. In: I. Buchanan & J. Marks (Eds.) Deleuze and Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1–13.
[6] Byatt, Antonia Susan (1994) Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch. London: Vintage.
[7] Byatt, Antonia Susan (2012) Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings. London: Vintage.
[8] Camus, Albert (1970) Lyrical and Critical Essays (E. C. Kennedy, Trans., P. Thody, Ed.). New York: Vintage Books.
[9] Charpentier, Colette (1984) L'étrange dans The Unicorn d'Iris Murdoch [The stranger in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn]. Études irlandaises 9 (1), 89–94. https://doi.org/10.3406/irlan.1984.2726
[10] Colebrook, Claire (2010) Introduction. In: A. Parr (Ed.) The Deleuze Dictionary (Rev. ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1–6.
[11] Colebrook, Claire (2014) Sex After Life: Essays on Extinction. Volume 2. London: Open Humanities Press.
[12] Colebrook, Claire (2015) Deleuzean criticism. In: J. Wolfreys (Ed.) Introducing Criticism in the 21st Century (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 195–214.
[13] Cutler, Anna, and Iain MacKenzie (2011) Bodies of learning. In: Guillaume, Laura and Joe Hughes (Eds.) Deleuze and the Body. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 53–72.
[14] Dalmon, Charles William (1896) O, what if the fowler my blackbird has taken! In: W. H. Gill (Ed.) Manx National Songs: With English Words, Selected From the Ms. Collection of the Deemster Gill, Dr. J. Clague, and W. H. Gill. London: Boosey & Co., 115–117.
[15] Deleuze, Gilles (1983) Nietzsche and Philosophy (H. Tomlinson, Trans.). New York: Continuum.
[16] Deleuze, Gilles (1994) Difference and Repetition (P. Patton, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
[17] Deleuze, Gilles (2001) Dualism, monism, and multiplicities (desire-pleasure-jouissance). Contretemps: An Online Journal of Philosophy 2, 92–109.
[18] Deleuze, Gilles (2003) Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (D. W. Smith, Trans.). New York: Continuum.
[19] Deleuze, Gilles (2004) Desert Islands and Other Texts (1953–1974). (M. Taormina, Trans., D. Lapoujade, Ed.). New York: Semiotext(e).
[20] Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (1986) Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (D. Polan, Trans.). London: University of Minnesota Press.
[21] Deleuze, Gilles and Claire Parnet (2007) Dialogues II (H. Tomlinson & B. Habberjam, Trans.) (Rev. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
[22] Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (1994) What Is Philosophy? (H. Tomlinson & G. Burchell, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
[23] Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (2004) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.) New York: Continuum.
[24] Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (2009) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (R. Hurley, M, Seem & H. R. Lane, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books.
[25] Fox, N. J. (1995) Intertextuality and the writing of social research. Electronic Journal of Statistics.
[26] Gallope, Michael (2010) The sound of repeating life: Ethics and metaphysics in Deleuze's philosophy of music. In: B. Hulse and N. Nesbitt (Eds.) Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 77–102.
[27] Genette, Gérard (1997) Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (C. Newman & C. Doubinsky, Trans.). Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
[28] Ghaffary, Mohammad (2019) The event of love and the being of morals: A Deleuzian reading of Iris Murdoch's The Bell. Journal of Literary Studies 35 (2), 105–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2019.1627109
[29] Ghaffary, Mohammad (2021) The eternal recurrence of Oedipus: A Deleuzean reading of love and ethics in Iris Murdoch's The Sandcastle. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 62 (2), 224–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2020.1790490
[30] Ghaffary, Mohammad and Alireza Anushiravani (2016) "Entering the school of life": A Deleuzean reading of Iris Murdoch's The Flight from the Enchanter. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 8 (1), 173–185.
[31] Ghaffary, Mohammad and Ghiasuddin Alizadeh (2021) The tragedy of love: A study of love and death in Jacques Lacan's thought, with special reference to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 57 (3–4), 596–629. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.2021.2021827
[32] Ghaffary, Mohammad and Melika Ramzi (2023) "'The salmon's spring out of the water': A Deleuzean reading of freedom in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn." Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances (JALDA) 10 (2), 227–244.
[33] Goldsmith, Elizabeth C. (1998) Lafayette's first readers: The quarrel of La Princesse de Clèves. In: F. E. Beasley and K. A. Jensen (Eds.) Approaches to Teaching Lafayette's The Princess of Clèves. Modern Language Association of America, 30–37.
[34] Hasty, Christopher (2010) The image of thought and ideas of music. In: B. Hulse and N. Nesbitt (Eds.) Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 1–22.
[35] Hirsch, Marianne (1981) A mother's discourse: Incorporation and repetition in La Princesse de Clèves. Yale French Studies (62), 67–87. https://doi.org/10.2307/2929894
[36] Hubbell, Janet Curby (1971) La Princesse de Clèves and the modern reader [Unpublished master's thesis]. United States: Emporia Kansas State College.
[37] Kuehl, Linda (1969) Iris Murdoch: The novelist as magician/the magician as artist. Modern Fiction Studies 15 (3), 347–360.
[38] Lafayette, Madame de (2004) The Princesse de Clèves (R. Ross, Trans.). London: Penguin Books.
[39] May, Todd (2005) Gilles Deleuze: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[40] McDowell, Frederick P. W. (1963) "The devious involutions of human character and emotions": Reflections on some recent British novels. Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 4 (3), 339–366. DOI 10.2307/1207285
[41] Medcalf, Stephen (2000) Introduction. In: I. Murdoch, The Unicorn. London: Vintage, vii–xx.
[42] Murdoch, Iris (2000) The Unicorn. London: Vintage.
[43] Nesbitt, Nick (2010) Critique and clinique: From sounding bodies to the musical event. In: B. Hulse and N. Nesbitt (Eds.) Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 159–179.
[44] Olkowski, Dorothea (2019) Freedom's refrains, Deleuze, Guattari, and philosophy: Introduction. In: D. Olkowski and E. Pirovolakis (Eds.), Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy of Freedom: Freedom's Refrains. New York: Routledge, viii–xxi.
[45] Parr, Adrian (2010) Deterritorialization / reterritorialization. In: A. Parr (Ed.), The Deleuze Dictionary (Rev. ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 69–72.
[46] Read, Daniel (2019) The problem of evil and the fiction and philosophy of Iris Murdoch [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. England: Kingston University.
[47] Slaymaker, William (1992) Myths, mystery and the mechanisms of determinism: The aesthetics of freedom in Iris Murdoch's fiction. In: L. Tucker (Ed.), Critical Essays on Iris Murdoch. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 19–32.
[48] Stewart, Jack (2002) Metafiction, metadrama, and the God-game in Murdoch's The Unicorn. Journal of Narrative Theory 32 (1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1353/jnt.2011.0000
[49] Trench, Genevieve Hutchings (2000) Elements of medieval romance in Iris Murdoch [Unpublished master's thesis]. United States: Indiana University.
[50] Wolfe, Peter (1966) The Disciplined Heart: Iris Murdoch and Her Novels. Missouri: University of Missouri Press.
[51] Woo, Elizabeth Annette (1974) The enchanter figure in the novels of Iris Murdoch [Unpublished master's thesis]. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.