| Abstract [eng] |
This MA paper analyses two postmodern novels written by the 20th -century philosopher and novelist, Iris Murdoch, namely Under the Net (1954) and The Sea, the Sea (1978). The main focus of the thesis is the identity portrayal as well as its complexities of the characters of the two novels which are analysed with the aid of such notions as language, art, the good and love. The framework chosen for this analysis is a melange of philosophical and feminist ideas developed by such authors as Charles Taylor, Jean-Paul Sartre, Iris Murdoch and Simone de Beauvoir. The analysis, carried out by synthesising the ideas of the said authors, shows that such concepts as language, art, the good and love are indispensable in the unveiling of the complexities of character identity in the chosen texts. The interpretation of the two novels suggests that identity is closely related to the knowledge of reality and goodness. The study shows that language is used by the narrators of the two novels in order to misrepresent reality, meaning that the identities of the novels’ characters are being misportrayed. The concept of love is presented differently in the selected books, in Under the Net, it is intertwined with art, and it can help the characters to unself themselves, in The Sea, the Sea, it is related to jealousy and the possession of other characters. Art in The Sea, the Sea is tied to the net of theatricality and the metaphor of the stage since the narrator portrays the characters as belonging to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, thus distorting their true selves. The idea of the good is prevalent in the novel The Sea, the Sea where it is seen as unattainable to the novel’s narrator since he remains bound by the net of theatricality. The feminist reading of the novels shows that the female characters are seen either as the objects of beauty or that they are tied to their husbands’ universe. |
