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Univerzita Palackého V Olomouci UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Muriel Spark’s Experimental Novels of the 1970s Experimentální romány Muriel Sparkové v 70. letech Master Thesis by PAVLÍNA LYSÁKOVÁ (Anglická filologie) Supervisor: Mrg. Ema Jelínková, PhD. Olomouc 2012 Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, pouze s pomocí pramenů a literatury uvedených v bibliografii práce. V Olomouci 18.5. 2012 …………………………………………….. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mgr. Ema Jelínková, PhD., my supervisor, who presented me a beauty of Scottish literature and provided me help to arrange my following study in Edinburgh, Scotland. Yet I appreciate her willingness, advice and support she afforded me not only during working on the thesis. I owe special thanks to Linda Tym, PhD., my tutor at SUISS, whose enthusiasm motivated me very positively. Yet I appreciate support from Mgr. Božena Velebná, PhD., my friend and collegue, whose optimistic thinking encouraged me enormously. Finally, I would like to express thankfulness to my family and friends for their endless patience and support. 3 Content 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 6 2. The Basic Facts about Muriel Spark’s Extraordinary Life ...................................................... 8 2.1. Spark as a Writer ......................................................................................................... 10 3. Muriel Spark in the 1950s ................................................................................................... 15 3.1. The Comfronters ......................................................................................................... 16 3.2. The 1950s Continued: Robinson, Memento Mori, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Bachelors ................................................................................................................................. 18 3.2.1. Robinson.............................................................................................................. 18 3.2.2. Memento Mori .................................................................................................... 19 3.2.3. The Ballad of Peckham Rye ................................................................................. 19 3.2.4. The Bachelors ...................................................................................................... 20 4. The 1960s in Muriel Spark’s Work ...................................................................................... 21 4.1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie .................................................................................... 21 4.2. The Girls of Slender Means ......................................................................................... 24 4.3. The Mandelbaum Gate ............................................................................................... 25 5. The Era of the 1970s: Experimental Epoch in the Output of Muriel Spark ......................... 27 5.1. The Public Image ......................................................................................................... 29 5.1.1. Psychological Approach ............................................................................................ 30 5.1.2. Feminist Approach .................................................................................................... 32 5.2. The Driver’s Seat ......................................................................................................... 33 5.2.1. Psychological Approach ...................................................................................... 36 5.2.2. Aristotle ............................................................................................................... 37 5.2.3. Feminist Approach .............................................................................................. 38 5.3. Not to Disturb.............................................................................................................. 39 5.3.1. References to The Golden Bough, Archetypal Criticism ..................................... 41 5.3.2. Deconstruction, Post-structuralism .................................................................... 42 5.3.3. Psychological Approach ...................................................................................... 43 5.3.4. Aristotle ............................................................................................................... 44 5.4. The Hothouse by the East River .................................................................................. 45 5.4.1. Formalism ............................................................................................................ 46 5.4.2. Archetypal Approach ........................................................................................... 47 5.4.3. Psychological Approach ...................................................................................... 48 5.5. The Abbess of Crewe ................................................................................................... 49 4 5.5.1. Formalism ............................................................................................................ 52 5.5.2. Aristotle ............................................................................................................... 53 5.5.3. Feminist and Psychoanalytical Approach ............................................................ 53 5.5.4. American Myth and Archetypal Criticism ........................................................... 54 5.5.5. Archetypal Approach ........................................................................................... 56 5.6. The Takeover ............................................................................................................... 57 5.6.1. Archetypal Approach: James Frazer’s The Golden Bough ................................... 60 5.6.2. Psychological Approach ...................................................................................... 60 5.6.3. Feminist Approach .............................................................................................. 61 5.7. Territorial Rights .......................................................................................................... 62 5.7.1. Formalist Approach ............................................................................................. 63 5.7.2. Feminist Approach .............................................................................................. 64 6. Muriel Spark and the 1980s ................................................................................................ 65 6.1. Loitering with Intent ................................................................................................... 65 6.2. The Only Problem ........................................................................................................ 67 6.3. A Far Cry From Kensington .......................................................................................... 68 7. The 1990s and Works Written after the Year of 2000 ........................................................ 71 7.1. Symposium .................................................................................................................. 71 7.2. Reality and Dreams ..................................................................................................... 71 7.3. Aiding and Abetting ..................................................................................................... 72 7.4. The Finishing School .................................................................................................... 73 8. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 74 9. SHRNUTÍ .............................................................................................................................. 77 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................ 80 11. ANOTACE ......................................................................................................................... 85 12. RESUMÉ ........................................................................................................................... 86 5 1. INTRODUCTION The aim of this thesis is to analyze a specific period of the 1970s in Muriel Spark’s writing career. The thesis opens with a brief summary of author’s life that is essential for identification of aspects typical for her writing style and topics she usually deals with in her books. This summary consists of ambivalent nature of her characters, her own convertion to Catholicism, which is a crucial aspect not only of her life, but also of her characters. It also focuses on other autobiographical facts that appear in her works and are important components of her character’s nature in many cases. These facts are, for instance, her interest in travelling, which is represented by various settings she uses in her works or Spark’s teacher at primary school whose model was applied for a character of Miss Jean Brodie, and so forth. Literary genres as well as personalities of that time, her contemporaries and collegues that were inspiring or on the other hand influential for Muriel Spark’s writing style are also mentioned. It is followed by an overview of previous
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