RE-INVENTING REALITY: PATTERNS AND CHARACTERS IN THE NOVELS OF MURIEL SPARK.
Item
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Title
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RE-INVENTING REALITY: PATTERNS AND CHARACTERS IN THE NOVELS OF MURIEL SPARK.
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Identifier
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AAI8708314
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identifier
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8708314
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Creator
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PEARLMAN, MICKEY.
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Contributor
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Marvin Magalaner
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Date
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1986
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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Muriel Spark is a Catholic novelist whose moral view of the world has been most often analyzed by the critics. But her seventeen novels (published 1957 to 1984) are dominated by characters who seem to be uniquely and recognizably Sparkian: their actions and reactions have an absurd, even disjointed quality that reflect the world which surrounds them. Spark's characters are bizarre and unpredictable and their uniqueness is understood by certain thematic patterns which Sparks uses in all her novels. These patterns are contrariety and contradiction (reversals and the unexpected), sexuality (misfits, homosexuals, androgyny), litany (repeated lines and reiterated ideas), and creativity (identity and the artist figure).;In the novels of Muriel Spark, human relationships are undependable, society is distracted, uninvolved and elusive, time is fragmented and self diminishes. Identity evades us. Creativity is duplication and duplicity. These are Spark's concerns, and this dissertation traces her involvement with these issues through her use of specific patterns in the seventeen novels as her unique characters re-invent reality.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
