Muriel Spark's Early Fiction: Literary Subversion and Experiments with Form

James Bailey

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2021

Muriel Spark's Early Fiction

Literary Subversion and Experiments with Form

James Bailey

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474475983

Overview
Contents

About this book

A compelling reappraisal of Spark’s approach to literary experimentation

Offers a distinctive reappraisal of Spark’s fiction, which challenges the rigid critical framework that has long been applied to her writing
Interrogates how Spark’s literary innovations work to facilitate moments of subversive satire and gendered social critique
Presents nuanced re-readings of some of Spark’s major works, as well as lesser-discussed texts such as her only stage play, Doctors of Philosophy, and early short stories
Draws upon detailed archival research to offer a unique insight into the social contexts and personal preoccupations that informed Spark’s writing

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark’s literary career. Spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it identifies formative instances of literary experimentation in texts including The Comforters, The Driver’s Seat and The Public Image, with an emphasis on metafiction and the influence of the nouveau roman. As the first critical study to draw extensively on Spark’s vast archives of correspondence, manuscripts and research, it provides a unique insight into the social contexts and personal concerns that dictated her fiction.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Introduction: The Desegregation of Spark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. ‘Author’s Ghosts’: Manifestations of the Supernatural in Spark’s Early Fiction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
2. ‘The role in which you’ve cast me’: Reassessing the Myth of Spark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
3. ‘Drama[s] of exact observation’: Spark and the Nouveau Roman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
4. ‘A study, in a way, of self-destruction’: The Driver’s Seat and the Impotent Gaze Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Conclusion: Leaving the Hothouse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 224
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781474475983