The Questions of Artistic Detachment and Tranquil Recollection in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, the Sea

Year 2023, , 353 - 372, 25.12.2023

Barış Mete

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2023-1290532

Abstract

Iris Murdoch’s 1978 novel The Sea, the Sea portrays an artist protagonist who mistakenly believes that it would be easy for him to detach from the glitter of life in London. After retiring from the theatre, the famous stage director and playwright Charles Arrowby decides to withdraw from what he has been accustomed to doing. He buys an old house in a coastal village where he thinks he will be able to recollect past emotions in tranquillity and write an autobiographical memoir. This is a clear reference to William Wordsworth’s particular idea of poetry. Yet, this becomes Charles’s most critical mistake as well, for life in the seaside village will bring him even more turbulence as he is away from the dazzling atmosphere of the theatre neither mentally nor bodily. His mind is always occupied with most of the names he has left behind in London. Besides, some of Charles’s old friends who are seeking a chance for revenge for his past misdeeds come to the village in order to blackmail and threaten him. As if his troubles are not enough, Charles meets his teenage love in the village, which turns him into an example of the ridiculous character of the Aristotelian theory of comedy and further spoils his supposed tranquillity. This study thus examines the notions of artistic detachment and tranquil recollection as two Wordsworthian concepts misconceived by Murdoch’s protagonist.

Keywords

Detachment, tranquillity, recollection, art, artist

References

• Aristotle (2006 [1278]). Poetics. (J. Sachs, Trans.). Newburyport: Focus Publishing. google scholar
• Bove, C. K. (1993). Understanding Iris Murdoch. University of South Carolina Press. google scholar
• Brans, J. (1985). Virtuous Dogs and a Unicorn: An Interview with Iris Murdoch. Southwest Review, vol. 70, pp. 43-54. google scholar
• Burke, J. J. (1987). Canonizing Iris Murdoch. Studies in the Novel, vol. 19, pp. 486-494. google scholar
• Capitani, D. N. (2003). Ideas of the Good: Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, The Sea’. Christianity and Literature, vol. 53, pp. 99-108. google scholar
• Conradi, P. J. (1990). Iris Murdoch: The Saint and the Artist. Macmillan. google scholar
• Corn, A. (1999). The Wordsworth Retrospective. The Hudson Review, vol. 52, pp. 359-378. google scholar
• Denham, A. E. (2001). Envisioning the Good: Iris Murdoch’s Moral Psychology. Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 47, 602-629. google scholar
• Dickstein, M. (1987). Wordsworth and Solitude. The Sewanee Review, vol. 95, pp. 253-275. google scholar
• Dipple, E. (1982). Iris Murdoch: Work for the Spirit. Methuen and Co. Ltd. google scholar
• Golden, L. (1984). Aristotle on Comedy. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 42, pp. 283-290. google scholar
• Gordon, D. J. (1990). Iris Murdoch’s Comedies of Unselfing. Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 36, pp. 115-136. google scholar
• -----(1995). Iris Murdoch’s Fables of Unselfing. University of Missouri Press. google scholar
• Hague, A. (1984). Iris Murdoch’s Comic Vision. Associated University Press. google scholar
• Hoy, C. (1999). Homage to Dame Iris Murdoch. The Sewanee Review, vol. 107, pp. 595-599. google scholar
• Jordan, J. (2012). ‘A Thingy World’: Iris Murdoch’s Stuff. The Modern Language Review, vol. 107, pp. 364-378. google scholar
• Lesser, W. (1980). The Sacred and Profane Iris Murdoch. The Threepenny Review, vol. 3, pp. 9-10. google scholar
• Mettle, D. D. (1991). Sound and Sense: Musical Allusion and Imagery in the Novels of Iris Murdoch. Peter Lang. google scholar
• Morley, E. (2014). The Case of Murdoch and Canetti. In M. Luprecht (Ed.), Iris Murdoch Connected: Critical Essays on google scholar
• Her Fiction and Philosophy (pp. 29-44) The University of Tennessee Press. google scholar
• Moss, H. (1986). Narrow Escapes: Iris Murdoch. Grand Street, vol. 1, pp. 228-240. google scholar
• Murdoch, I. (1999). The Sea, The Sea. Vintage. google scholar
• Nevo, R. (1963). Toward a Theory of Comedy. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 21, pp. 327-332. google scholar
• Nicol, B. (1996). Anticipating Retrospection: The First-Person Retrospective Novel and Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, the Sea’. The Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 26, pp. 187-208. google scholar
• -----(2004). Iris Murdoch: the Retrospective Fiction. Palgrave. google scholar
• Rowe, M. M. (2004). Iris Murdoch and the Case of Too Many Men. Studies in the Novel, vol. 36, pp. 79-94. google scholar
• Spear, H. D. (1995). Macmillan Modern Novelists: Iris Murdoch. Macmillan. google scholar
• Stevens H. B. (1995). Patterned Aimlessness: Iris Murdoch’s Novels of the 1970s and 1970s. University of Georgia Press. google scholar
• Thompson, W. (2007). Wordsworth, Landscape Architect. The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 38, pp. 196- 203. google scholar
• Tucker, L. (1986). Released from Bands: Iris Murdoch’s Two Prosperos in ‘The Sea, The Sea’. Contemporary Literature, vol. 27, pp. 378-395. google scholar
• -----(1992). Released from Bands: Iris Murdoch’s Two Prosperos in The Sea, the Sea. In L. Tucker, (Ed.), Critical Essays on Iris Murdoch (pp. 161-175) G. K. Hall & Co. google scholar
• Viscomi, J. (2007). Wordsworth, Gilpin, and the Vacant Mind. The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 38, pp. 40-49. google scholar
• Weese, K. (2001). Feminist Uses of the Fantastic in Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, The Sea’. Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 3, pp. 630-656. google scholar
• Wordsworth, W. (1805 [1798]). Lyrical Ballads with Pastoral and Other Poems Vol. I. R. Taylor and Co. google scholar