One of the greatest writers of Britain in the 20th century, Iris Murdoch, has left the world with a number of outstanding novels that more than one generation of readers will reflect on. She devoted her whole life to literature. Her path was not easy, she had to endure many difficulties, especially at the end of her life.
Origin and childhood
Iris Murdoch was born July 15, 1919 in the Fibsboro district of the capital of Ireland, Dublin. Her father came from a Presbyterian family that was engaged in sheep farming. During World War I, he was a cavalryman, and later became a civil servant. Mom Iris was an opera singer, came from an English family. Parents met in Dublin and got married there in 1918. A year later, they had a daughter, she was the only child in the family. In 1920, the Murdoch family moved to London (his father got a job as a clerk in the Ministry of Health), where the future writer spent her childhood. However, her Irish roots made themselves felt throughout her life, the problems of Ireland were always close to Iris. Murdoch's childhood was very happy, she said that her family was a "perfect trinity of love."
Education
Iris Murdoch received her primary education at an independent coeducational school in Rohempton. She then attended a girls' school in Bristol, where she taught the “little ladies”. In 1938, she entered Somerville College at Oxford University, first in an English course, but later moved to the class of antique and British literature, including studying in the E. Frenkel class on the history of Agamemnon. She also attended a philosophy workshop where her classmate was Donald McKinnon. In 1942, she graduated from college with honors, receiving a diploma of 1 degree.
The beginning of adulthood
Continued education Iris was prevented by the outbreak of war. After college, she began working at the Ministry of Finance. But in 1944, Murdoch went to work at the UN, first as a clerk, and then in a refugee camp on the continent. She worked at the UN rehabilitation center until 1946.
In 1947, Iris Murdoch entered graduate school at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she studied philosophy. She even happened to meet L. Wittgenstein, but she no longer had time to listen to his lectures: the philosopher left to work in another college.
Teaching activities
Since 1948, Iris Murdoch begins his teaching career. She gets a job as a professor of philosophy at St Anne's College, University of Oxford. She devoted 15 years of her life to this activity. Oxford became a real fate for her: here the most significant events of her life took place. In 1963, she, by then a well-known writer, had moved to work at the Royal College of Art at the Department of General Studies, where she continued to teach philosophy. In 1967, she left regular teaching activities, limiting herself to only periodic lectures to students.
The first literary experiments
Murdoch began writing relatively late. Her first novel, Under the Net, appeared in 1954. However, it fits into the English tradition of those years: the famous writer John Fowles began to create her literary masterpieces at 37, W. Golding at 45. For Murdoch, at first this activity was just a hobby. She wrote before the novel "Under the Net", but her first literary experiments were never presented to the general public. Her work created the prerequisites for writing and she began to write books as artistic illustrations for philosophical postulates. The first novel by Iris Murdoch, reviews of which were very different: from enthusiasm to sharp denial, was a complex synthesis of the philosophy and traditions of the roguish novel. The book is included, according to Time magazine, in 100 unsurpassed English-language novels of all time. The novel "Under the Net" was the only humorous work of the writer, it already showed the main features of the future literary work of Iris Murdoch.
Creative way
Having embarked on a literary path, Murdoch rushed along it confidently and productively. Two years after the first successful experience, her second novel, Flight from the Wizard, appeared. In the novels of the 50-60s, researchers find a great influence of the philosophy of existentialism. The end of the 60s was marked by the release of a series of books that researchers called “novels of secrets and horror”: “The Time of Angels”, “Italian”, “Severed Head”, “Unicorn”. In them, Murdoch explores the effect on humans of destructive passions. The comic line is continued by Iris Murdoch's novel Wild Rose. It showed the great talent of a realist writer whose traditions were laid down by the classics of English literature. The novel tells of love, freedom and marriage, Murdoch explores the relationship of these phenomena. In 1974, a 4-episode film for American television was created from the book. The 70s became for Murdoch a time of maturity as a writer. She seeks to continue the traditions of Shakespeare, as an exemplary embodiment of good. The author immerses the reader in the poetics of theatricality and creates his own interpretations of Shakespearean stories. The novels “The Black Prince”, “Jackson's Dilemma” and “Sea, Sea” are referred to the Shakespearean cycle. The heroes of Shakespeare at Murdoch receive a new interpretation and transformation in search of the good and the meaning of life. At the same time, the author is ironic both over the hero, and over the reader, and over himself. The creativity of the 80s is characterized by an increase in the game beginning, the writer designs novels like a rebus, in which the meaning is not only encrypted in various plot conflicts and turns, but also hidden in a complex combination of quotes, allusions, references to other texts. Roman Iris Murdoch's “School of Virtue” in 1985 is built on her favorite character, a psychoanalyst, who is both a wizard and a demon, a man overwhelmed by passions. The novel is called the beginning of the "new Murdoch", non-philosophical, although it continues many topics from previous creative periods. In this book, didacticity, religiosity, unusual for the author, begins. Her happy ending seems illogical in the context of the writer's common heritage. The novels of recent years have lost the endless charm of Murdoch's prose; in them the moral beginning is strengthened. Her latest novel was the 1992 Jackson Dilemma.
Top of creativity
Traditionally considered the best novel by Iris Murdoch "The Black Prince". This book was published in 1973 and belongs to the most fruitful period of the writer. This book is the author’s interpretation of the story of Hamlet, experts also attribute it to the so-called "Platonic" series. The "Black Prince" has an intricate, symbolic structure and a rich philosophical component. A complex plot composition is combined with a lot of thoughts of the hero, all this makes the book difficult, but very exciting reading. Murdoch does not help the reader find his interpretation of the novel, and therefore several options for its interpretation appear. The book was enthusiastically accepted by critics, it was nominated for the Booker Prize and awarded the James Tight Prize. The highest manifestations of Murdoch’s talent include the novels “Dream of Bruno”, “Sea, Sea” and “Child of the Word”. These books raise the most important topics for the writer of the meaning of life, emotions and passions in human life, the problem of freedom.
Philosophical Views
Iris Murdoch studied philosophy all her life. She writes her first works in a philosophical manner. In 1953, she wrote a book about Sartre. Even at the beginning of her journey, she became interested in the philosophy of existentialism, and her novels from the early period “Flight from the Wizard” and “Unicorn” are permeated with ideas of this direction. The greatest influence on her, according to researchers, had the books of J.-P. Sartre "Nausea" and "The Wall." Several of her articles were devoted to the analysis and criticism of the views of Kant and Wittgenstein. A significant period of her life passed under the sign of Plato, which inspired her to think about the relationship between reality and illusion, in search of a moral life. The theme of moral research has become dominant in the novel "Man of Chances." Iris Murdoch explores in him the problem of the individual’s moral responsibility to other people, but uses a comic form of presentation. In the last years of her life, she again returned to writing philosophical works and wrote “Metaphysics as a Guide to Morality” and “Existentialists and Mystics”, in which she made her own views on morality.
Awards
Over the course of her 40-year writing career and outstanding novels, Iris Murdoch has received awards and prizes more than once. She was a repeated nominee and winner of the Booker Prize (for the novel "Sea, Sea"). in 1987, Murdoch received the title of Professor Emeritus of Oxford. In 1988, she was awarded the prestigious Shakespeare Prize. She was also awarded in 1989 the highest title of Lady Commander of the British Empire. Throughout her life, she has delivered more than 20 honorable lectures at various universities around the world. In 1997, she received an honorary Golden Feather award for her services to English literature.
Personal life
In her youth, Iris experienced two great personal dramas: during the war, two of her beloved men died - Frank Thompson and Franz Steiner. Therefore, for some time she could not establish a serious relationship. In the early 1950s, Iris Murdoch, in Oxford, whose biography suggests that she lived a significant part of her life on this campus, meets her colleague John Bailey. He was a teacher, literary critic, writer, Murdoch and Bailey had a lot in common. In 1956, they married and lived together until Iris died. After her death, Bailey wrote a book about Iris, based on which a famous film was shot, which received several Oscars. However, the biographers and friends of Murdoch reacted negatively to this book, claiming that it contains distortions and exaggerations of facts. In her, the personal life of the writer looks like a series of novels with men and women. How this corresponds to reality is unknown. Just as it is not completely clear why the couple did not have children. Bailey claims that Iris did not want to become a mother, and her friends say that it was John's decision.
last years of life
Iris Murdoch, whose books are recognized by the entire international community, in the last years of her life suffered from Alzheimer's disease. She gradually lost her memory, ability to intellectual activity, could not serve herself. All cares for her were taken over by a husband who tried to make her life easier and did not give her to a nursing home. On February 8, 1999, Iris Murdoch passed away.
Memory and heritage
Writing left a legacy of 26 excellent novels that forever wrote her name on the list of best writers of the 20th century. Roman Iris Murdoch “The Black Prince” is included in the university program of almost all literary universities in the world. Several books have been written about the life of Iris; several films have been shot based on her works.