A Study Of Thing-writing In Iris Murdoch’s Novels

Things in Iris Murdoch’s novels are pivotal in the moral transformation of individuals into goodness.Critics have more or less discussed the role of one or two things,but not in sufficient depth,and little has been said about the relevance of things to social reality and to cross-cultural significance.Based on existing research,this dissertation examines the significant role of things in Murdoch’s novels in the process of changing the individuals’consciousness.The first realistic significance of things in Murdoch’s novels is the critique of traditional rationality.In the 20th century,when the relationship between scientific and humanistic cultures became increasingly contradictory,Murdoch targets the conflict to the aberration of traditional rationality and proposes that "contingency" is the essential feature of the real world,thus criticizing the rational order.Chapter One in the first place explores the philosophical origins and realistic significance of contingency,and analyzes the rebuttal of traditional rationality by contingent things as social markers and as manifestations of "contingency".Secondly,the irrational logic that things as individual markers refer to reduces the "unselfing" process of characters in the dilemma,which shows that Murdoch’s critique of traditional rationality in the novels is not to promote irrationality.Finally,the chapter explores the dual functions of things related to rationality.Things as individual markers can aid to recognize the reality under the shackles of rationality.Things can also become the "pushers" of illusion,which obscures the reality and builds up the distorted rational perceptions of the characters,serving as a barrier on the road to goodness.Murdoch thus reveals that the realization of "unselfing" requires moral rationality.The examination of morality is another realistic significance of things writing in Murdoch’s novels.Chapter Two focuses on the things as media.Firstly,the dissertation explores the "deconstruction" of characters and the disconnection between the individual and the society reflected by letters.Secondly,the great paintings,which could have guided people towards goodness,lose their significance and are reduced to commodities.Murdoch reveals the dilemma faced by individuals in the society,that is their inability to manage relationships with others and to treat personal history in its proper context.Finally,the chapter explores the great danger to individuals’pursuit of goodness posed by technological products such as typewriters,television,etc.Murdoch thus criticizes television for blurring the boundary between the reality and the illusion,inducing a split between vision and imagination,and leading to a loss of "attention".The ultimate consequence is that individuals fail to recognize the reality of the world and become immersed in fantasy,thereby falling into a moral crisis.In the face of Western society with aberrant rationality and moral vacuum,Murdoch turns her attention to the East,reflecting on the problems faced by the West through foreign cultures,and redeeming Western culture through Eastern things or things that refer to Eastern thought.The third chapter firstly examines the "heterotopia" reflected by oriental things,and the dilemma faced by the characters through the revelation of oriental things.Secondly,the dissertation examines how the religious connotation in oriental things conveys the author’s hope to improve and save Christianity through Eastern religion,The Zen-infused things in the novel help to break down and transcend the Western dichotomy paradigm between human and things,but also project a vision of "Buddha of the West".On this basis,the transformation of the dichotomy paradigm to the unity in Eastern thought reveals the possibility of mutual appreciation between Eastern and Western thought,and the change of things in connotation suggests profound cross-cultural implications.Drawing on the fascinating "foreign" elements of Eastern culture through things writing,Murdoch hopes to solve the problems of Western society and achieve a reconstruction of Western beliefs and moral uplift.To conclude,this dissertation argues that Murdoch’s consideration of the relationship between things and human in her novels resonates with the society,which criticizes the traditional rationality that induces the ills of Western society,reveals the moral dilemmas faced by people in moral vacuum,and creates a cross-cultural picture of the solution to the problems of Western society.In this way,things writing in Murdoch’s novels not only highlights the significance of individual’s moral goodness,but also conveys the vision of mutual appreciation and understanding between Eastern and Western cultures.