| Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), as a contemporary distinguished woman novelist and moral philosopher of the United Kingdom, enjoys an extensive international reputation. She is regarded as one of the few celebrated prolific novelists in Britain after Charles Dickens for her 26 novels,5 philosophical work,6 plays and 2 poetry anthologies. As an influential woman novelist and philosopher of the Western countries in the 20th century, she simultaneously develops her moral philosophical thoughts when she is engaged in her literary writing. Whether her moral thoughts are reflected in her novels is controversial among the western critics. By exploring her novels as well as her moral thoughts, this dissertation maintains that Murdoch's novel creation is influenced by her moral thoughts that actually are in accordance with most of the postmodern moral views. She has constructed a kind of outlook of postmodern morality in her novels that reflects her uniqueness as compared with other contemporary writers in her time.The pivots of Murdoch's moral philosophy are attention to the others and the sovereignty of Good are, that is basically in accordance with the viewpoints of postmodern ethics. Zygmunt Bauman, the famous sociologist, points out that the ethics are turning its direction from heteronomous ethics to individualism with the prevalence of the postmodern irrationalism and plurality. This turn not only shows the crisis of postmodern ethics but also indicates the genuine return of morality:morality could not be achieved by heteronomous ethics regulation, it is a duty for the other in the primal scene when people encounter as "face". By analyzing the characters' ideology, moral outlook, religious faith, the idea of love and so on, the dissertation discerns that Murdoch actually constructs an outlook of postmodern ethics and morality. With the exploration and analysis of such outlook, the dissertation deepens the study of Murdoch and her novels that make it easier for the readers to understand her creation intention and the methods of her dealing with the relationship between literature and philosophy.This dissertation consists of five chapters in addition to introduction and conclusion. The introductory part has a critical review of studies of Murdoch's novels in China and the Western countries, and then draws on the contents and influences of existentialism and postmodern ethics, to make a cultural and textual analysis, with the aim of presenting the relations between Murdoch's literary creation and her moral philosophical thoughts.Chapter One focuses on the discussion of Murdoch's exploration of human being's ego and evil in her literary works. Realizing that the Western society, with the religion on the decline, is becoming more and more immoral and corrupted than the past, she intends to find out the origin of the evil by describing the dark side of human being's consciousness in the novels. By deep analysis from the different perspectives, she realizes that the original reason of evil is ego. Similarly, postmodern theorists also suggest that the good and the evil stand side by side in the primal scene of the morality. It is not reasonable for anyone to set "man's nature at birth is good" or "evil" from the perspective of ethics. There is not a kind of self-consistent ethics law which is suitable to the nature of the morality. In the specific context, human being tends to be evil than good just because he is not at birth a "rational subject" and can not restrain himself from excessively pursuing of his desire and excessively attending to himself. At the same time, it is impossible for him to instinctively take the responsibility of the others. Two novels are chosen to be analyzed in this chapter, one is A Fairly Honorable Defeat, which has been selected into the long list of "The Lost Man Booker Prize" in 2010, and the other is The Message to the Planet.Chapter Two, starting from the textual analysis, elaborates Murdoch's proposition of beyond selfishness and attention to the others. As a matter of fact, it is Murdoch who first introduces Sartre's existentialism to Britain. But with her moral philosophy developing, she gradually finds that "the other is hell" strongly supported by Sartre has large limitation. She argues that the other isn't hell at all and both the other and I live together in the world. All the people should learn to be selfless and attend to the others so as to make a harmonious living environment. Murdoch's reinterpretation of the others is of the typical characteristics of postmodern ethics. Postmodern ethicists also take the others as the most significant character to remould and they hold the similar opinions as they suggest that human beings in nature are the subject of morality and responsibility. One essential characteristic of human being's existence is to learn to live together with the others, thus one must take responsibilities of the others without any premise. The real morality, for Bauman, should be a kind of morality which aims to work "for the other", and the other is the most important character who is not one's emotional object as well as enemy, but the object assumed to be afforded moral responsibility. The Bell, regarded by Murdoch as the most satisfied novel, and The Unicorn are chosen in this chapter to explore to present the postmodern characteristics in Murdoch's moral philosophy.Chapter Three discusses Murdoch's godless theology in her novels. Since immemorial time, religious believers regard God as the essence of the human beings who makes the people connect tightly with the world. While coming to the 20th century Murdoch living in, God is sentenced to be dead, which not only break the bonds between the human beings and make them lose their essence but also mercilessly destroys their traditional rationality and moral value. While for Murdoch, the death of God does not represent the disappearance of theology and religion in itself is a mode of belief. It doesn't matter whether God really exists or not, the spirituality He represents is of the most significant meaning. Good or virtue should be put in the highest place in people's whole life and their pursuing of such "permanent good" is the best religion. This point is obviously reflected in the novels The Black Prince, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Nuns and Soldiers. Postmodern ethics means to deconstruct the former basis, principle as well as the value center, including the challenge and redefinition of God. The last one of the nine principles they proposed is that there is no Christ and what people need is not whether God really exists or not but the virtue and the Good He represents.Chapter Four explores the significance of Love and the Good which is the central conception in Murdoch's moral philosophy. In 1968, Murdoch acclaimed that she was actually a Platonist and was deeply influenced by his values and thoughts. The Good, for Murdoch, is like the sun outside Plato's Cave. As the sun is impossible for people to see though many things are visible by its light, so does the Good. The Good is invisible, while it really exists. The people believing in religion could be good, so do the people without religion. The authority of the morality lies in its power of perception which simultaneously is the repression of selfishness. For Murdoch, the Good will attract human beings to chase after while it will never be reached. So the Good is the ultimate goal and love is the energy to make people move forward. From this sense, the Good and the love is consistent with caress (love) put forward by postmodern ethicists. Furthermore, postmodern ethics also suggests respecting and attending to history and tradition, and to some extent, returns back to the premodernity and premodern ethics. The textual basis chosen for this chapter is Bruno s Dream, A Fairly Honorable Defeat and The Sea, The Sea which won the Booker Prize in 1978.Chapter Five, pivoting on art, especially the paintings that appear in most of Murdoch's novels, explicates Murdoch's viewpoints on art and morality. For Murdoch, art has a liberating effect upon the self, freeing it of its own consciousness and guiding it towards beauty, and beauty in turn becomes the path towards the Good. No matter creating or enjoying the art, both could make human beings far away from selfishness and ego and turn to the others. Within the context of postmodern thought, the discussion of morality and art and aesthetics is widespread and of considerable impact. Aesthetics becomes the foundation of ethics and ethics is closely related to aesthetics. As a result, they become almost indistinguishable. More and more philosophers and ethicists intend to reconstruct the functions of great arts to the morality to fight against the art-for-art's-sake perspective. In most of Murdoch's novels, art and paintings are analyzed in a way to help readers to understand how they lead people to the Good. The novels The Black Prince and The Bell will be explored in a detailed way.The concluding part first draws a brief discussion on Murdoch's construction of an outlook of postmodern ethics in her fiction world, then the conclusion is made:as novelist as well as philosopher, Murdoch's novel creation is clearly influenced by her moral thoughts. And her outlook of morality is actually in accordance with most of the postmodern moral views, which a kind of postmodern ethics and morality; at last, it explores the ethical value and significance to make the research of Murdoch's novel creation and her outlook of postmodern ethics and morality in the context of current society. |
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