An Analysis Of The Black Prince From Postmodernism

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) advocates something unique in the history of Englishliterature. She was considered as the most profile and most influential woman writerfollowing Dickens after the World War II. She published almost forty novels, plays,poetries etc in the field of philosophy and literary criticism. The Black Prince wasregarded as the masterpiece of Iris Murdoch and it gained innumerous favorablecomments at the year of its publication in1973.We could say that the term Postmodernism has became a popular conception incontemporary western and eastern cultures and it has deeply influenced thecontemporary culture and ideology. However, because the cover of Postmodernism ispretty huge and complicated, it is difficult for us to make a precise definition to it. Manypostmodernists are trying to break the restriction of conventional literatures, aiming toexpress their opinions on reality by some new narrating techniques. In The Black Prince,Iris Murdoch has successfully applied some postmodern techniques into it. This thesis istrying to interpret Murdoch’s concern on literature and her mediation on literarycreation and literary critics as a writer and critics.The thesis can be classified into four chapters besides the introduction andconclusion.The introduction part is consists of three parts. Firstly is the brief introduction ofIris Murdoch’s life and her major works. Secondly is an introduction of The BlackPrince, including its plots, characters, writing techniques as well as its literaryachievements. Thirdly is the aim and meaning of this thesis and its research status athome and abroad.Chapter one, this writer mainly focuses on the theory of Postmodernism. As itknown to all, the theory is a set of huge and complicated theories, so the first part ofchapter one was started with the development course of the Postmodernism. Briefintroduction includes its way of development, leading figures as well as its mainopinions. The second part is the introduction of some dominant features ofPostmodernism, and it is the basic theory frame of this thesis. The feature of parody,intertextuality and fragmentation are the main point of this essay.Chapter two focuses on the feature of parody in The Black Prince. From chapter two, the thesis formally gets into its topics. It mainly analyzes Murdoch’s parodies ofthe love subject, psychiatric case study and different literary genres. Through parodyingthe forms, the subjects and the classical texts of the conventional fiction, this noveldistorts them and subverts the traditional conception.Chapter three, this writer points out that the intertextuality is an important skill ofliterary creation and literary criticism in the theory of Postmodernism. Through anintertext interpretation of certain text will enable readers to get a better understanding ofpostmodern phenomena and theory itself. The chapter begins with the introduction ofintertextuality, following with the analysis The Black Prince’s absorption and quotationof Greek Mythology and Nabokov’s Lolita. Through the cross-text analysis, concludingthe novel’s self-redemption during the pursuit of art and morality.Chapter four mainly focuses on another dominant feature inPostmodernism—Fragmentation and its application in the novel, that is to say, theapplication of an open ending, intrusive author, symbols and metafiction. Iris Murdochalways interrupts herself during her narration and directly comments on the content ofher former narration. Her purpose is to probe into the artificiality of reality and thisnovel as well as the author’s self-deception. Meanwhile, this writer classifiedmetafiction into fragmentation and further analyze the feature of metafiction in TheBlack Prince. Since1960s, many American writers started to abandon the traditionalway of writing which mainly focuses on the mould of characters, the continuity of plots.They construct the metafiction which merely pursuit text’s self-revealing. Through theartificiality of characters, plots and themes, Murdoch exposes the fictional nature ofmetafiction. This thesis shows Murdoch’s mediation and innovation of the creationprocess in the form of fiction.Chapter five synthetically summarized the thesis. Based on all the analysis in thethesis, this writer thought that Murdoch was eager to cast off the restriction oftraditional novels, and then further innovate them. The Black Prince also reflectsMurdoch’s concern on art and morality. Meanwhile, this writer also hopes that thisthesis can help readers to get a better understanding of Iris Murdoch and her excellentworks.