Courage and Truthfulness : Ethical Strategies and the Creative Process in the Novels of Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing and V.S. Naipaul

ISBN-13: 9783639128376 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 216 str.

Gillian Dooley

Opis

The novels of Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing and V.S.Naipaul are studied in the light of statements they have made inessays and interviews regarding the ethical implications ofwriting fiction. The purpose of this research is to examine the nature ofthe problems they have identified in the creative process ofwriting and the strategies each has used to address the ethicalproblems they perceive, and to assess the relative success of theirchosen methods. It can be seen that, although for each of them thequest for truth is their highest concern, they have each developed verydifferent ways of dealing with the problems they believe areconnected with writing truthfully, and in addition, they have defined theparticulars of these problems in different ways. It is concluded that themore carefully examined and individually defined these problems are,the greater the internal consistency and credibility which isachieved by the strategies they have developed to address theproblems, and the more their work has developed in the course of theircareers.

O autorze

Gillian Dooley is Honorary Research Fellow in English at Flinders
University of South
Australia, where she also holds the position of Special
Collections Librarian. She has
published several books and articles on writers including Iris
Murdoch, V.S. Naipaul,
J.M. Coetzee, and British explorer Matthew Flinders. She is a
regular book reviewer.