A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed
Head

k 2017

A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head

KAŠPÁRKOVÁ, Barbora

Základní údaje

Originální název

A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head

Autoři

KAŠPÁRKOVÁ, Barbora

Vydání

'Gender and Trauma' : The Eighth International Conference on Iris Murdoch, 1-2 September, 2017, Chichester University, UK, 2017

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

60206 Specific literatures

Stát vydavatele

Velká Británie a Severní Irsko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Označené pro přenos do RIV

Ano

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14210/17:00097528

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

Iris Murdoch; Honor Klein; Psychoanalysis; Specter; A Severed Head

Štítky

rivok

Změněno: 11. 4. 2018 12:11, Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D.

Anotace

V originále

Iris Murdoch’s plots offer a deep insight into human relationships. The reader is repeatedly confronted with various traumatic experiences undergone by characters’ sexual obsessions, ignorance, lies, egoism, desire. Trauma is usually caused by sudden recognition / knowledge: main characters are confronted with something s/he was not aware of or did not want to see – and so is the reader. This unwanted and gained knowledge may send the character(s) into anxiety and even death or suicide. This presentation focuses on Murdoch’s A Severed Head (1961). This early novel symbolizes an apt example of convoluted relationships that appear hilarious in a superficial reading. A close reading, however, reveals the suffering triggered by the behaviour of the central characters. The most mysterious and murky female protagonist, the sexually ambivalent Honor Klein, deploys a wide range of possible interpretations. Honor’s powerful figure is like an axis around which the rest of the characters rotate. The question is, nonetheless, if she stands for a real figure. The presentation argues that this pivotal character is not a real person but a dreamy and ghostly concentration of elements in relation with the protagonist Martin Lynch-Gibbon. Honor Klein is a force, is suspicion, fear. This character is not in truth real, but it seems to be an external projection of Martin’s subconscious imaginary fears and trauma. She is the ghost of a repeated trauma, she is his analyst, confronting Martin with a veiled and suppressed knowledge, giving him, at the end of the narrative the force to overcome a series of failed relationships. She has a similar narrative function as Shakespeare’s ghosts in Macbeth, Hamlet or Julius Caesar. The presentation will focus on the analysis of those passages in which the narrator is confronted with Honor’s knowledge-power.

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1065/2016, interní kód MU

Název: Profilace výzkumných zaměření v anglofonní lingvistické a literární vědě II (Akronym: VZALL2)

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Profilace výzkumných zaměření v anglofonní lingvistické a literární vědě II, DO R. 2020_Kategorie A - Specifický výzkum - Studentské výzkumné projekty

Citovat

KAŠPÁRKOVÁ, Barbora. A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head. In 'Gender and Trauma' : The Eighth International Conference on Iris Murdoch, 1-2 September, 2017, Chichester University, UK. 2017.

@proceedings{1389239,
   author = {Kašpárková, Barbora},
   booktitle = {'Gender and Trauma' : The Eighth International Conference on Iris Murdoch, 1-2 September, 2017, Chichester University, UK},
   keywords = {Iris Murdoch; Honor Klein; Psychoanalysis; Specter; A Severed Head},
   language = {eng},
   title = {A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head},
   year = {2017}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1389239
AU  - Kašpárková, Barbora
PY  - 2017
TI  - A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head
KW  - Iris Murdoch
KW  - Honor Klein
KW  - Psychoanalysis
KW  - Specter
KW  - A Severed Head
N2  - Iris Murdoch’s plots offer a deep insight into human relationships. The reader is repeatedly confronted with various traumatic experiences undergone by characters’ sexual obsessions, ignorance, lies, egoism, desire. Trauma is usually caused by sudden recognition / knowledge: main characters are confronted with something s/he was not aware of or did not want to see – and so is the reader. This unwanted and gained knowledge may send the character(s) into anxiety and even death or suicide. This presentation focuses on Murdoch’s A Severed Head (1961). This early novel symbolizes an apt example of convoluted relationships that appear hilarious in a superficial reading. A close reading, however, reveals the suffering triggered by the behaviour of the central characters. The most mysterious and murky female protagonist, the sexually ambivalent Honor Klein, deploys a wide range of possible interpretations. Honor’s powerful figure is like an axis around which the rest of the characters rotate. The question is, nonetheless, if she stands for a real figure. The presentation argues that this pivotal character is not a real person but a dreamy and ghostly concentration of elements in relation with the protagonist Martin Lynch-Gibbon. Honor Klein is a force, is suspicion, fear. This character is not in truth real, but it seems to be an external projection of Martin’s subconscious imaginary fears and trauma. She is the ghost of a repeated trauma, she is his analyst, confronting Martin with a veiled and suppressed knowledge, giving him, at the end of the narrative the force to overcome a series of failed relationships. She has a similar narrative function as Shakespeare’s ghosts in Macbeth, Hamlet or Julius Caesar. The presentation will focus on the analysis of those passages in which the narrator is confronted with Honor’s knowledge-power.
ER  -

KAŠPÁRKOVÁ, Barbora. A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head. In \textit{'Gender and Trauma' : The Eighth International Conference on Iris Murdoch, 1-2 September, 2017, Chichester University, UK}. 2017.

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