Theorising Muriel Spark

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction ‘I Don’t Know Anything about Freud’: Muriel Spark Meets Contemporary Criticism

   1. Introduction ‘I Don’t Know Anything about Freud’: Muriel Spark Meets Contemporary Criticism

      • Martin McQuillan

      Pages 1-31

3. Gender

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33

      PDF

   2. Tales of Love: Narcissism and Idealization in The Public Image

      • Susan Sellers

      Pages 35-48

   3. The Future Perfect’s Perfect Future: Spark’s and Duras’s Narrative Drive

      • Judith Roof

      Pages 49-66

   4. The Suggestive Spectacle: Queer Passions in Brontë’s Villette and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

      • Patricia Duncker

      Pages 67-77

   5. In Bed with Muriel Spark: Mourning, Metonymy and Autobiography

      • Martin McQuillan

      Pages 78-91

4. Race

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

      PDF

   2. Writing against Conversion: Muriel Spark the Gentile Jewess

      • Bryan Cheyette

      Pages 95-112

   3. Muriel Spark Shot in Africa

      • Eleanor Byrne

      Pages 113-126

   4. A Bit of the Other: Symposium, Futility and Scotland

      • Alan Freeman

      Pages 127-138

5. Deconstruction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

      PDF

   2. Muriel Spark’s Uselessness

      • Jeremy Idle

      Pages 141-154

   3. Muriel Spark’s Mary Shelley: A Gothic and Liminal Life

      • Julian Wolfreys

      Pages 155-169

   4. Not to Deconstruct? Righting and Deference in Not to Disturb

      • Willy Maley

      Pages 170-188

   5. Memento Mori

      • Nicholas Royle

      Pages 189-203

   6. Grimacing Catholicism: Muriel Spark’s Macabre Farce (1) and Muriel Spark’s Latest Novel: The Public Image (2)

      • Hélène Cixous

      Pages 204-209

   7. ‘The Same Informed Air’: An Interview with Muriel Spark

      • Martin Mcquillan

      Pages 210-229

6. Back Matter

   Pages 230-245

   PDF

Theorizing Muriel Spark is the first serious attempt to engage the writing of Muriel Spark in a sustained theoretical reading. It has a particular emphasis on gender, psychoanalysis, postcolonial and deconstructive reading strategies. Drawing together a range of significant names in the field of contemporary literature and critical theory (including Judith Roof, Susan Sellers, Bryan Cheyette, Patricia Duncker, Nicholas Royle, Willy Maley, Julian Wolfreys, and Helene Cixous) this collection of essays deals with the full range of Spark's literary output. It concludes with a new interview with Muriel Spark.

• Bronte
• English literature
• gender
• Narrative
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• British and Irish Literature

'...these diverse and engaging essays offer much-needed depth and substance to Spark criticism...Highly recommended...' - S.Pathak, Choice

• University of Leeds, UK

  Martin McQuillan

ELEANOR BYRNE Lecturer in English, Manchester Metropolitan University BRYAN CHEYETTE Professor of English and Judaic Studies, University of Southampton HELENE CIXOUS Director of Studies, Centre d'Etudes Feminines, Universite de Paris VIII PATRICIA DUNCKER Senior Lecturer in English, University of Wales (Aberystwyth) ALAN FREEMAN Lecturer in British Literature and Literary Theory, Yeditepe University, Istanbul JEREMY IDLE Lecturer in English, Nene University College WILLY MALEY Professor of Renaissance Literature, University of Glasgow JUDITH ROOF Professor of English and Film Studies, Ann Arbour University, Michigan NICHOLAS ROYLE Professor of English Literature, University of Sussex SUSAN SELLERS Professor of English Literature, University of St Andrews JULIAN WOLFREYS Associate Professor of English, University of Florida

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