Abstract
During the twentieth century almost all literary genres came back to prominence in different and alternative forms. The Gothic is no exception to this phenomenon as many a writer made an attempt at using this eighteenth-century genre once again, but adding to it some contemporary elements. Consequently, an abundance of new techniques have been introduced to Gothic fiction to evoke the feeling of horror and terror among the more and more demanding readers of modern times. Still, some writers prefer to return to the traditional concept of the Gothic – as does Iris Murdoch in her novel The Unicorn. The purpose of this article is to analyse the text from the perspective of the Irish Gothic. Those features of the genre which are traditional as well as local are going to be discussed in the context of space as the dominating aspect of the novel. The typical Irish landscape abounding in marshes, bogs and the sea will be contrasted with the inner space of the house, and its resemblance to the old Victorian mansions popular among the Anglo-Irish ascendancy of nineteenth-century Ireland. In what follows, the paper aims at showing how Murdoch’s skilful play with the spatial differentiation between the inside and the outside dislodges other more universal issues, such as the question of freedom, of social taboos and of the different anxieties still present in Irish society today.
References
Alexander, Roy. 1989. Wildlife in the countryside. In Desmond Gillmor (ed.), The Irish countryside, 49–82. Dublin: Wolfhound Press.
Antonaccio, Maria. 2012. A philosophy to live by: Engaging Iris Murdoch. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bachelard, Gaston. 1994 [1958]. The poetics of space. Trans. Maria Jolas. Boston: Beacon Press.
Backus, Guy. 1986. Iris Murdoch. The novelist as philosopher. The philosopher as novelist. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Bradbury, Malcolm. 1973. Possibilities. Essays on the state of novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Broackes, Justin (ed.). 2011. Iris Murdoch. Philosopher. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burke, Edmund. 1998. A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful and other pre-revolutionary writings. London: Penguin Classics.
Byatt, A.S. 1976. Iris Murdoch. London: Longman Group.
Conradi, Peter J. 1999. Editor’s preface. In Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and mystics. Writings on philosophy and literature, xix–xxx. London: Penguin Books.
Conradi, Peter. J. 2001. Iris Murdoch. A life. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Conradi, Peter J. 2010. Laughing at something tragic: Murdoch as anti-moralist. In Anne Rowe & Avril Horner (eds.), Iris Murdoch and morality, 56–69. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Duffy, Patrick J. 1997. Writing Ireland. Literature and art in the representation of Irish place. In Brian Graham (ed.), In search of Ireland. A cultural geography, 64–83. London & New York: Routledge.
Fiérobe, Claude. 1991. Irish homes in the work of C.R. Maturin. In Jacqueline Genet (ed.), The Big House in Ireland. Reality and representation, 71–84. Dingle: Brandon Book Publishers.
Foster, John Wilson. 2005. Introduction. In John Wilson Foster (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Irish novel, 1–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Frankova, Milada. 1995. Human relationships in the novels of Iris Murdoch. Brno: University of Brno.
Genet, Jacqueline. 1991. Introduction. In Jacqueline Genet (ed.), The Big House in Ireland. Reality and representation, ix–xii. Dingle: Brandon Book Publishers.
Horner, Avril. 2010. ‘Refinements of evil’: Iris Murdoch and the gothic. In Anne Rowe & Avril Horner (eds.), Iris Murdoch and morality, 70–84. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, Deborah. 1987. Iris Murdoch. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Kilfeather, Siobhan. 2005. The gothic novel. In John Wilson Foster (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Irish novel, 78–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kreilkamp, Vera. 1998. The Anglo-Irish novel and the Big House. Syracuse & New York: Syracuse University Press.
Lefebvre, Henri. 1991 [1974]. The production of space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell.
MacAndrew, Elizabeth. 1979. The gothic tradition in fiction. New York: Columbia University Press.
De Melo Araujo, Sofia & Fatima Vieira (eds.). 2011. Iris Murdoch. Philosopher meets novelist. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Murdoch, Iris. 1966. The Unicorn. London: Penguin Books.
Murdoch, Iris. 1999. Existentialists and mystics. Writings on philosophy and literature. Peter Conradi (ed.). London: Penguin Books.
Rauchbauer, Otto. 1992. The Big House and Irish history: An introductory sketch. In Otto Rauchbauer (ed.), Ancestral voices. The Big House in Anglo-Irish literature, 1–16. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag.
Shirlow, Peter. 1997. Class, materialism and the fracturing of traditional alignments. In Brian Graham (ed.), In search of Ireland. A cultural geography, 87–107. London & New York: Routledge.
Smyth, William J. 1997. A plurality of Irelands. Regions, societies and mentalities. In Brian Graham (ed.), In search of Ireland. A cultural geography, 19–42. London & New York: Routledge.
Todd, Richard. 1984. Iris Murdoch. London & New York: Methuen.
Tomczak, Anna Maria. 2009. Reading class. Non-verbal communication as a reflection of middle class attitudes and behaviours in selected novels of Iris Murdoch. Białystok: Białystok University Press.
Walpole, Horace. 1968. The castle of Otranto. In Peter Fairclough (ed.), Three gothic novels, 37–148.