The Black Prince論 : 虚構を彷徨う作家ブラッドリー・ピアソン

スポンサーリンク

概要

• 論文の詳細を見る

• This paper examines Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince(1973). The author challenges some new experiments throughout this work of art. In an interview with W. K. Rose in 1968, she interestingly hints that her forthcoming work will be differently written. Generally speaking, her quick responses to her interviewer are especially common. She mentions that the way she will compose her fiction in the future is really nineteenth century-canonized and her target is that of a realist writer. However, she says "I don't at the moment see any big break with the way in which I have been writing." If we put some weight on the phrase, "at the moment", we can easily assume that Ms. Murdoch might challenge some new styles in her fictional composition. The Black Prince is quite a challenging novel. There is another remarkable story within the main plot. The hero, Bradley Pearson is a professional writer, and is writing a love story titled "A Celebration of Love." Why we should pay great attention to this is that both the outside and the inside story have almost the same fictional characters. In particular, Bradley, as a creator of both the stories at times plays his narrative role in the inside story and at other times becomes a fictional writer in the outside story. In the view of the way the narrator shows us how complicated the inside story is, we find one similarity between Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire and The Black Prince. And there is another similarity in Murdoch's novel to Nabokov's Lolita, when we read those two stories as confessions of an older man hooked by a young girl. Our wandering creator has several acquaintances in those two worlds. They have some indispensable effects upon him. There are several fictional characters here in the story we are imperatively side by side with in addition to Bradley Pearson. They are mentioned as Arnold Baffin, Rachel Baffin, Julian Baffin, Priscilla, and others. First of all, Part I focuses on Rachel Baffin as a valuable fictional character created by our hero. She seems to have the role of protecting him from disaster. In Part II, Bradley's concerns are stressed as to how his sister, Priscilla behaves herself, and what postscript writers say about Bradley, however good or bad it may be, is mentioned as an introduction to what he did or would do throughout this story. In Part III, Julian Baffin is portrayed as a young girl Bradley comes to love. Our hero thinks about what he should do as a professional writer. She worships him as her great tutor of fictional writing because she adores his works and wants to emulate him as a writer. She asks him to tell her about how she should interpret William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Part IV, postscripts should be noted. Above all, those of Julian and Bradley himself can be criticized. In particular, that of Bradley says that our hero is the suspected murderer of Arnold Baffin. The meaning of the word "black" begins to become clear in the end. What does Bradley Pearson actually find in the story? The fact that he dies in prison by suffering from cancer makes us think about what part he plays. The reader tries to discover how happy or unhappy his life is, and why he should die. The work of art is called The Black Prince. The word "black" denotes something dead or death. Eventually, Bradley seems to tell us about how important love is for him to compose his fiction on one hand, and how difficult it is for him to write great stories on the other hand. He recognizes how little he understands what true art is by using the word "dark" metaphorically. Therefore, paradoxically, martyrdom is never avoidable for him.

著者

• 中窪 靖

  京都文教大学人間学部・臨床心理学科

関連論文

• The Black Prince論 : 虚構を彷徨う作家ブラッドリー・ピアソン
• アイリス・マードックの作品に見る「善」について : A Fairly Honourable Defeatの場合
• The American の一研究 : 最後の決断をめぐって

スポンサーリンク