Muriel spark

_{(b. 1918)}

Muriel Spark is a worthy follower of the EnRlish satirical school. She is one of the most distinguished female writers in present-day England, an intelligent and witty master of satire. Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh During World War II she worked in the Foreign Office Spark started her literary career as a poet and a critic; she edited two poetry magazines and published critical works about the 19th century poets. However, it was her stories and novels that brought her fame. She published several collections of stories (The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories,

1958, Collected Stories, 1967, and others) and a number of novels- The Comforters ( 1958), Memento Mori ( 1959), The

Ballad of Pecl ham Rye (1960), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( 1961 ), The Public I mage ( 1968 ), The Abbess of Crewe (1974).

Taken together, her works present a sort of comic en­ cyclopedia of morals and manners of her countrymen. At first sight Spark's characters seem normal and ordi­ nary people but as the plot develops they turn out to be overcome by various vices and prejudices. She shows people as cruel and greedy, false and selfish, self-assured and narrow-minded. It is the hypocrisy and snobberry of the middle class that are the main objects of her satire. She exposes false values and unmasks respectable middle class people Her works are built on a contrast between \vhat people seem to be and what they really are. Like Thacke-

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ray, she sees no hero in the society she describes, that is why there is hardly any<charadcr in all her works who could be looked on as an embodiment of Good.

It is not light-hearted humour but bitter satire present­ ed in a cold objective manner that characterizes all her works. At times her satire becomes sinister and frightening as in the story Porfobello Noud. This is told by a woman long ago dead but wandering invisible about the city She is a symbol of the remorse that haunts her murderer In the novel Memento Mori the inhabitants of the old people's home hear mysterious voices on the telephone warning

them of inevitable death.

While in the stories Spark limits her pictures to family

life, in the novels her criticism is wider in scope,it touches on certain aspects of social life.

THE PUBLIC IMAGE

One of Spark's best novels is l"he Public Image. It is a satire on bourgeois mass 'ulture. lt discloses the tech­ nique of creating fake idols and false ideals which are offered to the public in order to divert its attention from se­ rious problems. The heroine of the novel is Annabel Chris­ topher, a second-rate film actress who could never un­ derstand what people meant when they spoke about "cre­ ating a role" In her opinion acting "consisted in playing herself in a series of poses for the camera"

Annabel became popular in one of the films thanks to

the successful work of the cameraman. She was far from beautiful but on the screen her eyes were made to look large, expressive and passionate. The film was a success, and the producer and his secretary did their best to follow up the success. They skilfully built up Annabel's public image- that of a wise and reserved but passionate wom­ an, a loving and devoted wife, an excellent bousewife and a good Catholic. She was constantly pholographP.d- shop­ ping, having tea at home, sightseeing, visiting the Vati­ can- and the pictures appeared in magazines. She was made into a public idol.

Her husband was involved in this public image too.

They were presented as an ideal couple though in reality there was neither Jove nor respect between the husband and wife. Frederick was an unsuccessful actor and scrip­ twriter; he, nevertheless, considered himself a genius. He

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resented Annabel's success for he thought her stupid, he envied and hated her Yet they could not part. she- be­ cause it would ruin her public image, he- because, having no money of his own, he lived at his wife's expense. Fin<)l­ ly his constant failures drove him to suicide. But he plan­ ned it so as to destroy Annabel's public image, and, in this way, to take his revenge on tlte whole show business which would not recognize his talent. Before committing suicide he invited a large group of Iris chance acquaintances, most­ ly drunkards and drug-takers, for a house-warming party so thil! Annabel should be photographed enjoying herself in the company of these disreputable people. He had also written a number of letters to different, in some cases, non­ existent people, presenting his wife as a low and immoral woman. The public, whose idol she used to be, now enjoyed the scandal. Annabel diu not lose heart but she realised how cruel, inhumane and false the surrounding world was. She decided to give up acting and to devote herself to the upbringing of her child who was the only thing she hau always kept out of her public image.

Spark became a Catholic yet she has never had any illusions about the moral qualities of believers and ser­ vants of the Church. Thus in the story The Black Madonna she mocks at the hypocrisy of her heroine, a very religHlUS person. Lou Parker had always stressed lt!ilt she was in·e from race prejudice but sill: abandoned her only child because the baby was born as dark as a Negro.

The following conversation between Lou Parker anu her husband exposes her hypocrisy

_{"We've done !he right thing" said Lou_ 'T} \ l1c p ri

agree with !hal, cl1ild"

idering how strongly wc fclt agoinst ln•eping

"Oil, he said it was a good !hi11g'"

"No, no! a good thing. In fact he said i! would have bcc11 a good U11!1g

if we could have kept tile baby E3ut failing lltat, we did the right !hill!,!

_{Apparently, there's a diffl•rcnce"}

Still more ruthless is Spark's satire in the novel !'he Abbess of Crewe. The scene is laid in a Catholic abbey where the nuns are to elect a new abbess. There are two candiuates for the vacancy- Sister Felicity anu Sister Alexandra They stop at nothing in their struggle for the post. They resort to bribery, slander, lies, they steal each other's things and usc electronic equipment for secretly

taperecording the nuns' conversations. It is Sister Alexandra, a more skilful demagogue, who wins the elec­ tion.

Besides being a witty satire on the modern Church the

novel is also a parody on political life. The actions of the nuns- applicants for the post of the Abbess- are very much like the dirty tricks used during the scandalous

election campaign of 1972 in the USA known as the Water­

gate Affair

The novels that came out in the late 1970s and early

1980s - The Takeover ( 1976), The Territorial Rights

(1979) and The Only Problem (1983) have very intricate plots that keep the readers in suspense. They are full of

paradoxical situations describing the absurdity of the world of today. These novels are densely populated with characters who turn out to be very different from what they seem or claim to be. A student appears to be a burglar, a nurse turns into a policewoman, a successful playwright is nothing but a sponger and a cheat. The novel The Only Problem, though as always satirical, however, brings in a touch of optimism into Spark's work. In it the writer portrays a man who is tested by life for kindness and generosity. In spite of other people's meanness and treachery Harvey Gotham retains his faith in Goodness.

Spark's stories and novels are written in a restrained laconic style. The method she employs in most of her works is grotesque, that is exaggeration, which makes her criti­ cism biting and sharp. There is scarcely any exploration of the inner world of the characters. We judge them by their actions and speeches. There is an abundance of dialogue in her works. This, as well as the entertaining plot which usually develops at a high speed, makes her works look like plays which can be easily staged and filmed.

I. What are !he main features of a satirical novel? 2. Whal was characteristic of Evelyn Waugh's satire? 3. What vices does Muriel Spark expose? 4. What is the theme of her novel The Public Image?

5. What is Muriel Spark's altitude towards the Church?

SCIENCE FICTION

Since ancient times mankind has always striven to foresee the future, to imagine the possible ways of human development, to predict the results of man's activity. The earliest work in English literature built along the lines of social fantasy is Thomas More's Utopia (1516) which

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conveys the writer's ideal of human society Another, but this time satirical, picture of a fantastic world, was drawn by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels (I 726). Though the writer himself was critical about them, he foretold some inventions and discoveries that were made some two centu­ ries later In 1817 a young writer Mary Shelley published the novel Frankenstein. It told of a Swiss scientist, Fran­ kenstein by narne, who made an attempt to create an artifi­ cial being out of separate parts of human bodies. Tl!e ethical and psychological problems arising as a conse­ quence of this experiment, the tragedy of the scientist who falls a victim to his own creation, make up the essence of the novel.

In these three novels we find the seeds of imaginary writing which acquired great popularity and significance in contemporary literature under the name of 'science fiction' (SF). The rapid scientific and technological pro­ gress which was not always beneficial, but at times harm­ ful as well, gave a powerful impetus to SF in our century Its beginnings are associated with the name o[ Herbert Wells whose work predetermined the main lines of the evolution of this kind of literature.

Science fiction is very diverse in genres as well as in

the aims that its writers pursue. The most traditional genre is the utopia- a story of a society with an ideal state of

things. But the sordid reality of the 20th century with its devastating wars, antihuman dictatorships, ecological problems has put an end to the fascinating dreams of

a happy future for all. The genre of the utopian novel has undergone a change and in the works of many writers has turned into its opposite- the antiutopia, or distopia. Its roots can be traced back to Wells' novel The Time Machine

( 1895) that draws a picture of a degraded society con­ sisting of the delicate and idle rich and hard-toiling labourers. The latter are forced to live underground and, in order to survive, have to devour their exploi­

ters.