Irish Novels
Irish Novels
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Muriel Spark's Novel The Prime Of Miss Brodie Deconstructed
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a rich novella that needs to be conquered several times; that is, round and around and with noise, as the Israelites conquered Jericho. Besides the enchantment of the suspense and the mystery, one can learn about negative teaching, ethics, and politics.
Having attempted countless times to build a coherent timeline for this novella, this last time I gave up the idea, deciding that it was easier to do it for One Hundred Years of Solitude. One has to accept the fact that it is that the story has neither beginning nor end, but only a thick juicy Byzantine middle. Yet, it is cogent by virtue of its precise flash forwards, flash backwards, and resonant images; the latter acting as anchors in time.
Strong images presented in the beginning soon reappear, becoming familiar resonant images are: the elm tree, a walk through Edinburgh, a fire, transfiguration of the commonplace, and the word menarche.
Given the academic, it is a book about impressionable high schoolers, and a charismatic teacher: Miss Jean Brodie, a maverick teacher with dangerous ideas. On the surface she seems to be a level-headed, vastly informed, and attractive lady whose strong personality influences students, teachers, and even the headmistress. The reality turns out to be something else: she teaches her pupils the Brodie set to be leaders, the crème de la crème, so that they can "belong to life's elite."
Armed with the the Socratic Method, she attempts to mold her girls into heroines, superior women, superb individualists who'd do for themselves rather than for the group; that is, team effort be damned. A victim of her times (1930s), Miss Brodie admires Hitler and Mussolini, and it is this spirit of Fascism that she instills in the Brodie set.
What the author, Muriel Spark, left behind is a book about negative, autocratic leadership: "my way or no way," "either you are with me or against me." Sandy (Brodie's pet pupil) betrays her, and in the end Miss Brodie is fired from her job for misconduct. Because of the very same education she received from Miss Brody, this betrayal was inevitable. And given that she taught the Set that violence and cruelty were acceptable, the betrayal seems adequate poetic justice.
To discourage love of neighbor, care, cooperation, and harmony, can ultimately create monsters. If there's a moral lesson that can be discerned is that extreme individualism can be harmful to society, while group nurturing is the opposite. In Donna Tartt's Secret History we also see that Julian, an elitist teacher, also attempts to mold superior students, with disastrous results. This is an attitude that goes back to Plato and Socrates who in The Republic advocated a ruler caste.
The result is that elitist teaching creates tyrants. Doesn't it then follow that we should be wary of teachers and schools that prepare unfeeling, insensitive, inhuman leaders?
So, what is the practical lesson that one can learn in this book ? Wrong question, for we find many lessons and for many fields: pedagogy, ethics, and --why not?-- politics.
Published in 1961, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, finds itself established as a good novel not because of its inherent goodness, but because of the evil it depicts. Besides the mastery of technique (especially of fictional time), this brief book stands as a negative paradigm of human relations, education, and leadership. Had President George W. Bush, and his advisors, read and absorbed the lessons of this novel, they wouldn't have lectured the world with Bush's loathsome doctrine: "our way or no way," "either you are with us or against us."
About the Author
Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68).
For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy's e-book: Sentence Openers.
To read my book reviews of the Classics visit my blog: Writing To Live
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Irish Novels 1890-1940 $125 Studies of Irish fiction are still scanty in contrast to studies of Irish poetry and drama. Attempting to fill a large critical vacancy, Irish Novels 1890-1940 is a comprehensive survey of popular and minor fiction (mainly novels) published between 1890 and 1922, a crucial period in Irish cultural and political history. Since the bulk of these sixty-odd writers have never been written about, certainly beyond brief mentions, the book opens up for further exploration aliterary landscape, hitherto neglected, perhaps even unsuspected. This new landscape should alter the familiar perspectives on Irish literature of the period, first of all by adding genre fiction (science fiction, detective novels, ghost stories, New Woman fiction, and Great War novels) to the Irish syllabus,secondly by demonstrating the immense contribution of women writers to popular and mainstream Irish fiction. Among the popular and prolific female writers discussed are Mrs J.H. Riddell, B.M. Croker, M.E. Francis, Sarah Grand, Katharine Tynan, Ella MacMahon, Katherine Cecil Thurston, W.M. Letts, and Hannah Lynch. Indeed, a critical inference of the survey is that if there is a discernible tradition of the Irish novel, it is largely a female tradition. A substantial postscript surveys novels by Irish women between 1922 and1940 and relates them to the work of their female antecedents. Thisground-breaking survey should also alter the familiar perspectives on the Ireland of 1890-1922. Many of the popular works were problem-novels and hence throw light on contemporary thinking and debate on the 'Irish Question'. After the Irish Literary Revival and creation of the Free State, much popular andmainstream fiction became a lost archive, neglected evidence, indeed, of a lost Ireland. |
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Iris Murdoch Anglo-Irish Writer, Best known for the Novels She Wrote Between 1950s and 1990s $19.99 Iris Murdoch Anglo-Irish Writer, Best known for the Novels She Wrote Between 1950s and 1990s - Premium Poster |
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Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels $102.38 No Synopsis Available |
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Irish Novels 1890-1940 : New Bearings in Culture and Fiction $121.88 No Synopsis Available |
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Green with Irish $10.99 These green with white shamrock socks show that you're Irish from the tip of your toes to your knees! Organic Cotton and Spandex. One size first most. USA. |
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Three Classic Spy Novels $5.99 The Three Greatest Spy Novels of All Time! In one low priced eBook, read three classic edge-of-the-seat espionage tales, complete and unabridged. Mystery novelist and critic Julian Symons calls Childers' Riddle of the Sands (1903), "one of the best spy and adventure stories ever written." It should be, the author was a heroic British-Irish spy who was executed for his efforts. Oppenheim's The Great Impersonation (1919) is our publisher's personal favorite spy novel of all time, guaranteed to keep you guessing up to the amazing last chapter. Le Queux's The Czar's Spy (1905) is thrilling, romantic, and accurate. It ought to be, its author was also a British Secret agent. If you love classic thrillers, these three are among the best ever written. Don't miss them! |
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This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.



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