PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EXISTENTIALISM IN THE EARLY NOVELS OF IRIS MURDOCH

Abstract

It is generally accepted in science that existential theory, naturally, largely transformed and became the basis of Murdoch's novels of the 50s – 60s. According to a number of scientists, the writer's passion for existentialism went through several phases and was replaced by the construction of her own ethical and aesthetic system based on Platonism.

The attitude of Iris Murdoch, philosopher and writer, to existentialism has always been dual. Already from the first works analyzing this problem, it is clear that Murdoch, enthusiastically exploring existentialism, paying due tribute to it, but at the same time criticized it.

Murdoch's novels are not psychological in the classical sense of the concept. The writer was so immersed in the inner world of man that the reality in her novels sometimes eluded the field of view of the author, did not exist outside the consciousness of the hero, dissolved in his experiences. In such statement of a question the crisis tendency was concealed. Even at the very beginning of creativity in search of some special inner, spiritual, psychological, and therefore universal truth Murdoch was fascinated by the study of dark, destructive principles and forces in the human psyche, focused on the analysis of painful aspirations and feelings.

Keywords: existentialism, creativity, Iris Murdoch, novel.