Iris Murdoch, The Time of the Angels

Tammy Grimshaw (Universidad de Jaen)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1966

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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The Time of the Angels

was heavily influenced by Nietzsche’s

The Birth of Tragedy

and likewise contrasts the Apollonian world of reason, clarity and morality with the Dionysian realm of irrationality, emotionalism and formlessness. Murdoch portrays this conflict in her characterisations of the two male protagonists, Marcus Fisher, a headmaster who is a Platonist and writer of a Nietzschean-style treatise on moral philosophy entitled “Morality in a World without God” (19), and his older brother Carel Fisher, an Anglican cleric who professes “to be the priest of no God” (182). In this novel, Murdoch plays out the central concern of her moral philosophy, namely the search for meaning in a world without God. Ostensibly echoing Carel’s ontological stance, Murdoch states in

The

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2070 words

Citation: Grimshaw, Tammy. "The Time of the Angels". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10025, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Iris Murdoch, The Time of the Angels

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