Muriel Spark's works often consider the seductive and
destructive power of social structures, such as religion and
education. These structures lure Spark's characters with their
promise of power. But after entering the structure's domain to
exploit the mastery it offers, the characters are imprisoned by
rules and codes. Through a postmodern reading of Spark's works,
such as "The Comforters" (1957), DEGREESThe Public Image" (1968),
"The Driver's Seat" (1970), "Reality and Dreams" (1996), and
"Aiding and Abetting" (2000), this book analyzes the role of
certain social structures in her fiction.
The volume argues that these attractions and destructions are
very much like postmodern critical games with structures that are
open to any experimentation, but at the same time seem fixed and
unchanging. Within this postmodern context, one is free to play
games with signs and systems of rules. Spark's characters enter
these games in a playful mood and test their limits. The texts,
images, and spectacles haunt their victims, who are unable to
escape the process of attraction and destruction. The characters
are eventually led to their death-literal or metaphoric-which will
inevitably introduce them to a new beginning.
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