“Celtic backlighting” of the traumatic issues in Murdoch’s novel “The good apprentice”

Abstract

The article examines the traumatic and mythological contexts of I. Murdoch’s novel “The Good Apprentice”. On the one hand, we describe the stages of the main character’s traumatic experiences and his ways of overcoming the trauma in the novel; on the other hand, we focus on the analysis of one of the described stages when the protagonist finds himself in a kind of a “magical” female world, a world of oblivion and recreation. The article puts forward and proves the assumption that the characteristics of this world were created based on the culture of the “Celtic Revival” at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, largely inspired by William Morris’s “Arts and Crafts” movement, at the same time Murdoch was ironic about this part of English culture. The deeper roots of the novel’s reminiscent field go back to Celtic mythology with its images of “enchantresses” who hinder the protagonist and pursue him. In Iris Murdoch’s novel “The Good Apprentice”, the female world appears illusory and dangerous for the protagonist as one of the obstacles on his path.