The Event of Love and the Being of Morals: A Deleuzian Reading of Iris Murdoch’sThe Bell

Art as immanent liberation : a Deleuzean study of the role of art in Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn

“…They adopt Deleuze's ethical theory for analyzing the meaning of life in Murdoch's The Flight from the Enchanter (1956), focusing on a character who in the end succeeds in escaping majoritarian structures through the recognition of the "immanent force of life" (182) in a reactive society. In his study of Murdoch's The Bell (1958), Ghaffary (2019) analyzes how the two major characters find a line of flight to escape restrictive societal rules. Ghaffary (2019) concludes that Murdoch's text is a "becoming-text," that is, there is no pre-given, single meaning in or behind the text.…”

“…In his study of Murdoch's The Bell (1958), Ghaffary (2019) analyzes how the two major characters find a line of flight to escape restrictive societal rules. Ghaffary (2019) concludes that Murdoch's text is a "becoming-text," that is, there is no pre-given, single meaning in or behind the text. On Ghaffary's (2021) Deleuzean reading of Murdoch's The Sandcastle (1957), William Mor's "dis-organ-ization" is not self-initiated; rather, "other external forces provoke him to take the road" to becoming-active (229).…”

“…Ghaffary and Melika Ramzi (2023) investigate how an absolute freedom remains impossible to the characters in life as bodies are constantly coded and organized by the dominant system, and how an ultimate becoming can be achieved in taking one's own life. A de-subjectified body, Hannah functions as a deterritorializing producing machine that is in the process of becoming different, escaping the enclosed organization and, consequently, turning into a body without organs (BwO) (Ghaffary and Ramzi 2023). The current research provides a similar analysis of Hannah's progression toward becoming-active in a restrictive society.…”

“…In the relevant scholarship, to date, no critical study has aimed at analyzing how the literary texts Marian Taylor, the governess, and Hannah read together, or the musical pieces that Denis Nolan, Hannah's page, plays for her impact upon Hannah's will to action and her sense of freedom. Thus, given that freedom is the main thematic concept in Murdoch's novel (Ghaffary and Ramzi 2023), the present study, utilizing Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "minor art" and its disorganizing power, seeks to investigate the liberating role of art in the fictional universe of this novel and shed new light on the novel's treatment of the problem of freedom.…”