A Severed Head: As Freudian Drama and as Restoration Comedy

摘要

A Severed Head, published in 1961, by the Anglo-Irish author Iris Murdoch, has proved one of her most commercially successful works. One of its primary attractions is that it is about sex. With its themes of marriage, incest and adultery within a group of educated and civilised people dwelling in well-to-do areas of 1950s London, it has been said that A Severed Head anticipates the sexual revolution of a period subsequently dubbed the “Swinging Sixties”. But its roots lie even deeper. It is also possible to see Murdoch's novel as a modern reworking of the licentious Restoration sex comedies penned in the late seventeenth century by such writers as William Wycherley, Sir George Etherege and William Congreve. Murdoch is indebted, too, to Freud. While Freud and Schnitzler believe that man engages in sex because of his fear of death, for Murdoch, love can enlighten and elevate the individual, allowing him to transcend the selfish limitations of self. This possibility is also hinted at in such a Restoration comedy as Congreve's The Way of the World, in the union of Mirabell and Millament. Although A Severed Head is one of the most popular of Murdoch's twenty-five novels because of its emphasis on sex, the author depicts the physical act to explore a wide range of philosophic topics, including the dangers of solipsism and egotism and the life-affirming nature of unselfish love.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2010.488848