The Generic Flamboyance of Muriel Spark

Author(s)

Tess Poe-Slade, University of Dayton

Advisor

David Fine, Ph.D.

Department

English

Publication Date

4-1-2023

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

In her 1970 speech, “The Desegregation of Art” Scottish author Muriel Spark suggests that art has become overly sentimental and ultimately ineffective in its aims of social change. While scholars have used this speech to understand the importance of humor in Spark’s work, unexplored has been the use of genre as a means of social critique. In analyzing Spark’s novellas The Public Image and The Driver’s Seat, I argue that Spark uses archetypes to demonstrate the limited agency of women and the disturbing implications of all too familiar conventions.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.

Keywords

Undergraduate research

eCommons Citation

Poe-Slade, Tess, "The Generic Flamboyance of Muriel Spark" (2023). Honors Theses. 417.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uhp_theses/417