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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

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195467

Murdoch on film

"re-seeing reality" in Richard Eyre's Iris (2001)

Alex Ramon

pp. 225-238

Abstract

Iris, Richard Eyre's film adaptation of John Bayley's memoirs Iris (1998) and Iris and the Friends (1999), has received very little academic attention since its release in 2001.1 Apart from a short article by Anthony O. Edmonds (printed in the Autumn 2003 issue of the Iris Murdoch News Letter) criticism has been limited to the initial reviews published at the time of the film's theatrical release. Whether this neglect is due to methodological complications, the reluctance of literary critics and philosophers to engage with film, or to prejudices about the cultural "value" of biopics and adaptations,2 the critical marginalization of Iris is rather surprising, particularly given the increase of scholarly interest in Murdoch's life and work in recent years. This essay, then, seeks to address this omission by offering an interdisciplinary analysis that examines Iris both as biopic and as literary adaptation. In keeping with the broad focus on "texts and contexts' in this volume, the essay also examines the critical reception of Eyre's film, and assesses what this highly ambivalent response reveals about popular conceptions of Murdoch within mainstream media discourse, and about the media's expectations of film biography more widely.

Publication details

Published in:

Rowe Anne, Horner Avril (2012) Iris Murdoch: texts and contexts. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 225-238

DOI: 10.1057/9781137271365_15

Full citation:

Ramon Alex (2012) „Murdoch on film: "re-seeing reality" in Richard Eyre's Iris (2001)“, In: A. Rowe & A. Horner (eds.), Iris Murdoch, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 225–238.