The Iris Murdoch Society podcast

Maureen reflects on her time studying with Iris Murdoch (and others) at St Anne's College Oxford in the late 1950s, and reflects on the effect that it had on her later career as an academic. Interviewed by Miles Leeson from the IMRC, Chichester.

In this interview, first broadcast on the BBC in 1977, Murdoch discusses her work in both philosophy and literature with Bryan Magee. An excellent companion piece, by the Murdochian scholar Gillian Dooley, can be found here: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/iris-murdoch-and-her-philosophy-of-fiction/11889672

Joining me to discuss Iris and Swimming are Natasha Alden from the University of Aberystwyth, Hannah Marije from St Mary's University of London, and Lucy Oulton from the research Centre at Chichester. We discuss her life writing, no-fiction, philosophy, and of course her fiction including: Under the Net The Bell The Sea, The Sea The Unicorn A Fairly Honourable Defeat The Philosopher's Pupil

Joining Miles to discuss 'A Word Child' are Professor Rob Hardy from Henan Normal University, China; Dr Daniel read from Kingston University, and Maria Peacock from the Research Centre at Chichester.

Join me and my guest Anne Rowe as she guides us around London's National Gallery! We'll be stopping off at four paintings that appear in her novels: Gainsborough's portrait of his two daughters from 'The Bell' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/thomas-gainsborough-the-painters-daughters-chasing-a-butterfly Bronzino's 'Allegory with Venus and Cupid' from 'The Nice and the Good'. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/bronzino-an-allegory-with-venus-and-cupid Giorgione's 'Il Tramonto' from 'The Sacred and Profane Love Machine' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giorgione-il-tramonto-the-sunset Titian's 'The Death of Acteon' from 'Henry and Cato' https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-the-death-of-actaeon Anne is the world's leading Murdoch scholar, and her particular interest is Murdoch and the Visual Arts. Her books mentioned in the podcast can be found here: 'Iris Murdoch' https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/51725/ 'Sacred Space, Beloved City' https://www.cambridgescholars.com/sacred-space-beloved-city-15 Take a virtual tour here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours

Joining me to discuss Murdoch and Politics are Gary Browning (Oxford Brookes), author of 'Why Iris Murdoch Matters', Lesley Jamieson (Queen's University, Canada)who is conducting research into Murdoch's thought in the 1950s, and Vic Seidler (Goldsmiths, London) author of numerous works on sociology and politics. Gary's Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/why-iris-murdoch-matters-9781472574473/ Lesley's Latest Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9752.12416 Vic's latest book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/making-sense-of-brexit

Joining Miles in this special podcast on Brigid Brophy's life and work are Gerri Kimber, co-editor of the recent collection 'Brigid Brophy: Avant-Garde Writer, Critic, Activist'; Jonathan Gibbs, academic and novelist (whose latest novel 'The Large Door' is directly inspired by Brophy's 'The Snow Ball'); and Brophy's daughter, Kate Levey. Kate's Website: www.brigidbrophy.com Gerri's co-edited collection: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-brigid-brophy.html Jonathan's Novel: https://www.boilerhouse.press/product-page/the-large-door You can also listen to a 'Backlisted' Podcast on 'The Snow Ball' (featuring Jonathan) here: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/33-brigid-brophy-the-snow-ball

In 2016 Frances White (who you can also hear on the recent podcast) joined me at Chichester to discuss 'The Bell' with my students.

My guests on this podcast are Dr Frances White, Deputy Director of the IMRC at Chichester and author of the short biography 'Becoming Iris Murdoch', Fr Mark Patrick Hederman Former Abbott of Glenstall Abbey in Ireland and author of two works with a focus on Murdoch (see below), and James Marriott, Deputy Books Editor of The Times. Frances Book: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Becoming_Iris_Murdoch.html?id=9APuoQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y Mark Patrick's Books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunted-Inkwell-Art-Our-Future/dp/1856073475 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opal-Pearl-Towards-Gyroscopic-Ethics/dp/178218306X/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&qid=1592437559&refinements=p_27%3AMark+Patrick+Hederman&s=books&sr=1-12&text=Mark+Patrick+Hederman James' Webpage at The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/james-marriott?page=1

In this episode Miles is joined by Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary, University of London), Rebecca Moden (University of Chichester), and Anne Rowe (Chichester, and Kingston University) to discuss how Murdoch's use of imagery works in the novels, her inspirations, her relationship with painters and paintings, and how her philosophy can be brought to bear on the cinema and film-philosophy. Lucy's Book: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-cinema-and-the-philosophy-of-iris-murdoch.html Link to Vogue Article: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/vogue-archive-article-iris-murdoch Anne's Book: https://mellenpress.com/book/Visual-Arts-and-the-Novels-of-Iris-Murdoch/4673/ Special Edition of the Iris Murdoch Review No. 8 on the Visual Arts (edited by Lucy, work by Anne and Rebecca)freely available here: https://www.chi.ac.uk/humanities/public-humanities/literary-and-cultural-narrative/iris-murdoch-research-centre/iris-murdoch-review Links to images mentioned: Phillip's Portrait of Iris: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07718/Iris-Murdoch Bronzino: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/bronzino-an-allegory-with-venus-and-cupid Gainsborough: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/thomas-gainsborough-the-painters-daughters-chasing-a-butterfly Rublev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(Andrei_Rublev)