Iris Murdoch’s Wild Imagination Nature and the Environment

This book presents the first ecocritical study of novelist, philosopher, poet and public intellectual Iris Murdoch (1919–1999). It brings her love of the natural world into the light, arguing for its critical significance when Murdoch conveys an awareness of intricately interconnected ecologies through her work: an awareness that anticipates the motivations and concerns of modern-day environmental humanities. The book is the first of its kind to assess some of Murdoch's poems, seen as early articulation of the environmental imagination that finds recurrent expression in her novels, philosophical writings and personal journals throughout her writing life. This book offers a significant entry point for a new research direction in Murdoch studies by explicating her unique perspective on the natural world.

1. Iris Murdoch’s Wild Imagination: Ecocritical Approaches.- 2. Iris Murdoch, Poet: Ecological Themes And Lyrical Influences.- 3. The Emerging Animism In The Novels: The Flight From The Enchanter, An Unofficial Rose, The Unicorn And Nuns And Soldiers.- 4. The Sovereignty of The Sea In The Sea, The Sea.- 5. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Embodied Mind And Vegetal Agency: The Good Apprentice.- 6. A Vision Of The World As Sacred: Further Thoughts On Murdoch’s Ecological Consciousness.

Lucy Oulton is a Research Associate at the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, University of Chichester, UK. She is an Editor of the Iris Murdoch Review, to which she has also contributed.