Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent: A Self-Begetting Novel PDF

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Spark Loitering Self-Begetting Novel Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent: A Self-Begetting Novel ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ...

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Spark Loitering Self-Begetting Novel Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent: A Self-Begetting Novel ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ By Sabry Saad Sheishaa A Lecturer of English Literature Faculty of Education, Tanta University 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025 ‫البا حث‬ ‫صبرى سعد شعيشع‬ ‫مدرس بقسم اللغة االنجليزية‬ ‫ جامعة طنطا‬، ‫كلية التربية‬  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent: A Self-Begetting Novel Introduction: Muriel Spark (1918 – 2006), one of the most innovative writers of the twentieth century, was born in Edinburgh and grew up in a half-Jewish, half- ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Protestant home. She is well-known as "a Scottish writer, Catholic convert, and poetic modernist – her greatest achievement is to defy all categories", as Brian Cheyette indicates (2000, p.1). This view is supported by Norman Page (1990), who points out that Spark "acknowledges and owes few literary debts and belongs to no school, group or movement; there is no one quite like her, and one rereads her novels in the hope of coming a little closer to their meaning and in the certainty of repeated pleasure" (p.122). Spark answers the question, 'Which literary composition would you like to have written?', posed by the New York Times Book Review (1981), saying: "I would not want to have written anything by anyone else, because they are 'them' and I am 'me' " (p.170). Many critics refer to her breaking with such literary traditions as realism and her adoption of more modernist movements. Patrick Parrinder (1983) thinks that Spark is "a witty, graceful and highly intelligent 2024/2025 2024/2025 writer who often fails2024/2025 to provide the emotional satisfactions and to produce the sort of intellectual conviction traditionally associated with novel-reading" (p.24). Her work is qualified with a wit that "can trick you into imagining that you're being served up realism, when in fact she is delivering a story that enters quite fantastical territory" (Higgins, 2009, p.1). However, Spark assures that she acknowledges both traditional and modernist literary attitudes because they have been a calling to her, "the calling of the real artist, just as it had been the calling of other high priests of modernism such as Eliot, Joyce and Auden (Mount, 2009, p.4). She seems to balance the traditional elements of storytelling with the modern vision of the viability of these elements. Nevertheless, Spark is situated among "the early postmodernist" innovators (Wheeler, 1997, p.10). Alan Massie (1979) places her within "a post-realist tradition whose work evokes the fragmented manner in which we perceive reality" (p.9). This tradition is described to be "a modernist and postmodernist convention, as evident in William Faulkner or as in Donald Barthelme", as Willy Maley explains (2010, p.64). In an interview, Spark admits, "I believe I have liberated the novel in many ways….I have opened doors and windows in the mind, and challenged fears – especially the most inhibiting fears about what a novel should be" (Taylor, 2004, p.2). David Lodge (2010) suggests that Spark "was a postmodernist writer before that term was known to literary criticism", and explains how she "took the convention of the omniscient author familiar in classic 19th century novels and applied it in a new, speeded-up,  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] throwaway style to a complex plot of a kind excluded from modern literary fiction – in this case involving blackmail and intrigues over wills, multiple deaths and discoveries of secret scandals, almost a parodic update of a Victorian sensation novel" (p.4). In addition, Lodge (2010) refers to some elements of postmodernism in Spark's work such as parody and the use of the first-person, "impersonal but intrusive narrator" (p.4). In her early novels, Spark does not use the first-person narrator because she believes, "the narrator can't be everywhere at once" (Sage, 1976, p.11) but she employs it as "a method…in her longer fiction in Robinson and Loitering With Intent" (Lodge, 1985, p.2), which she explains, saying: "If you want to attract a lot of sympathy to a character, the first person is unbeatable" (Taylor, 2004, p.2). The first- ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ person narratives are the most suitable resources for developing a character because "in these texts personal reflections are set out most clearly" (Burns, 2009, p.70). The first-person narrator narrates, manages and comments on the events. He often shares in certain discussions about life and art with the other characters, who are always a cast of artist-figures in the self-begetting novel, which is a genre of postmodernism. Spark is concerned with raising profound questions about art and life – "What does it mean, as a novelist, to create characters whose lives one can then control and curtail? Is it allowable for a novelist to have this kind of Godlike knowledge about her creations?...They are certainly self-conscious, even postmodern" (Wood, 2004, p.5). This view is sustained by Ali Smith (2009), who ensures the self-reflexive nature and postmodernism of Spark's work, which – "with a paradoxical lightness, and a sense of mixed resolution and unresolvedness 2024/2025 2024/2025 that leaves its readers both2024/2025 satisfied and disturbed – would take to task its own contemporaneity and ask profound questions about art, life and belief" (p.1). Spark (1971) thinks that this is the main function of literature which "of all arts, is the most penetrable into the human life of the world, for the simple reason that words are our common currency…in order to communicate" (p.21). Spark is also concerned with "the semiotics of language" for creating a character and shaping an identity, and "experiments reflexively with her narrative form to demonstrate the powers and limitations of language" (Karambelas, 2014, p.2). Self-reflexivity is focused both on language and narrative technique. It is the "sui generis style" that qualifies her work as postmodernist, "a style combining a self-reflexive focus on novelistic technique, including modes of metafictional play, with probing investigation of the moral, psychological, and institutional dimensions of human conduct" (Herman, 2008, p.473). There is some reference to the postmodernist genre of metafiction, which is defined as fiction about fiction. According to Frank Kermode (1965), Spark's novels are "novels about the novels" (p.92), which shows their self-reflexive nature. They abound in literary and critical discussions on the artifice of fiction and the making of the novel. They are populated with a huge cast of artist-figures as well as many "memoirists and poets, cranky publishers, well- connected hacks, all of them arguing about what makes a character, what propels a sentence….she draws our attention repeatedly to the artifice of the novel" (Sehgal, 2014, p.1). Loitering With Intent is seen as one of the novels that are "metafictional  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] studies of what it means to be a writer. They changed notions of what the novel could be about….Unlike many postmodern writers, Spark knew her first task was to tell an entertaining story" (Torrance, 2006, p.2). However, it is not a metafictional novel because its plot is focused on the development of a character till he is able to write a novel and it discusses the elements of its making. On the other hand, Chikako Sawada (2004) thinks that Spark "accepted the theory of the anti-novel" (148). The anti-novel is a mode of the modern, self-conscious narrative that dispenses with certain traditional elements of novel-writing like the analysis of a character's state of mind or the unfolding of a linear, sequential plot. The modes of self-conscious narrative are "anti-novel, self-begetting novel, introverted novel, surfiction, irrealism, and ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ fabulation" (Waugh, 1984, p.14). However, this study presents a perspective distinct from the previous critical views. The paper aims at exploring if Spark's Loitering With Intent is a self-begetting novel. It also aims at analyzing her method of interplaying art and life used to realize a form of fictional autobiography. The problem with Spark's critics is that they generalize their judgments on her work. They do not determine specific literary genres to her novels. A literary and critical analysis of the text is offered. Also, a definition of the self-begetting novel is given. The features and criteria of the self- begetting novel as a genre of the postmodernist theory are taken into account on reading and analyzing the text. This novel is selected for the study because the features of the self-begetting novel are more apparent in its text. The novel also represents a middle stage in Spark's development as a novelist. In Michele Langford's view (1990), it is "a central novel in the2024/2025 2024/2025 study of Spark's work. What is2024/2025 happening in the evolution of Muriel Spark is that all the patterns, that is, suggestive names, sexual deviates, mastering servants, litanies, writer and artist characters, emerge in this work….The patterns speak to the issue of technique, of how Spark does what she does" (p.156). A conclusion is provided to present the results of the study. Analysis of the text: It is Steven Kellman (1980) who first coined the term, 'self-begetting novel', to describe this genre – "I propose to define a subgenre of the modern French, British, and American novel which I call 'the self-begetting novel'. A fantasy of Narcissus become autogamous, the self-begetting novel, like Fleisher's cartoons, projects the illusion of art creating itself….the self-begetting novel begins again where it ends. Once we have concluded the central protagonist's story of his own sentimental education, we must return to page one to commence in a novel way the product of that process – the mature artist's novel, which itself depicts the making of a novel….The final line, as in Finnegans Wake, returns to the beginning" (p.3). The self-begetting novel offers an account of the development of a novelist-character who narrates his own story, so the "emphasis is on the development of the narrator" (Waugh, 1984, p.14). This account is "usually first person, of the development of a character to a  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] point at which he is able to take up his pen and compose the novel we have just finished reading" (Waugh, 1984, p.13). Then, the use of the first-person narration is a feature of the self-begetting novel, because the narrator is the creator of his own story. Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), Iris Murdoch's Under the Net (1954), Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet (1961), and Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook (1962) are categorized as self-begetting novels because they present a first-person account of the development of "a figure who will beget both a self and a novel" (Kellman, 1980, p.6). According to Steven Kellman (1980), the self-begetting ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ novel is "supremely reflexive" because its central protagonist is a novelist and its central action is the conception of a novel" (p.9). This feature allows it to make frequent and prolonged allusions to other works of art. These allusions make some explorations of the past traditions and their continuation into the present convention, which clarifies the idea of immortality of literature, expounded in the self-begetting novel – "The self-begetting novel begins with an urge toward immortality….Proust proclaims the permanent triumph of literature over time; A La Recherche succeeds in the creation of an enduring identity and fiction" (Kellman, 1980, p.10). Also, Joyce's Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man present stories of a developing self and pictures of creating an artist-protagonist, and employ some elements of the self-begetting novel like their "apprenticeship of an exceptional individual, their explicit discussion of stories of art, and their pervasive reflexivity" (Kellman, 1980, P.81). Closely connected to the idea of 2024/2025 2024/2025 immortality is that of reproduction or rebirth 2024/2025 of an identity in a work of art. However, the idea of death is usually linked to portraits of rebirth in a self-begetting novel, because "death is a necessary condition of rebirth, and reproduction, the beginning of death, is likewise the beginning of life", as Kellman indicates, (1980, p.84). In Loitering With Intent, Fleur Talbot, the narrator, sits in a graveyard, composing a poem and revising her first novel, Warrender Chase, for publication, with her announcement of the production of other two novels, The English Rose and All Souls' Day. She chooses the graveyard as the beginning of her new career as a novelist after she passes many blocks in her way of development. The self-begetting novel employs a cast of artist-figures who share with the narrator long discussions about art and life. For example, Iris Murdoch's Under the Net has a cast of artist-characters, including Ann Quentin, a singer; Sadie, an actress; Hugo Belfounder, a film producer; Lefty Todd, a political artist of sorts; and Dave Gellman, a philosopher. They share with Jake Donaghue, the novelist-protagonist, many theoretical discussions about fiction and reality. Similarly, Loitering With Intent has its cast of artist-figures, including Fleur Talbot, the novelist-heroine; Sir Quentin, a storyteller and memoirist; Leslie, a poet and reviewer; Dottie, a reader in literature and criticism; Gray Mauser, a poet; and Solly, a journalist. They enrich the text with many critical discussions and comments on the making of the novel and the artifice of fiction.  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Loitering With Intent abounds in many of the features that make of it a proper self-begetting novel. Fleur Talbot, the narrator of the story, is omniscient. Some critics draw a distinction between two interpretations of omniscience in Spark's novels: "omniscience as control versus omniscience as care….Loitering With Intent focuses on surveillance in ways that are much more specifically interested in narrative procedure, in the ways narratives are produced and received" (Herman, 2010, p.15). In this sense, Spark uses the omniscient narrator in this text to "show, frequently to brilliantly comic effect, the abuses of omniscience" (Gardiner, 2006, p.67), especially if it is understood to mean control, that is, authorial control over characters. As for the comic effect, it is one of the features that characterize Spark's narrative procedure. ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Alan Riach (2005) suggests that Spark's world is qualified with a sense of humor and a combination of "deadly seriousness with murderous laughter that is so entirely characteristic of that world" (p.241). Spark presents such a narrator in some of her novels. For example, The Comforters (1957) has as its narrator and central protagonist a would-be novelist, Caroline Rose, who transforms from being a character in a plot into a novelist at the end of the novel. It cannot be seen as a self-begetting novel because it does not offer an account of the development of Caroline as a novelist or make self-reflexive discussions on the artifice of fiction. Although there are echoes of The Comforters in Loitering With Intent, it does not mean that "Spark repeats herself. In every particular, Loitering With Intent differs from that first novel" (Harrison, 1981, p.5). Also, in The Driver's Seat (1970), the woman-heroine fails to be an author in control or rather, an omniscient narrator, if omniscience is meant to be control and surveillance. Mrs. Hawkins, the heroine of A Far Cry from Kensington (1988) is the 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025 narrator of a fictional memoir. She is an editor. In Loitering With Intent, Fleur Talbot writes a form of fictional autobiography in which she narrates her life story with special concentration on her development as a novelist. The Finishing School (2004) shows some aspects of jealousy between Chris, a student in the school, who is writing a historical novel about Mary Queen of Scots, and Rowland, the headmaster, who tries writing a novel. However, the plot does not present their development as novelists. If the self-begetting novel is an account of the development of a novelist- character, Loitering With Intent recounts Fleur's development as a novelist and her literary production. It tells about "a writer's love affair with art – about a writer's purpose and method, about the sources from which an artist draws inspiration" (Harrison, 1981, p.2). Fleur employs the first-person narrative and a form of fictional autobiography to dramatize her story – "One day in the middle of the twentieth century I sat in an old graveyard which had not yet been demolished, in the Kensington area of London….I was writing a poem" (7; ch.1). This is the opening sentence of the novel, in which the three unities of time, place and action are designated. The setting is the Kensington area in the 1950s, that is, in post-war Britain. It is the same time when Spark began writing fiction. The use of the first- person narrative brings Spark and her heroine, Fleur, visibly close, especially after Spark declares, "Loitering With Intent is a sort of sums up my life" (Glendinning,  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 1979, p.48). In her 'Curriculum Vitae', Spark (1992) points out that she has frequently written "autobiographical pieces" (p.14), referring to her novels, Loitering With Intent and A Far Cry from Kensington. Loitering With Intent exemplifies the relationship between the author and her work. The plot of the novel begins after Fleur Talbot leaves Sir Quentin Oliver's Autobiographical Association where she has worked as a secretary for ten months – "ten months before the day when I was writing my poem on the worn-out graves of the dead in Kensington" (8; ch.1). This event is significant because it represents the idea that death is a necessary condition of rebirth or reproduction. From this time on ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Fleur begins to produce her literary work, choosing the graveyard to be the point of beginning. The scene shows that she is a poet as well as a novelist. Spark finishes the novel with the same scene to affirm its significance as a beginning of Fleur's literary production and development as a novelist – "It was right in the middle of the twentieth century, the last day of June 1950, warm and sunny, a Friday, that I mark as a changing-point in my life" (143; ch.12). She begins working on her first novel, Warrender Chase, before she joins the Autobiographical Association, where she experiences new facts about life and art. Her novel is greatly affected by this new experience. She suggests that she "took the job for its promise of a totally new experience" (10; ch.1). Reality and experience are the sources of her inspiration and literary ideas. In the Association, she observes and contemplates on the words and actions of its members. She talks a little but listens a lot because she has "a novel, my first, in larva" (11; ch.1) and she needs this experience to create her characters, images and situations in an authentic way. She explains 2024/2025 2024/2025 how this experience is2024/2025 a great help to creating her first novel, saying: "I was finding it extraordinary how, throughout all the period I had been working on the novel, right from Chapter One, characters and situations, images and phrases that I absolutely needed for the book simply appeared as if from nowhere into my range of perception. I was a magnet for experiences that I needed" (13; ch.1). Fleur changes her technique of writing after her experience in the Association; she adopts the modernist technique rather than the realistic one – "For years I had been working up to my novel, Warrender Chase and had become accustomed to first fixing a fictional presence in my mind's eye, then adding a history to it" (26; ch.2). Then, she indicates, "After these years I've got used to this process of artistic apprehension in the normal course of the day, but it was fairly new to me then" (13;ch.1). When Sir Quentin asks her to revise the members' memoirs, taking into her account that "they are living in modern times" (27; ch.2), she begins to learn the modernist techniques of writing. Fleur thinks that the versions and revisions of the memoirs "could feed my imagination for my novel Warrender Chase" (27; ch.2). This stage in Fleur's career provides her with a new experience, enriches her imagination and develops her technique of writing. The members of the Association and their memoirs are so influential on Fleur's imagination that they are represented in her novel. There is a great similarity between them and her characters. In reality, she is always reflecting on and "chewing over Sir Quentin's character" (15; ch.1), so she  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] presents her character, Warrender Chase, very like him. However, Fleur claims that she "had already had him outlined and fixed, long before I saw Sir Quentin" (19; ch.1). Also, Sir Quentin's mother, Lady Edwina, is similar to Warrender's mother, Proudie. Fleur is greatly affected by Lady Edwina's "dramatic entrances and her amazing statements" (24; ch.2). Moreover, Sir Quentin's housekeeper, Mrs. Tims, is very like Warrender's housekeeper, Charlotte; both make love affairs with their masters. This process of interplaying life and art makes Fleur's creation of characters "instinctive, the sum of my whole experience of others and of my own potential self; and so it always has been. Sometimes I don't actually meet a character I have created in a novel until some-time after the novel has been written and published" (19; ch.1). ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ She explains that the story of her life is "constituted of the secrets of my craft as it is of other events" and one of these secrets is the view "that to make a character ring true it needs must be in some way contradictory, somewhere a paradox" (30; ch.2). This is shown in her portrayal of the character of Warrender, who at first appears to be a respectable man but he is finally discovered to be a hypocrite. In her craft she also uses a prose style that requires "a lot of poetic concentration because, you see, I conceive everything poetically" (20; ch.1). Spark, Fleur's creator, once admits that her novels are "the novels of a poet" (Gillham, 1970, p.412). Thus, the author and her heroine are visibly close in their narrative procedure. On the other hand, Fleur's explanation of the secrets of her craft in her story shows self-reflexivity, which is a feature of the self-begetting novel. The narrator makes some references and allusions to classic works of art during her discussion of the secrets of her craft, 2024/2025 showing another source of 2024/2025 2024/2025 her inspiration and literary talent, that is, her knowledge of classics and traditions. The allusions and parodies of classics prove that she is not disconnected from traditions. For example, she refers to Shakespeare's King Lear when Lady Edwina complains that her son, Sir Quentin, wants to take her property to avoid death duties. Lady Edwina refuses lest she should be "damned if she was going to be Queen Lear" (24; ch.2). The allusion is to the ingratitude of King Lear's daughters who deserted him after they had inherited his property. The narrator discusses this situation with Lady Edwina, trying to "switch her over to a quite lucid and interesting speculation as to the possible nature and characteristics of the defunct Queen Lear herself" (25; ch.2). In addition, the narrator recommends the members of the Association two important books of autobiography to learn how to write down their memoirs: "The Apologia ProVita Sua" by John Henry Newman, which "was among the best" (35; ch.2) and "Benvenuto Cellini's La Vita" (56; ch.4). Fleur herself admits she spent the last three and a half years studying "Newman, his sermons, his essays, his life, his theology" (69; ch.5). According to Benjamin Anastas (2002), Fleur is inspired in the practice of her life and art by these two books, though they are "an opposed pair of textual masters: John Henry Newman's Apologia ProVita Sua, a spiritual autobiography; and the rapturously secular life of Bnevenuto Cellini" (p.26). Also, she recommends the members reading "Proust and his fictional autobiography" (70; ch.5). For further reading, she offers them two volumes of "the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the complete Chaucer" (66;  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ch.5). The use of allusions to other works of art and classics is another feature of the self-begetting novel in the text. This novel is also featured by the presentation of a cast of artist-figures who share with the narrator long discussions on art and life. They are also offered axial roles that greatly influence the narrator's career as a novelist. Lady Edwina, a good reader in art and literature, foretells that Fleur will be a well-known writer–"Your studio is so like Paris….Artists I have known….Artists and writers, they have become successful, of course. And you, too" (37; ch.2). Fleur wonders how she will be a successful writer with the publication of eight poems only among her voluminous ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ writings in little reviews. She recites for Edwina some lines from her poem, entitled, 'Metamorphosis' till she reads the line, "aspiring to respire in another", which Leslie overhears on his coming into the room to visit Fleur, his girlfriend. He remarks, saying, "too feeble. Bad-sounding" (38; ch.2). To defend herself, Fleur shows that Leslie is a poet, a novelist and a critic who "reviewed books for a periodical called Time and Tide and for other little reviews" (39; ch.2). She explores two bad aspects of his personality, that is, ambivalence and jealousy—"he was ambivalent about my writings, in that he often liked what I wrote but disliked my thoughts of being a published writer" (39; ch.2). Lady Edwina realizes this fact, saying: "He's jealous of you, Fleur" (40; ch.2). It is ironic that he is Fleur's boyfriend and lover but he does not help or encourage her as a writer. Unlike him, Solly Mendelsohn, a journalist, helps her to publish her first novel and lends her books from his library. Jealousy appears between writers and publishers in this novel. It is the main reason for the conflict between Sir Quentin and Fleur and for his 2024/2025 stealing her first novel. It is 2024/2025 2024/2025 also the reason for Dottie's severe criticism that Fleur's Warrender Chase is "a thoroughly sick novel" (76; ch.6). Dottie is also motivated by her dislike of Fleur because she is her husband's sweetheart. Meanwhile, Dottie reveals that her husband, Leslie, is writing a novel, entitled, Two Ways, which is "very good, very deep….But it's a very frank novel" (74; ch.7). Fleur discusses this idea, saying: "complete frankness is not a quality that favours art" (74; ch.6) and suggests that Leslie's prose is known for "its frightful tautology. He never reached the point until it was undetectably lost in a web of multisyllabic words and images trowelled on like cement" (76; ch.6). This is a piece of the long literary and critical discussion running on in the text. Leslie's affair with Fleur seems to be built on sexual practice because he is not faithful or helpful to her. Moreover, he has a homosexual affair with a poet called, Gray Mauser, which Dottie describes to be the "love that dares not speak its name" (41; ch.2). This sort of sexual affair is termed, "the male-male-female love triangle" (Wanitzek, 2012, p.15). This triangle is also represented in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which "subverts the traditional form of the male-male-female love triangle… by making Miss Brodie, the woman, the dominant actor" (Wanitzek, 2012, p.15). It is ironic that Leslie deserts both women, Dottie and Fleur, for the sake of the young poet. His wife, Dottie, gets outrageous for being "abandoned in favour of the little rat…If he was at least an attractive boy, or bright, intelligent….But he's so pathetic"  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (74; ch.6). On the other side, Fleur shows her carelessness about the matter and advises Dottie to join Sir Quentin's Association, where she could give vent to her feelings through writing down her memoirs – "You might find it a relief" (41; ch.2). Fleur is not disturbed by Leslie's desertion; she has another boyfriend, Solly, who helps her to develop her literary talent and publish her novels. She compares Solly to Cellini, calling them: "big sane men" (77; ch.6), because she benefits a lot from them. When Solly hears Dottie's remark that Warrender Chase is a sick novel, he tells Fleur that Dottie is not a reliable critic but a "sort of the general reader….Fuck the general reader…because in fact the general reader doesn't exist" (56; ch.4). Nevertheless, he sends this novel to some respectable writers to revise it before publication. He also ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ introduces Fleur to some well-known writers and artists who have enjoyed "more respect, in that very hierarchical literary world, than did my unpublished friends whom I used to meet at poetry readings at the Ethical Church Hall" (63; ch.5). She recognizes such great writers as "Dylan Thomas, Roy Campbell, or it could have been Louis MacNeice" (73; ch.5). This is an important stage in her development as a novelist because she could recognize great writers and publish her first novel. Fleur's development as a novelist passes through some blocks and hardships, especially after she joins Sir Quentin's Association, which she considers a good experience for her writing. Before she joins it, Warrender Chase has been "in reality already formed, and by no means influenced by the affairs of the Autobiographical Association" (43; ch.3). In the course of events in the novel and in reality she discovers that Sir Quentin is "revealing himself chapter by chapter to be a type and consummation of Warrander Chase, my2024/2025 2024/2025 character" (44; ch.3). In a sense, what she 2024/2025 imagines and dramatizes in her novel is real in Sir Quentin. However, she learns the fact that "how much easier it is with characters in a novel than in real life. In a novel the author invents characters and arranges them in convenient order. Now that I come to write biographically I have to tell of whatever actually happened and whoever naturally turns up" (43; ch.3). Also, she learns the critical view that "action is not merely fisticuffs, meaning of course that the dialogue and the sense are action, too" (43; ch.3). The narrator makes an interplay of art and life in this novel, an interplay of the action and characterization of Warrender Chase and those of the Autobiographical Association. Like Sir Quentin, Warrender Chase is a great man. He is an ambassador- poet and a moralist. He has an old and rich mother, Prudence; a nephew, Roland, whose wife is called Marjorie. At the end of chapter one, Warrender dies in a car accident. Against the wishes of the family, his mother confides his letters and other documents to an American scholar, Proudie, to review and publish them. At the time when the documents unfold many astonishing revelations about Warrender, Fleur finds out similar facts about Sir Quentin. Fleur realizes that Sir Quentin blackmails the members of his Association who frankly confide their secrets in the memoirs. Both Warrender and Sir Quentin have great influence on their sect. As a result, Fleur uses a sinister method to represent these similar aspects of both characters so as not to  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] face troubles – "I think that ordinary readers would be astonished to know what troubles fell on my head because of the sinister side, and that is part of this story of mine" (46; ch.3). Sir Quentin steals her novel, Warrender Chase, for fear of exposing his suspicious actions which Fleur claims she "would be able to explain when I had written a few more chapters of my novel Warrender Chase….It's the only way I can come to a conclusion about what's going on at Sir Quentin's. I have to work it out through my own creativity" (48; ch.3). In a sense, she uses the method of interplaying fiction and reality in her narrative to expose bad characters. In Peter Brown's view (2006), Spark prefers this method to what is termed, 'socially-conscious art': "Instead of the art that affectively portrays suffering and victimization, Spark recommends ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ ironic and satiric art which, she believes, allows for a greater inter-penetration of art and life. She does not claim that satiric and ironic art directly affects our conduct; rather, she suggests that it can be more ethically and politically potent than socially- conscious art because it can have a greater and deeper impact on some of the grounds from which we act, namely, our perceptions, interpretations, and understandings of reality" (pp.228,229). A critical discussion of Warrender Chase is running on between Fleur and Dottie, who suggests that the scene of the quiet country funeral of such a great man, Warrender, is "far too cold….You haven't brought home the tragedy of Warrender's death" (52; ch.3). Fleur thinks that Dottie's comment is "a rather good sign" (52; ch.3). What proves Dottie is right is the fact that the scene does greatly affect Marjorie, one of Warrender's most adoring sect. Fleur expresses this meaning using the word, beautifully – "It's affected her2024/2025 2024/2025 beautifully" (52; ch.3). After 2024/2025 discussing this word in this context, Fleur changes it into 'very well', confessing that she has been influenced by her reading of Henry James –"I had probably been reading too much Henry James at that time, and 'beautifully' was much too much" (53; ch.3). This is a reference to the influence of great writers as well as classical masters on her work. The discussion then moves to the analysis of her characterization: It was at this point Dottie said, 'I don't know what you're getting at. Is Warrender Chase a hero or is he not? 'He is,' I said. 'Then Marjorie is evil.' 'How can you say that? Marjorie is fiction, she doesn't exist.' 'Marjorie is a personification of evil.'  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 'What is a personification?' I said. 'Marjorie is only words.' 'Readers like to know where they stand,' Dottie `said. 'And in this novel they don't. Marjorie seems to be dancing on warrender's grave.' Dottie was no fool. I knew I wasn't helping the reader to know whose side they were supposed to be on. I simply felt compelled to go on with my story without indicating what the ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ reader should think. At the same time Dottie had given me the idea for that scene, towards the end of the book, where Marjorie dances on Warrender's grave (53; ch.3). The dialogue shows that the narrator considers Warrender a hero in spite of the evil side in his character. Dottie therefore asks her if Marjorie is an evil character. The narrator does not answer in the affirmative or in the negative. Instead, she says that Marjorie is not real; she is fiction. Dottie suggests that she is a personification of evil in the novel. The narrator does not agree with the use of the word, 'personification'. Dottie accuses the narrator of not indicating if a character is good or evil. Dottie shows that Marjorie dances on Warrender's grave at the end of the novel, though she is one of his adoring sect. The narrator2024/2025 2024/2025 admits that she is more concerned 2024/2025with the narration than with telling the reader if a character is good or evil. On the other hand, the scene where Marjorie dances on Warrender's grave shows that she is a victim of Warrender's, especially after his documents and letters prove that he is a hypocrite. She dances on his grave, rejoicing at his death. Like her, Maisie Young, a member of the Association, is a victim of Sir Quentin's. The narrator illustrates that Maisie "reminded me…of my character Marjorie in Warrender Chase" (67; ch.5). Also, Mrs. Tims, Sir Quentin' housekeeper, resembles Charlotte, Warrender's housekeeper; both are in love with their masters. The narrator confesses that Charlotte is "later considered to be one of my more shocking portrayals….my sets of words should convey ideas of truth and wonder" (59; ch.4). To tell truth, the narrator deals with the theme and characters with "a light and heartless hand, as is my way when I have to give a perfectly serious account of things" (59; ch.4). The truth is that Warrender is "a sado-puritan who for a kind of hobby had gathered together a group of people specially selected for their weakness and folly, and in whom he carefully planted and nourished a sense of terrible and unreal guilt" (60; ch.4). This is an example of her serious account of things, which she uses to reveal truth. In his private prayer- meetings, Warrender cultivates such a lofty myth of himself that nobody would pry into his life lest one should appear vulgar. He is known to be a pillar of the High Church of England. He makes speeches at universities and writes letters to The Times. The narrator's account of events is so credible that readers find it convincing. For  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] example, she invents for Warrender a distinguished war record in Burma, though she knows so little about this war – "one real war veteran of Burma wrote to say how realistic he found it – but since then I've come to learn for myself how little one needs, in the out of writing, to convey the lot, and how a lot of words, on the other hand, can convey so little" (60; ch.4). The narrator here refers to the style of economy of words she uses in this novel. The economy of words is one of the distinctive qualities of Spark's style: "Each of her elegant…slender novels shows a wit that travels along a sliding scale from charming to acerbic to utterly deadly. Each of her books is built with the minimum of materials and with rigorous economy" (Higgins, 2009, p.1). ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Warrender's words and hints are so little but effective. He can move his sect with "his public, formal High Churchism, and his private sectarian style" (61; ch.4). The documents and letters reveal the truth that he is a deep woman-hater and four women among his prayer-set are his greatest victims – "one woman committed suicide, unable to stand the impressions of her own guilt that he made upon her and convinced that she had no friends; two others went mad, and this included his housekeeper, Charlotte, that English Rose, who was enthralled by him. His nephew's wife, Marjorie, was on the point of mental crash when the car crash killed Warrender" (61; ch.4). This may be the other reason for her dancing on his grave. One afternoon Fleur watches Sir Quentin holding such prayer-meetings in his Association. The scene is "most embarrassing" for Fleur, who claims, "I almost feel I invented him" (80; ch.6). The idea of this novel came to her in a restaurant where she was having supper alone while listening-in to the conversation 2024/2025 of some people at the next table 2024/2025 – "One of 2024/2025 them said, 'There we were all gathered in the living room, waiting for him'" (60; ch.4). Fleur opens her Warrender Chase with the same sentence. This shows that her novels "never were exaggerated, merely aspects of realism" (64; ch.5). The fact that some of her characters are conforming to real characters proves the interplay of art and life in the text. Spark often presents diverse women characters: some strong and powerful, some weak and unable to make their choices, and some passive but gradually turn into positive action and "go through metamorphosis, from being dependent on others into living their own lives and freeing themselves from former influences. Such kaleidoscopic change enables them not only to be able to finally make their own decisions but also to overcome many difficult situations threatening their future life" (Rogalinsks, 2015, p.1). Fleur Talbot is a sort of woman who appears to have dreams but no power to attain them. However, when she faces some blocks in her way, she changes her ways of life to overcome them. She is a type of the modern women who "operate in mechanisms of power and rebellion inside closed systems…of surveillance and control" (Duncker, 2002, p.70). In Loitering With Intent Spark dramatizes this view when she portrays women's subjection both to Warrender and Sir Quentin. As in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark here deals with the theme of women's surveillance "conspicuously" to explore "the world of 'underlings' – women,  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] students – and the complex undercurrents of desire and power that nourish their dedication to those in the position of 'leaders' despite the over-diminishing rewards of doing so" (Suh, 2007, p.88). The heroine-narrator, Fleur Talbot, turns from a seemingly powerless woman into a powerful woman-novelist, feeling proud of being "a woman and an artist in the twentieth-century" (129; ch.11). Fleur repeats this phrase in some situations to express her success as a modern woman and a novelist. Roger Kimball (1993) thinks that the phrase conveys a piece of irony but "despite the irony – Fleur is a bit creepy – the declaration has the air of a credo" (4). Fleur declares her development in spite of the obstacles she faces. She is single and poor. She cannot afford for a single room. While she is working as a secretary for Sir Quentin's ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Association, he steals the manuscript and the proofs of publication of her first novel, accusing her of confiding the secrets of the Association in the novel. Her friend, Dottie, helps Sir Quentin steal the copy of the novel from Fleur's flat – "Dottie, who knew very well how my possessions were disposed in my room, had certainly taken my package" (90; ch.7). In fact, Fleur could discover the truth – "What is truth? I could have realized these people with my fun and games with their life stories, while Sir Quentin was destroying them with his needling after frankness" (83; ch.7). She also discovers that he gives the members of the Association "small yellow pills called Dexedrine which he told them would enable them to endure the purifying fasts he inflicted" (83; ch.7). Fleur is one of the women characters who have "a profound need to acknowledge a truth beyond themselves and who strive to come to terms with the essential inadequacy of a human perspective. These characters have a determination to identify what is true and honest in their existence; they have a sense of irony and 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025 sometimes a great sense of joy" (Sproxton, 2005, p.32). Sir Quentin accuses Fleur of having "matrimonial prospects" and "delusions of grandeur", which she strives to attain, whatever means may be. Warrendeur Chase uses the same words in his letters to Charlotte, warning her against Marjorie's delusions of grandeur. Sir Quentin thinks that Fleur does well with his old mother to have "an eventful legacy" from her in order to realize these delusions. Sir Quentin is later revealed to have delusions of grandeur and jealousy from successful writers. Fleur regrets telling him that her novel is about to be published – "I was amazed at my stupidity in making that large prophecy for my Warrender Chase…a novel that's going to be a success – I had placed myself at the man's mercy by saying this" (86; ch.7). Nonetheless, he threatens Revission Doe, the publisher of the novel, to sue for libel if he publishes it. Revission Doe therefore stops the steps of publication, giving Fleur some pretexts –"Fortunately for us we've discovered in time that it bears the fault of most first novels, alas, it is close to real life. Why, look, you know, these characters of yours are lifted clean from that Autobiographical Association you work for….You make them out to be feeble, hypnotized creatures and you make Sir Quentin out to be an evil manipulator and hater of women. He drives one woman to drink and another ----" (97; ch.8). The space should be filled in with the name of Bernice Gilbert, a member of the Association, who commits suicide. The passage shows the publisher's attitude against realistic works of art. However, the publisher  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] does not realize that this is fiction and should be distanced from reality. Fleur realizes that "the traditional paranoia of authors is as nothing compared to the inalienable schizophrenia of publishers" (95; ch.8). Fleur has to challenge these powerful men and restore her stolen novel, especially after Revisson's secretary refuses to return the other manuscript of the novel, saying, "broken up… destroyed" (98; ch.8). The narrator devises a plot to get back her novel as if she would do a plot in a work of art. She determines to restore her 'myth', that is, her creative work, as she explains: "Without a mythology, a novel is nothing. The true novelist, one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story, and the methods are mythological by nature" (100; ch.9). Before putting her plot into practice she reads Cellini's autobiography to learn from "his adventures of art and of Renaissance virility" and to see "how boastful he was about his work" (89; ch.7). From her other readings about the lives of writers she comes to know that they have met many blocks and misfortunes – "I have never known an artist who at some time in his life has not come into conflict with pure evil, realized as it may have been under the form of disease, injustice, fear, oppression or any other ill element that can afflict living creatures" (120; ch.10). As a result, she determines to believe in her abilities and adhere to the belief that "she had an art to practice and a life to live, and a faith abounding" (92; ch.7). She now feels stronger and more powerful than ever, and has a "greater content of mind and health of body than at any time in the past….I am now going on my way rejoicing" (90; ch.7). The characters who can resist the problems in their way of success are moved by a feeling 2024/2025 of "inner strength, mustering 2024/2025 the nerve to 2024/2025 push against the barriers that stand between themselves and their goals" (Rogalinsks, 2015, p.2). Fleur begins carrying out her plan with a search for her manuscript in Sir Quentin's flat when he and the housekeeper are absent for inquest on Gilbert's suicide. She does not find it. She performs a counter-plot by stealing the files and notes he keeps in his cabinet. While reading them she discovers that Sir Quentin has inserted in his notes many passages from her Warrender Chase, which shows his plagiarism. She thinks if she could prove that "he appropriated the spirit of my legend for his own use, I can show how he actually plagiarized my text" (107; ch.10). She can therefore sue him for his plagiarism but he cannot sue her for libel – "And part of my indignation at having been accused of libeling the Autobiographical Association in my Warrender Chase was this, that even if I had invented the characters after, not before, I had gone to work at Sir Quentin's, even if I had been moved to portray those poor people in fictional form, they would not have been recognizable, even to themselves – even in that case, there would have been no question of libel. Such as I am, I'm an artist, not a reporter" (109; ch.10). The narrator discusses two issues of literary criticism; the first is libel. She thinks that a work of art is fiction, and fiction cannot be tested to reality. The second is that the primary function of art is the revelation of human nature and  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] social vices. In addition, she exposes the crime of plagiarism that was in vogue at that time and calls for the protection of authorship rights. In her counter-plot, Fleur includes Dottie, who has helped Sir Quentin steal the novel, and determines "to retrieve my Warrender Chase by stealth" (108; ch.10). She could get the key of Dottie's flat, with the aid of Gray Mauser, who lends it to Fleur for three hours to search for her novel. Mauser, the poet, offers her this assistance, pushed by his refusal of the theft of a work of art. Solly, a journalist, helps her look for the novel till they find it in Dottie's bedroom. She takes it and goes on "my way rejoicing" (120; ch.10). This phrase is repeated five times in the text after each stage ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ of development she passes. She employs the method of interplay of art and life in her style of writing, so she decides to represent this part of her plan in her coming novel, All Souls' Day – "I consciously kept these plans fixed in another part of my brain to transform into the last chapters of All Souls' Day, as I eventually did in my own shadowy way. People often ask me where I get ideas for my novels; I can only say that my life is like that, it turns into some other experience of fiction, recognizable only to myself" (109; ch.10). The portrayal of characters in Warrender Chase proves this interplay: Warrender is very like Sir Quentin; even their destiny is the same, for each is killed in a car accident. Old Lady Edwina resembles old Prudence: both outlive their sons and are inherited by their housekeepers. Dottie sums up the plot of the novel, saying: "Warrender Chase is all about us. You foresaw it all" (141; ch.11). Fleur tries to revise it before publication to correct any defects but she finally decides to leave it as it is, because the defects "weren't the sort of defects that could be removed without removing the entire essence. 2024/2025 2024/2025 It's often like that with a novel or a 2024/2025 story. One sees a fault or a blemish, perhaps in the portrayal of a character, but cosmetic treatment won't serve; change the setting of a scene and the balance of the whole work is adversely affected" (125; ch.11). The narrator here discusses the issue of revising and reviewing a work of art, which is a feature of the self-begetting novel. In the last chapter, the author returns to the first page of this novel where she presents the setting of the story that takes place in a day in the middle of the twentieth century in Kensington. It is the day when Fleur leaves her job as a secretary and begins to recount the events of this stage in this novel. The time after she leaves the job is hard but promising because she "couldn't afford to take a larger room, I could hardly afford to pay the rent for my small room….I was also well ahead with my second novel: All Souls' Day, and had already planned my third, The English Rose. Warrender Chase was still unpublished" (143; ch.12). On the first of July 1950, Fleur got a letter from Triad press, telling her that it would publish the novel, since the "theme of Warrender Chase was indeed valid. Such events as I'd portrayed, even in a different way from the reality, could happen" (148; ch.12). The publisher thinks that the story is realistic and has "a universal theme" (153; ch.12). After Fleur signs the contract, she says, "Now began my new life" (150; ch.12). Many reviews of the novel are written and Fleur's photograph appears on the Evening Standard. Dottie, on the phone, accuses Fleur of plotting it all, which she replies: "I had been loitering with  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] intent" (156; ch.12). This explains Fleur's claim that she plans everything in her life as if she would write a plot in a novel. She now becomes rich and well-known. She leaves to Paris to live there. She finishes the novel with the sentence: "I go on my way rejoicing" (158; ch.12) to assure her success and development as a novelist. Conclusion: To conclude, Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent is a self-begetting novel. It ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ includes many elements of this genre: the use of the omniscient, first-person narrator, the presentation of a cast of artist-figures, self-reflexivity, raising profound questions about art and life, literary and critical discussions on the making of the novel and the artifice of fiction, allusions and parody of other works of art, and the idea of the immortality of literature over time. This idea is linked to that of death which is a necessary condition of rebirth and reproduction of an identity or a self in a novel. Fleur Talbot, the central protagonist of Loitering With Intent begins her literary production in the graveyard in Kensington where she is pushed by the idea of death and immortality to reproduce her first novel. The central protagonist is a novelist and the central action is the making of a novel. The focus of the action is on the development of the novelist-character till she is able to produce her work. The novel also projects the illusion of art creating itself. It begins again where it ends, so the first and last chapters present the same scene of the graveyard. 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025 Many critics regard Spark as a postmodernist and place her among the early postmodernist innovators. For example, she takes the convention of the omniscient author familiar in classic nineteenth-century novels and applies it in a new, speeded- up style to a complex plot involving blackmail, multiple deaths and explorations of secret scandals. This may be a parodic update of the Victorian Sensation novel. Moreover, she adds the method of interplay of art and life to the elements of the self- begetting novel. Loitering With Intent seems to be an autobiography of her author and her heroine, who is very like her creator. Reality and experience are the principal sources of their inspiration. Like her creator, Fleur Talbot experiences the realistic technique of writing and changes into a modernist one after she reads the memoirs of the members of Sir Quentin's Association. Fleur admits that the story of her life is constituted of the secrets of her career and her craft, thus referring to the making of the novel and the artifice of her fiction. One of the secrets of her craft is the method whereby she makes a paradox in a character in order to ring true. This method is based on satiric and ironic art that allows inter-penetration of reality and fiction, instead of the 'socially-conscious art' that portrays suffering and victimization. She uses a sinister method to reveal the scandals and pretences of those imposing control and surveillance over the helpless underlings. Her prose style requires a lot of poetic concentration, which brings her close to her creator, Spark, who describes her novels to be the novels of a poet. Also, like Spark, Fleur learns the economy of words, that is,  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] a few words can convey the lot. Among her critical ideas Fleur thinks that complete frankness is not a quality that favors art and action includes the dialogue and the sense. She believes that it is easier to deal with characters in a novel than in real life. She discusses such critical issues as libel and plagiarism. In the end, a novelist is beget. ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Works cited Anastas, B. (2002). Rejoice, stupid : The novels of Muriel Spark. Bookforum, 9.3, Fall 2002 : 26-27. Retrieved from www.bookforum.com/archive/fall-02/anastas.html Brown, P. R. (2006). There's something about Mary: Narrative and ethics in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Journal of Narrative Theory, Eastern Michigan University, volume 36, no.2, 2006: 228 – 253. DOI : 10. 1353/ jnt.2007.0002 ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Burns, L. (2009). Literature and Therapy : A systemic view. London : Karnac Books. Cheyette, B. (2002, September 2). Double dealer in her prime. The Independent. www.independent.co.uk/ arts-entertainment/ books/ reviews/ Duncker, P. (2002). The suggestive spectacle : Queer passions in Bronte's Villette and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In Theorizing Muriel Spark: Gender, race, deconstruction. Ed. Martin McQuillan. New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2024/2025 2024/2025 2024/2025 pp. 67- 77. Gardiner, M. (2006). From Trocchi to Trainspotting : Scottish critical theory since 1960. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press. Glendinning, V. (1979, May 20). Talk with Muriel Spark. The New York Times Book Review, 48. Available at www.nytimes.com/ books/79/05/48/reviews/spark/ Gilham, I. (1970, September 24). Keeping it short – Muriel Spark talks about her books. Listener, 411- 413. Harrison, B. G. (1981, May 31). To be an artist and a woman. The New York Times Book Review, 11. Avillable at www.nytimes.com/ books/97/05/11/reviews/ spark- loitering.html  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Herman, D. (2008). A salutary scar : Muriel Spark's desegregated art in the twenty- first century. Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 473 – 486. -------- (2010). Muriel Spark: Twenty-first-century perspectives. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University press. Higgins, C. (2009, January 19). The best of Muriel Spark. The Guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/ books/2009/jan/19/1000novels-comedy-muriel- spark-higgins ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Karambelas, D. (2014, October 5). Impressionable readers : Narrative control in Muriel Spark's work. Academia Scottish Literature 1A, University of Edinburgh. Kellman, S. G. (1980). The self-begetting novel. New York : Columbia University press. Kermode, F. (1965, October). The novel as Jerusalem : Muriel Spark's Mandelbaum 2024/2025 Gate. Atlantic, 216, pp. 92 – 98.2024/2025 2024/2025 Kimball, R. (1993, April). The first half of Muriel Spark. The New Criterion. Retrieved from www.newcriterion.com/ articles.cfm/the-first-half-of-4732. Langford, M. (1990). Contours of the fantastic : Selected essays from the Eighth International conference on the fantastic in the arts. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Lodge, D. (1985, October 20). Marvels and nasty surprises. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/ 1985/10/20/books/marvels-and-nasty-surprises.html? --------- (2010, June 5). Rereading: Memento Mori by Muriel Spark. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/ books/2010/jun/05/memento -mori-muriel-spark  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Maley, W. & Gardiner, M. (2010). The Edinburgh companion to Muriel Spark. Edinburgh University press. Massie, A. (1979). Muriel Spark. Edinburgh : Ramsay Head. Mount, F. (2009, August 15). The go-away bird. The Spectator. ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ NY Times Book Review (1981), 70. Page, N. (1990). Muriel Spark. London : Macmillan. Parrinder, P. (1983, Summer). Muriel Spark and her critics. Critical Quarterly 25: 23- 31. Riach, A. (2005). Representing Scotland in literature, popular culture, and 2024/2025 Iconography : The masks of the modern nation. Basingstoke:2024/2025 2024/2025 palgrave. Rogalinsks, M. (2015, July 8). Inner strength of female characters in Loitering With Intent and The Public Image by Muriel Spark. Available online at www.roglinski.com.p l/ inner-strength-of-female-characters-in-loitering- Sage, L. (1976, May 30). The prime of Muriel Spark. Observer, 11. Sawada, C. (2004). Muriel Spark's postmodernism. New York: University of Glasgow press. Sehgal, P. (2014, April 8). What Muriel Spark saw. The New Yorker. Available at www.newyorker.com/ books/ page-turner/what-muriel-spark-saw. Smith, A. (2009, July 18). The typing ghost. The Guardian, 1-4.  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Spark, M. (1971). The desegregation of art. In Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY : Spiral press, pp. 21-27. --------- (1982). Loitering With Intent. London: Triad/Granada. --------- (1992). Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Sproxton, J. (1992, September). The women of Muriel Spark: Narrative and faith. New Blackfriars, vol. 73, issue 863, pp. 432-440. Retrieved at July 2005 from Doi/ 10.1111/ j-1741-2005. 1992. tb 07262.x ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ Suh, J. (2007 Winter). The familiar attractions of fascism in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Journal of Modern Literature, Indiana University press, vol. 30, no.2, pp. 86-102. Taylor, A. (2004, February 22). The Gospel according to Spark. Sunday Herald. Online posting, newsquest (Sunday herald) ltd. 27 February, 2007. Torrance, K. (2006, May 1). Dame Muriel 2024/2025 Spark, 1918-2006: The novelist 2024/2025 of identity. 2024/2025 The Weekly Standard, vol. 11, no. 31. Wanitzek, L. (2012). Eros in the classroom: Mentor figures, friendship and desire in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The History Boys. Gender Forum, issue 39. Retrieved from www.genderforum.org/ issues/buddies-that-matter/eros- in-the-classroom/ Waugh, P. (1984). Metafiction. London : Methuen. Wheeler, K. (1997). A critical guide to twentieth-century women novelists. Oxford: Blackwell. Wood, J. (2004, November). The prime of Ms. Muriel Spark. The Atlantic. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/2004/11/the-prime/303567/  [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract The paper aims at exploring if Spark's Loitering With Intent is a self-begetting novel. It also aims at analyzing her method of interplaying art and life used to realize a form of fictional autobiography. The problem with Spark's critics is that they generalize their judgments on her work. They do not determine specific literary genres to her novels. A literary and critical analysis of the text is offered. Also, a definition of the self-begetting novel is given. The features and criteria of the self- begetting novel as a genre of the postmodernist theory are taken into account on ‫ﻧﻴﺮﻩ ﻋﺰﺕ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺒﺪ ﺍﻟﺤﻰ ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻔﻰ‬ reading and analyzing the text. This novel is selected for the study because the features of the self-begetting novel are more apparent in its text. The novel also represents a middle stage in Spark's development as a novelist. In Michele Langford's view (1990), It is "a central novel in the study of Spark's work. What is happening in the evolution of Muriel Spark is that all the patterns, that is, suggestive names, sexual deviates, mastering servants, litanies, writer and artist characters, emerge in this work….The patterns speak to the issue of technique, of how Spark does what she does" (p.156). To conclude, Muriel Spark's Loitering With Intent is a self-begetting novel. It includes many elements of this genre: the use of the omniscient, first-person narrator, the presentation of a cast of artist-figures, self-reflexivity, raising profound questions about art and life, literary and critical discussions on the making of the novel and the artifice of fiction, allusions and parody of other works of art, and the idea of the immortality of literature over 2024/2025 time. This idea is linked to2024/2025 2024/2025 that of death which is a necessary condition of rebirth and reproduction of an identity or a self in a novel. Fleur Talbot, the central protagonist of Loitering With Intent begins her literary production in the graveyard in Kensington where she is pushed by the idea of death and immortality to reproduce her first novel. The central protagonist is a novelist and its central action is the making of a novel. The focus of the action is on the development of the novelist-character till she is able to produce her work. The novel also projects the illusion of art creating itself. It begins again where it ends, so the first and last chapters present the same scene of the graveyard.  ‫‪[email protected]‬‬ ‫‪[email protected]‬‬ ‫‪[email protected]‬‬ ‫ملخص البحث‬ ‫يهد ف البحث إلي معرفة أي المد ا ر س األدبية تنتمي إليها روايات ميوريل سبا ر ك (‪ )2006 -1918‬التي‬ ‫عاشت في الفترة التي أطلق عليها الحداثة و ما بعد الحداثة ‪ ،‬و المشكلة مع نقاد سبا ر ك أنهم يقولون بأنها ال‬ ‫تنتمي إلي مدرسة أد بيه معينه و يعطون أحكا ما عامه على رواياتها‪ ،‬فمنهم من يقول أنها تدخل في حركة الحداثة‬ ‫وآخرون يطلقون علي سبا ر ك روائية ما بعد الحداثة ‪ ،‬و فريق ثالث يعتقد أ نها توازن بين نظرية الرو