Iris Murdoch and Harry Weinberger: Imaginations and Images

A talk by Rebecca Moden to mark the publication of her new book.
The novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch and the émigré painter Harry Weinberger engaged in over twenty years of close friendship and intellectual discourse, centred on sustained discussion of the practice, teaching and morality of art. This book presents a reappraisal of Murdoch’s novels - chiefly, three mature novels, The Sea, The Sea (1978), Nuns and Soldiers (1980) and The Good Apprentice (1985), and two enigmatic late novels, The Green Knight (1993) and Jackson’s Dilemma (1995) - which are perceived through the prism of her discourse with Weinberger.
It draws on a run of almost 400 letters from Murdoch to Weinberger, and on Murdoch’s philosophical writings, Weinberger’s private writings, the remarks of both artists in interviews, and other material relating to their views on art and art history, much of which is unpublished and has received no previous critical attention.
Rebecca Moden is a Research Associate at the University of Chichester’s Iris Murdoch Research Centre. She is Co-Editor of the Iris Murdoch Review.