Traumatic Repetition and Writing as Awakening in Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince

Murdoch's novel, The Black Prince, is not, as most critics have suggested, an autobiographical novel. It is about the inner life or rather trauma of Bradley Pearson, an artist who repeatedly dreams about a shabby paper shop which used to be run by his "unsuccessful" parents. In this respect, Freudian concept of trauma is helpful since it can explain Bradley's present repetition of his past traumatic experience, while allowing us to understand the nature of his trauma which reveals itself not only through his repeated nightmares but also through the women who are represented as diverse versions of his mother, the origin of Bradley's trauma. Caruth's concept of traumatic awakening and traumatic survival is also instrumental in understanding the nature of the traumatic experience which Bradley undergoes in this novel. Induced by Loxias's address, Bradley makes a confession of "the sins," which makes possible his traumatic survival as well as traumatic awakening, which is transmitted not only to Loxias but also to us the readers. In this sense, the significance of Bradley's awakening is not confined to his past only, but becomes a matter of a social dimension. The meaning of Bradley's writing lies in this fact.