Heterotopias of Secrecy: Economies of Information in the Novels of Iris Murdoch

Abstract

In Iris Murdoch’s 1960s novels, many of which focus on the lives and times of the post-war European bourgeoisie, money is precociously supplanted by a post-capitalist system of exchange: information. This economy of information in Murdoch’s writings anticipates Michel Foucault’s concept of the ‘heterotopia’ in social environments that are circumscribed and transformed by the existence of secrets. In these heterotopias of secrecy, information is a currency that is freely traded to influence or dictate actions, secure preference or privilege, and informational settlements are often made through blackmail, exposure, or even violence. This presentation will consider the formulation and dissemination of secrets in A Severed Head (1961), An Unofficial Rose (1962), and The Italian Girl (1964). The potency of secrets to create spaces within spaces, the parameters that govern their exchange value, and the manner in which they underpin movements of power and capital in each text will be explored. The many modes of received communication—primarily letters, phone calls, rumours, and reported speech, which impart secrets—will also be examined. Finally, in analysing heterotopias of secrecy in Murdoch’s novels, I plan to consolidate two Foucauldian concepts that have received limited critical attention to date: heterotopias of illusion and heterotopias of compensation.