ABSTRACT
In the British novel a voice occurs which predates what will, in literary historical terms, become an established subform within the genre. In the case of Muriel Spark, this forerunner aspect can be mistaken for a clever continuation of the past or a marvelous phenomenon in the present in which the new genre appears. Spark has been helpful to her readers in presenting a novel, Loitering With Intent, which is almost a handbook of the devices, theory, and points of view that govern her career. Spark’s task in Loitering With Intent is to present an argument about the nature of the artist’s autobiography, relating it to the created works of art that are part of that autobiography. Spark’s point about autobiography is so strong that, with the exception of Fleur Talbot’s own novel, Warrender Chase, all the other literature–real or fictional–eferred to in this novel is autobiographical.
