Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book traces the genesis of the intellectual relationship between Iris Murdoch and Elias Canetti, before conducting a comparison of Murdoch's novel The Flight from the Enchanter, Canetti's Die Blendung and aspects of Das Augenspiel, in terms of their respective employment of vision and blindness as metaphors for morality and its antithesis. It assesses their intellectual relationship in the period between The Flight from the Enchanter and The Time of the Angels. The book draws on letters which Murdoch wrote to Canetti during this period, as well as on her reading of Masse und Macht. It concentrates on Masse und Macht and The Sea, the Sea in order to compare the depictions by Murdoch and Canetti of the powerful, paranoid, possessive man.