International Journal of English Research

Authors
Soheila Farhani Nejad

Abstract
This study discusses the way Murdoch uses intertextuality in the Unicorn (1963) to draw the reader’s attention to the textual nature of reality by portraying characters who form their self constructed notions of reality through hackneyed literary conventions. It, additionally discusses Murdoch’s self-conscious application of formulaic types such as chivalric romance and fairy tale and the critical function of parody in this novel. Murdoch’s use of intertextuality in the Unicorn, draws the reader’s attention to the textual nature of reality in a double sense: the one created by the author, in the telling of the story, and the other, an effect of the self-deluding characters themselves. Each character’s textualized, delusive version of reality, parodies not only the author’s tendency to impose Gothic, chivalric romance and fairy-tale conventions on the contingency of life, but the reader’s credulity in comprehending life accordingly.