Portrait, mirror, ghost: the motif of the artist in Anthony Burgess’s Enderby novels

Abstract

This dissertation examines the motif of the artist in Anthony Burgess’ Enderby novels: Inside Mr Enderby (1963), Enderby Outside (1968), The Clockwork Testament or Enderby’s end (1974) and Enderby’s Dark Lady (1984). It analyses the character of Enderby the poet through three metaphors: the portrait, the mirror and the ghost. I argue that whilst Burgess inevitably echoes James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), he also distances from the late Romantic motif of the artist: he depicts a grotesque poet who defamiliaries and estranges its previous narrative assumptions. Lastly, I demonstrate how a postmodern reading of a pastiche is not enough to represent Enderby. Enderby is thus a parody of the sublime artist: a convergence of historical and literary tradition, and a versatile artist-author-writer whose fictionalised aftermath needs yet to be explored.