In The Girl I Left Behind Me, author Muriel Spark explores the love and hate relationship between the African-American protagonist, Alice, and her family. She narrates the tale in an alternating voice, revealing the many layers of her character. From the tense, passionate relationship between her parents to the unrequited love she felt for her boyfriend, there is a lot of emotion to this work.
Love-hate relationship with Africa
The relationship between South Africa and Africa is a strange one. It’s love-hate.
But the African experience can enrich the writing of some writers. Joan Spark, a British author born in Africa, wrote a book about her experiences. She was also inspired by her encounter with Victoria Falls. In her writing, she used black and white language to portray Africa’s exotic beauty.
Spark’s African writings are charged with hate and love. In her novel “The Seraph and the Zambesi”, she depicts the beauty of the Zambesi River. And in her radio play “The Dry River Bed”, she presents a satire on the settling life of Europeans in the region.
While Spark’s African writings are often dark and violent, she was aware of the hegemonic discourse surrounding colonialism. For example, she consciously decried the racist terms used by colonial characters.
Despite her strong connection to the continent, she was also repelled by corruption and brutality. She feared that the region would remain doomed without intervention.
Many of Spark’s early poems contain an African theme. But her short stories also feature sprinklings of racist epithets.
While she writes about her love-hate relationship with the continent, she is also sympathetic to the missionaries who brought the continent to life. Her first major work was “The Seraph and the Zambesi”.
She also wrote a radio play about a settler’s life in Africa. Ultimately, she argues that the black people of the world have a common destiny.
When she was a child, Spark lived in Africa. She later moved to the UK to study. Eventually, she published several poems and books about her African life. However, she was never fully satisfied with her experiences in Africa.
Even though she was an emigrant from Africa, she grew up in Scotland. She spent many years with her family in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. During her childhood, she wrote stories about Africa.
Her African writings use black and white language and are a reminder of how a continent can be both a source of beauty and power, and a place of corruption and meaninglessness.
Short-story work
Muriel Spark’s short stories are a fascinating collection of psychologically intriguing tales. The stories are often set in Europe and African colonial settings. Often, the characters have their own unique traits, and the stories require the reader to determine which ones are good and which ones are bad.
The stories are frequently about childhood. They illustrate the individual struggles of children and the harsh realities of adults. In “The Go-Away Bird,” the protagonist Daphne tries to find a safe place in the world. She is caught between two cultures.
Another story, “The Twins,” tells the story of a seemingly polite child who exercises insidious control over adults. In “The Snobs,” the narrator, an English nurse, is constantly unsure of what she wants.
Many of Spark’s stories focus on the horrors of childhood. Her own experiences as a child in Rhodesia affected her artistic vision.
In some of her novels, Dame Muriel’s supernatural effects are macabre and satisfyingly funny. But in her short stories, she shows that humans are capable of evil, and that even the most civilized people can have a secret.
Aside from short fiction, Muriel Spark wrote a series of children’s books and several biographies of literary figures. Her writings were widely celebrated, earning her many awards. For instance, she won the David Cohen Prize for Literature and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Although she was an accomplished poet, Spark also made use of her literary skills as a novelist. Spark’s best known novel, Open to the Public, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
During the 1960s, she had two short story collections published, Ladies and Gentlemen and The End of Summer Time. Both of them were later revised and republished in different editions.
She later became editor of Poetry Review. Her work was also translated into several languages, including French. She rewrote her early stories, retyped them, and sold them.
Throughout her career, Muriel Spark was one of the most prolific writers in the world. Her works are now considered among the strongest in the genre.
