The Allure of Imagination and Identity Formation in Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Abstract

In the context of Marcia Blaine School for girls, the paper addresses the influence and authority of the teacher figure represented by Miss Brodie, who shapes reality through storytelling and she understands it through the lenses she conveys to her students during their time together inside and outside the classroom. It moreover aims to show how perceiving reality from different perspectives offers more possibilities for some: Sandy is a clear representative in deriving knowledge from observation, referred to as “insight” in the novella. Perception coming from the senses triggers an imaginative drive to conceptualize the world and people in it for both Miss Brodie, through storytelling, and Sandy, through daydreaming. In Spark’s fiction, words and stories work their way to become reality for the characters who contrive them.