Subverting Literary Tradition: An Absurd Reading of The Driver's Seat (1970)

This article interrogates how the intellectual and political milieu of the
1960s informs Muriel Spark’s construction of a society and character that
subverts traditionally gendered roles through hierarchy, performance,
and death in The Driver’s Seat. It analyses the narrative’s deployment
of absurdist techniques – including écriture blanche narration, pointed
historicisation, satire, a monde à l’envers (‘the reverse side of the world’)
structure, and carnivalesque performance to reimagine the hysterical
woman. Ultimately, the essay repositions Spark’s novel within the
conventionally male-dominated domain of absurdist literature, situat-
ing it as a pioneering work in dialogue with her second-wave feminist
contemporaries.