Blind Medusa: The Portrayal of Liza Pursewarden in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet

Abstract

In Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the major female characters, Justine and Clea, each have their own eponymous books. However, minor female characters in the novels have notably received more limited scholarly attention. This article will consider one of these marginal female characters, Liza Pursewarden, who appears in both the novels Mountolive and Clea. I will argue that the portrayal of Liza, by David Mountolive, her brother Ludwig Pursewarden and the character L. G. Darley, moulds her into a Gothicised fetish object onto which they project their fear of castration and lack.