压抑的自我，异化的人生
摘要
个人和集体的关系是多丽斯?莱辛多部小说中的一个重要主题。集体在莱辛的作品中有两层涵义:一是指普遍意义上的社会,二是指人类这个大集体。通常情况下个人和集体矛盾重重,但在莱辛看来,个人和集体之间应该具有某个支撑点。在这个支撑点上,个人既可以自愿服从集体的要求又可坚持自身的判断力。这种理想的个人和集体之间的关系不易实现,在莱辛所有作品中只有两部作品《四门城》和《一个幸存者的回忆录》中的两个女主人公实现了这种关系。要实现这种体现了伊斯兰原教旨主义影响的理想关系,代表个人的女主人公一般要经历内外追寻的痛苦历程。不仅如此,女主人公还必须具备集男性理智和女性情感于一身的双性同体性格特征。莱辛的很多作品都致力于描述个人和集体的矛盾冲突。二者之间的冲突主要有两种形式:第一是自我——这一构成个人身份的核心组成,和以大我与他者为主要形式的等级制社会之间的矛盾冲突;第二是自我,和以大我与他者为标志的集体身份之间的矛盾。这两种冲突给个人带来的灾难性后果在莱辛非洲小说里得到了充分展示。这些小说以英帝国非洲殖民地为地理背景和社会空间。在这个以殖民主义和男权制为主要统治力量的特殊社会空间里,等级森严,人们习惯于按照种族、民族、性别、政治信仰等种类来划分人群和各种事物。他们屈服于意识形态方面关于大我和他者的严格划分所形成的各种社会力量和内化了的各种集体身份,压抑内心情感和主体性等。结果人们更多的是以各种各样的大我或他者的身份,而不是以自我的身份出现。他们是无奈的自我放逐者。
自我在论文中包括身体自我(物质自我)、反思的自我(主体性)和关系自我中与道德本体论相联系的部分。由于主体性的协调功能,三部分构成了相对稳定的自我。大我或他者指人的集体身份,包括关系自我中用以解释个人和种族、民族、性别、政治信仰、年龄等产生关系的部分。大我和他者同时也指等级制社会中不同二元对立项中的两大对立社群。身体自我、主体性和关系自我的相互支持和互动和积极共存,构成了完整健康的个人身份和理想的个人和集体关系。但在现实中,由于社会和内化了的集体身份的强大压力,以主体性为核心的自我不得不有意识或无意识地屈服于体现意识形态等级制暴力的社会和个人的集体身份。自我的消极被动和无效抗争难免使得个人落入困惑、分裂和异化中。以自我、大我和他者的概念和关系作为贯穿全文的线索,论文探讨了莱辛的非洲小说——《野草在歌唱》、《非洲短篇故事集》、《金色笔记》部分内容、五部曲《暴力的儿女们》中的前四部:《玛莎?奎斯特》、《一场合适的婚姻》、《风暴余波》和《死胡同》中由于个人的集体身份——大我或他者或二者兼有的复杂身份和社会对自我的压制和破坏,主体性遭到扭曲,个人不可避免地落入了深深的异化之中。困惑、沮丧、失落、精神分裂和无根性如幽灵一般牢牢囚禁着人们心灵。
包括序言和结论在内论文共有七章。主干部分共有五章:第一章主要构建关于自我、大我和他者的理论框架。第二章到第四章为主题研究,主要探讨了生活在等级森严的社会中个人无以逃避的异化。第五章讨论阐释主题的叙事手法。
序言部分主要介绍了莱辛和她的非洲作品以及相关评论,为论文主干部分提供了必要的背景知识,并阐释了研究莱辛非洲作品的重要意义和论文的主题。
第一章锁定自我、大我、他者以及相关概念和它们之间的关系。由于各种“主义”的频繁使用造成了这些术语指涉不一,本章试图在追根溯源和区别他人用法的基础上给出定义。从论文主题和这些术语的关系出发,论文首先探讨了“自我身份”。“自我身份”在论文中包括自我、在不同环境下的大我或他者或者二者的互动,亦即实现主体性和集体身份、内心世界和外部世界相结合的身体自我、反思的自我和关系自我三方面。三者之间的积极共存和互为支持可形成完整健康的“自我身份”,反之,个人要么变成空洞的自大狂要么沦落为社会的应声虫。但体现等级制暴力本质的大我和他者却为关系自我涂上了浓浓的政治色彩,因此个人的集体身份根本无法和自我真正和谐相处。凭借有形或无形的力量和暴力支撑,个人的集体身份通常压抑着自我。自我包括主体性(反思的自我)、身体自我和将个人和人类联系起来的关系自我中的宏观方面。不同于人们普遍将自我等同于“自我身份”,该定义强调自我和“自我身份”是两个不同的概念,其中自我指构成个人的核心部分,而“自我身份”则指构成个人的全部总和。自我的核心部分是主体性,它和其它两部分密切相关。以创造性、独立性和自主性为特征的主体性构成了区别于他人的个人本质,而大我或他者却是具有共同特点的一类人和这类人的共同身份。由于他者是论文频繁使用的关键术语,本章的其余部分集中讨论了他者的历史沿革和在当代理论中的运用。他者总是和大我联系在一起,因此接下来的部分追溯了两个术语的历史定义。大我和他者起源于西方哲学史上的自我和他者这一对二元对立项,继承了自我和他者之间的等级制关系:大我完全凌驾于他者之上。“差异和他者”部分揭露了大我和他者之间等级制暴力的本质在于将差异合理化和合法化。为进一步使他者的概念明确化,本文也讨论了拉康关于他者的使用,论文认为拉康心理学意义上的他者概念显然不同于本文所要阐释的意识形态意义上的他者。他者在本文中指外在于或偏离西方正统文化的人或事物。接下来的两部分详细介绍了和论文密切相关的后殖民主义和女性主义中他者的涵义。
第二章讨论了白人殖民者(英国殖民者)将土著民和非洲大地视作他者后的异化人生。由于从某种意义上讲土著民和非洲大地密不可分,本章也将非洲大地视作白/黑冲突的必要组成部分。论文在探讨土著民和白人冲突的部分,分析了以英国人为代表的三类殖民者的异化人生。第一类殖民者视土著民为洪水猛兽、魔鬼的化身。这种将他者魔鬼化的行为,严重扭曲了殖民者自我的发展,以至于他们日夜生活在对他者的恐惧中。典型人物有玛丽和定格模式化的白人妇女奎斯特太太和卡森太太。以玛丽为例,尽管她将摩西视为她生命的最后一丝色彩和乐趣,她还是将自我屈服于种族身份的大我,不敢承受摩西的目光和被摩西点燃的内心情感。第二类殖民者为大多数普通白人,他们在坚持主仆关系的基础上对当地土人颇为友善。但这种表面平静的大我和他者关系,并未让大我一方感到幸福、安全和满足。相反,他们感到不安、恐惧和无家可归。国际上风起云涌的反殖民主义运动和民族主义运动,让他们担心他者终有一天会夺回一切。第三类殖民者为支持社会变革者。在强烈的负罪感驱使下,他们渴望废除种族歧视。然而,强大的社会力量和无法消弭的文化身份,却让他们的努力和崇高的理想付之东流。如果说土著民只是潜在的威胁,那么非洲大地则让白人殖民者的殖民行为屡屡受挫,本章的后半部分即围绕着“殖民地——他者,殖民者——无家可归者”展开。“生态殖民主义”是莱辛非洲小说的一个重要话题,其主要表现形式为殖民者对非洲大地无情掠夺和占有。在莱辛的小说中,非洲大地在殖民者眼中是不折不扣的他者,暗指殖民主义和男权制联合产物下的土著男人和女人。象征着土著男人的非洲丛林时刻威胁着被迫和房屋认同的白人女性,将她们囚禁在房内,让她们陷入孤独、恐惧、分裂甚至是精神崩溃。象征着大地母亲或土著女人的非洲土地令男性殖民者迷恋不已,但他们对这片土地的征服和掠夺遭遇了后者的抵制。野性他者的抵制阻碍了作为大我的男性殖民者获得男性身份认同,让那些期望在他者身上实现自我的浪漫农场主梦断南非高原。
第三章讨论了白人社会里个人的异化。由于英国人将白人社会内部少数派社群视为他者,白人社会纷争不断,严重影响了大我和他者双方个人的自我发展。他者在莱辛的非洲小说中除了指土著民、女性和非洲大地外,还有荷兰裔南非人、犹太人、希腊人、印度人和其它少数派社群。这些少数派社群处于英国人和土著民两大阵营之间,属于被边缘化的群体,他们的尴尬处境让他们品味着最深层意义上的无家可归和无能为力。就英国人和荷兰裔南非人而言,由于历史原因造成的民族仇恨、政治因素和民族差异,英国人和荷兰裔南非人矛盾尖锐。在家庭和家庭成员之间敌意取代了友谊。不过,在敌视之外,部分英国人也对荷兰裔南非人赤贫状态和土著民层次的生活感到恐惧和同情,因为在后者身上他们看到了白色神话的虚妄。就英国人和犹太人而言,遍布全球的反犹太浪潮让双方深受其害,例如《暴力的儿女们》五部曲的主人公玛莎。和犹太人的频繁接触使玛莎不得不时常在崇高理想、民族身份和内心情感中做出痛苦的选择。由于无法协调好身体自我、关系自我和主体性之间的关系,玛莎在追寻真理的过程中不可避免地落入了困惑、沮丧中。除荷兰裔南非人和犹太人外,白人社会还有两组重要的他者社群:运动俱乐部和共产主义学习小组。和前面的他者不同,他们自动偏离西方正统文化,自愿被视为他者。作为第二、三代的殖民者,运动俱乐部的成员希望确立一种新的生活方式。这种生活方式强调公开、共享,逃避责任。他们不得不承受父辈和大英帝国留给他们的日趋严重的殖民问题,也不得不遭受既生长在非洲又接受英式教育造成的情感分裂和异化。共产主义学习小组代表了另一种类型的他者。消灭一切形式的不公正和压迫是他们的奋斗目标,也是他们渴望消除异化的方式。然而,小组内部分歧和领导上的教条主义造成了小组压抑的氛围,再加上政府和媒体的破坏和压力,最终导致了小组最后的解散。
第四章分析了妇女在殖民主义和男权制双重压迫之下的悲惨生活。鉴于女性是莱辛小说中永远的话题,本章首先讨论了“莱辛和女性主义”,探讨了莱辛对女性和女性主义的基本态度。莱辛从来没有将女性解放当作个人为之奋斗的最终目标,因此她并非传统意义上的女性主义者。在莱辛看来,虽然妇女解放仅仅是人类解放的一个很小的组成部分,但女性在人类解放这个伟大事业中却扮演着至关重要的作用。尽管不是所有女性可以承担拯救人类的伟大使命,但少数女性的女性潜质可以帮助她们打通非理性和理性之间的隔阂,形成预言能力,从而可以拯救人类。对莱辛来说,女性主义提供了了解人类和宇宙的最佳视角。在莱辛的非洲小说中,女性将自己固着在社会所规定的特定性别角色,遭受着扭曲的自我所造成的异化。女性殖民者(英国女性)既是种族意义上的大我,又是性别意义上的他者,这种复杂的身份使她们成为莱辛所有作品中的一道风景线。在殖民主义和男权制相互勾结的社会里,她们只能是异域永远的流放者。南非高原和非洲丛林的围困,男权制社会道德规范的压制,使农场里的白人女性沦为囚禁在房屋和花园里的囚徒。贫穷的玛丽和卡洛瑟尔太太最终精神崩溃;孤独的格尔太太和巴恩斯太太表面上生活正常,内心却扭曲异化;特立独行的露西?格兰奇和兰西太太则被视为异类。城市里的白人女性则饱尝难以名状的焦虑。普通家庭妇女抱怨生活的无聊乏味;开明妇女如玛莎和凡太太,则为寻求解脱,积极投身于政治活动,却遭受着内心分裂和异化的痛苦。与白人女性相比,土著女人的生活要比白人女性悲惨得多。不管在白人眼中还是在土著男人眼中,她们都是地位卑下的他者。在白人女性眼中,她们是丑陋的怪物或是性欲和生殖力都很强的大地母亲的象征;在白人男子看来,她们不过是可以满足性需求又不需要自己负责任的他者;对土著男人来说,她们则是个人财产,可以像牲口一样自由买卖。
第五章剖析了莱辛在非洲小说中如何运用叙事手法批判和揭露社会和个人的集体身份对自我造成的毁灭性影响。第一部分“主题和叙事手法”指出叙事手法对表现主题具有不可或缺的作用同时探讨了作者运用这些手法的原因。第二部分分析了在《野草在歌唱》中作者如何运用全知全角第三人称叙述展示社会和个人的集体身份与自我的矛盾冲突。第三部分分析了卷首语——女性作家惯常采用以确立权威叙述声音的手法,在《野草在歌唱》和《玛莎?奎斯特》中的运用。第四部分分析了从孩子或青少年的角度来讲述故事的手法,论文认为作者在一些短篇小说中采用该手法,生动地揭示出了孩子们或青少年们在逐渐意识到自我和等级制社会、以及和自己的集体身份的矛盾冲突后,无奈地接受了令人痛苦的异化过程。最后一部分讨论了“矛盾辨证法”如何服务于主题。在斯普拉格看来,“矛盾辨证”不一定指马克思主义关于该词的特定用法,它可以指两个对立项之间由于相互作用和极度对立而产生的矛盾冲突。此外,“矛盾辨证”并不一定意味着对立双方会通过“对立统一”产生出第三股力量。“矛盾辨证法”是莱辛赖以展示主题的重要叙事手法,这点可在下面两个例子中找到佐证。《野草在歌唱》中马斯顿游走于大我和他者的集体身份之间说明大我和他者不可调和的矛盾,莱辛通过再现白人和土著民矛盾,突出了种族冲突是非洲殖民地无法消解的根本矛盾;通过对非洲丛林和非洲土地的象征化处理,改变了白黑对抗的悬殊力量对比,深化了二者之间的相互作用和对抗。
结论部分在总结论文主要内容的基础上,指出了论文的研究意义、局限和前景展望。论文认为通过研究莱辛的非洲小说突出了地域政治在文学作品中的重要作用,为文学作品研究提供了有益的思考。从自我和社会以及自我和内化了的集体身份之间的关系来分析莱辛的非洲小说,诠释了莱辛一直关注的主题——个人和集体之间的关系,揭示了莱辛笔下的各类人群和非洲大地,探讨了很多为评论家忽略的话题,比如:白人内部纷争和异化、土著女人等,拓展了研究范围,丰富了研究方法。但论文同时也省略或忽略了一些次要问题,比如:人物的想象和重复等。此外,论文仅仅涉及了莱辛作品的一小部分。相信假以时日,莱辛作品的独特魅力会大放异彩,呈现于广大读者之前。
The relationship between the individual and the collective resonates most of Doris Lessing’s fiction. The collective in her fiction refers to two things: the first being the society in the common sense and the second humanity. The collective is often at variance with the individual. Still, Lessing believes there should be a resting point between them where the individual can voluntarily submit to the demand of the collective without losing his own personal and private judgments. Such an ideal relationship between the individual and the collective is difficult to realize regarding the fact that only two female protagonists in The Four-Gated City and The Memoirs of a Survivor respectively of all Lessing’s fiction finally arrive at such a stage. Reflecting Sufism, it can only be obtained through female protagonist’s outward quest and inward quest as well as androgynous mastery of masculine rationality and feminine sensitivity. Most of Lessing’s other works dwell on the conflict between the individual and the collective, which invariably makes the self, the essence of individual’s selfhood, in confrontation with society which is characteristic of the classification of the Self and the Other, and with the Self or the Other or both the Self and the Other, the collective identities of the person. With colonial Africa as the special social space, Lessing’s African fiction vividly represents individual people’s alienation as the result of confrontation with his collective identities and the hierarchical society of which colonialism and its twin brother patriarchy constitute the confining force. Having internalized shallow collective identities in terms of race, nation, gender, political beliefs and other things, individual person gets accustomed to seeing people and things in categories that emphasize difference. In doing so, his natural feelings and subjectivity recede gradually to varieties of social forces resulting from strict ideological division of the Self and the Other and he is more the Self or the Other than the self. He is hopeless“self”exile.
The self in this dissertation includes the bodily (material) dimension and reflective dimension (subjectivity) and the aspect of relational dimension that connects with an ontological moral demand. Because of the negotiation of subjectivity, the three dimensions make a relatively stable self. The Self or the Other refers to one’s collective identity, the aspect of relational dimension that accounts for his relationship with race, nation, gender, political belief, age and other matters. By extension, the Self and the Other also refer to oppositional groups of binary opposition in hierarchical society. The mutual support or positive coexistence of three dimensions of selfhood in interaction makes a wholesome individual person and an ideal relationship between the individual and the collective. In reality, however, the self with subjectivity as the core often consciously or unconsciously submits to or fights against society and collective identities that reflect ideological hierarchical violence, which destroy or distort subjectivity of individual person. The passivity and futile rebellion of the self plunge people into inevitable confusion and alienation. With the self and the Self and the Other as the thread, this dissertation explores the inevitable alienation of individual people as a result of the coercive and damaging force the society and his collective identities exert on the self by distorting subjectivity in Doris Lessing’s African fiction that include The Grass Is Singing, African Stories, part of The Golden Notebook and the first four volumes of the Children of Violence sequence, namely, Martha Quest, A Proper Marriage, A Ripple from the Storm, and Landlocked. Suffocating forces of society and collective identities representing ideological violence greatly distort the self and curse people’s life with confusion, loss, frustration, fragmentation and uprootedness.
Altogether there are seven chapters in the dissertation including introduction and conclusion. There are five chapters that constitute the essentials of the dissertation. Chapter One is mainly on the theoretic framework of the Self (self) and the Other. Chapter Two, Three, and Four analyze the inevitable alienation of people dwelling in the hierarchical society. Chapter Five details how the theme is revealed by narrative methods employed in these works.
Introduction makes an overview of Lessing and her African fiction and related criticism, which serves as an indispensable background for the following analysis. More importantly, it points out the importance of exploring Lessing’s African fiction and introduces the theme of the study.
Chapter One focuses on defining the self, the Self and the Other and the relationship among them. As these terms are frequently used in different theories with different meanings, this chapter intends to provide definite definitions for them by tracing their historical development and differentiating them from other people’s usage. Beginning with the significance of these terms in exposing the theme of this study, this chapter introduces“Selfhood”, the first important term in the dissertation to the reader. Man’s selfhood in this dissertation comprises the self and the Self or the Other or the interaction of both in different situations which connects subjectivity and collective identities, internal world and external world considering bodily dimension, reflective dimension and relational dimension. The positive coexistence and mutual support of the three dimensions make a man wholesome, whereas the opposite makes a man either empty and arrogant or submissive. However, the Self and the Other, which represent hierarchical violence of society, turn relational dimension into a political one and therefore will never really have a harmonious relationship with the self. Backed up by perceptible or imperceptible force and violence, one’s collective identities often function as a coercive force on the self.“The self”comprises subjectivity or reflective dimension, bodily dimension and the macro aspect of relational dimension, which connects individual man with humanity and the universe. Different from popular usage of the self which means selfhood, this definition specifies the difference between them, the self making the essence of an individual man and selfhood the whole individual man. With subjectivity as the core of the self, this part accounts for the interconnection of its three component parts. Subjectivity characteristic of creativity, independence and freedom makes the essence of the self and distinguish people, whereas the Self or the Other refers to a category of people with the same attributes and collective identity of certain category of people. As the Other is of vital importance in the study, the following parts dwell on the concept of the Other in history and contemporary theories. As the Other in this dissertation is invariably related with the Self, next part traces the historical demarcation of the two terms. Developing from the self and the other in western philosophy, the Self and the Other inherit hierarchy between the self and the other: they are oppositional polarities of which the Self is absolutely superior to the Other. Part five with the heading of“Difference and the Other”exposes the cold violence of the seeming justification of difference for the binary opposition of the Self and the Other. To further specify the concept of the Other, part six introduces Lacan’s usage of the term and points out that his psychological employment of the Other is different from its ideological connotation in this dissertation, which argues that the Other refers to what is or those who are exterior to or outside of normal values of the western culture. Next two parts elaborate on the concept of the Other in light of Postcolonialism and Feminism which are of great significance for Lessing’s African fiction.
Chapter Two explores the inevitable alienation of white settlers (British settlers) who regard the native and the land as the Other. Since the native and the land are to some extent inseparable in Lessing’s African fiction, this chapter treats the land as an indispensable part of the white and the native conflict. Beginning with introducing the Self and the Other in colonial Africa, this chapter first elaborates on the relationship between the native and the settlers by analyzing three groups of British settlers. The first group demonizes the native and therefore is seized by great or irrational fear for the latter. Mary and stereotyped white women such as Mrs. Quest and Mrs. Carson make the representatives of this category. Surrendering the self to the Self, her racial identity, Mary cannot face Moses’look and her natural emotions despite the fact that Moses remains the last interest in her life. The second group is average white people who treat the native in a friendly manner on the basis of master-slave relationship that reflects the hierarchical nature of the Self and the Other. Such relationship brings to them increasingly haunting fear for the Other’s taking back everything one day with regard to international anti-colonization and nationalist movement. The third group is white liberals who hate or hope to eradicate the colour bar because of the guilt gnawing their conscience. Their efforts and noble ideals often turn out to be futile confronting the overwhelming social forces and the ineradicable cultural fabrication of their identities. If the native are merely potential enemy for the white, the African land directly obstructs British settlers’colonization. The following parts revolve around“The colonial land as the Other, the colonizer as the homeless”. This dissertation argues that“Ecological colonialism”is an important topic of Lessing’s African fiction in which the land is relegated into the position of the Other being conquered and raped with connotations of the mixture of both the native and native women resulting from the intricate collaboration of colonialism and patriarchy. The bush that often symbolizes the native threatens settler women who have to identify themselves with houses into loneliness, fear, fragmentation and nervous breakdown. The land in its limited sense that often refers to earth mother or native woman obstructs male settlers’ambition of raping more and gaining strong sense of manhood from her. It also disillusions those romantic farmers who hope to realize their self on the Other.
Chapter Three discusses conflicts among the white and individual person’s alienation as a result of varieties of binary oppositions of the Self and the Other in the white society. In Lessing’s African fiction the Other also applies to the Afrikaners, the Jews, the Greeks, the Italians and other minority groups, which are external to the normal values of the mainstream of the British society, the Self. Situated in the middle of two polarities, the British and the native, they are often ignored and marginalized and therefore suffer the deepest homelessness and powerlessness. Because of historical antagonism, political factors and difference between them, the British and the Afrikaners are found in constant conflict with each other. Hostility rather than friendship pervades families and personal relationship. Apart from antagonism there are also fear and sympathy on the part of some English people for the Afrikaners. The latter’s dire poverty tortures these people who believe the white are entitled to living a decent life and dread to see native life led by the white skin. The widespread anti-Semitism affects both British people and Jews. Martha is a case in point here. The contact with some Jewish people drives Martha constantly into making bitter choices among her noble ideal and her national identity and natural feelings. Failing to harmonize three dimensions of selfhood, Martha falls into violent confusion in her quest for truth. Apart from Afrikaners and Jews, there are two important types of the Other in the white society: the Sports Club crowd and the loosely organized Communist group. They deviate from the normal values of the western culture, making them willing Others. Representing the second or third generation of white settlers in the colony, the Sports Club crowd hopes to establish a new life style that is characteristic of shared emotions, a means that they employ to evade responsibility. Their rebellion, however, cannot help them get rid of their deep sense of alienation and fragmentation regarding the overwhelming pressure left by their parents and Home country on them and their dilemma of receiving British education and growing up in Africa. The Communist group represents another type of Other who hopes to put an end to any forms of injustice and oppression. However, the group turns out to be more suffocating than enlightening and finally falls apart because of internal conflicts resulting from dogmatic appropriation of Marxism and internal disagreements and external pressure from the government and media.
Chapter Four explores women’s tragic life under the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy. As women are the inexhaustible topic for Lessing, this chapter begins with discussion of“Lessing and Feminism”with intent to introduce her attitude towards women and feminism. Lessing is not a feminist in the traditional sense because she does not make women’s liberation as the final goal. Women’s liberation, for her, forms a small part of the liberation of humanity. But, woman plays a vital part in the great cause. With both female potentiality in its access to the irrationality and masculine rationality, a few women develop prophesying power and therefore are able to save humanity. These women are able to compromise male rationality and female sensitivity and deconstruct binarism between male and female, reason and feeling, the conscious and the unconscious. Feminism provides Lessing with an excellent perspective to understand humanity and the universe. Confined by gender role encoded by society, women in Lessing’s African fiction are lost in alienation with distorted self. White female settlers present a striking sight in all of her fiction for their complex social identities of being both the Self in terms of race and the Other in terms of gender. The collaboration of colonialism and patriarchy suffocates these women into permanent exiles on the alien land. Enclosed by the veld and the bush and encoded by patriarchal values, settler women on farms have to confine their activity within the house and the garden around the house. The coercive forces overwhelm the natural development of the self. Poor women such as Mary and Mrs. Carruthers have nervous breakdown, lonely women such as Mrs. Gale and Mrs. Barnes lead a“normal”daily life but an abnormal spiritual life, and Lucy Grange, Mrs. Lacey and Mary represent the excluded Others among settler women on farms because of their unconventionality. Unnamable anxiety of being the Other haunts settler women in town. Average housewives complain about their meaningless life of being mother and housewife, whereas liberal-minded women such as Martha and Mrs. Van are suffering inevitable alienation and fragmentation. More tragic than their white counterparts, native women are relentlessly and indiscriminately relegated into the position of the Other by both the white and the native. In the eyes of white female settlers, they are strange animals or earth mothers with strong sexuality and productivity. They are meaningful to white men only because of their female body in biological sense, which indicates white men do not need to be responsible for these women. In the eyes of native men, they are simply private property that can be transacted as cattle.
Chapter Five analyzes how Lessing strives to criticize in her African fiction the devastating influence of overwhelming collective identities and social forces on the self by way of narrative methods. There are five parts in this chapter. The first part with“the theme and narrative methods”as the subheading argues that these methods contribute a lot to exposing the theme and fathoms the factors for employing them in these works. Part two comes to“Omniscient third person narration”, analyzing how the theme is revealed through the method in the example of The Grass Is Singing. Part three focuses on“Epigraph”, a method that female writers often employ to establish the authoritative voice in their works. This part mainly analyzes how epigraphs in The Grass Is Singing and Martha Quest contribute to the revelation of the theme of this dissertation. Part four explores how in some short stories the gradual awareness of the conflict of the self and the division in the society throws children or adolescents into bitter thoughts of their inevitable frustration and alienation by way of narrating from the point of view of a child or an adolescent. Part five focuses on“Dialectical method”, exploring how it functions in Lessing’s African fiction in light of the theme.“Dialectic”in Sprague’s interpretation is not specifically Marxist, instead it“refers to the conflict between opposites, a conflict that can involve interaction as well as polarity”. Moreover,“Dialectic”does not mean that the conflict of opposites must result in the creation of the third force by way of the“unity of opposites”. Its vital significance in Lessing’s African fiction is vividly demonstrated by the examples of Marston’s changing roles of the Self and the Other in The Grass Is Singing and of Lessing’s elaboration of the white and the native relationship. The seemingly absolute importance of the white is counter-balanced by the force of treating the bush and the land symbolically, which greatly deepens the interaction and conflict of the two polarities.
Conclusion summarizes the main topics explicated above and points out the importance, limitations and prospect of the study. According to the study, analyzing Lessing’s African fiction greatly highlights the significance of geographical politics in literary works, and therefore provides a valuable perspective to literary criticism. Employing the self, the Self and the Other as the thread to explore her African fiction not only elaborates on what Lessing concerns most in almost all of her novels---the individual and the collective relationship, but also covers different types of groups and African land, exposing important topics such as native women, minority groups within the white, which were often ignored by critics. Such a perspective enriches research methods and broadens the scope of Lessing’s criticism. Dwelling on important topics, the study inevitably leaves out some less important aspects such as imagination, repetition and so on. Besides, it only analyzes a small part of Lessing’s voluminous product. Lessing’s prolific writings need more profound researches, which will definitely reveal the lasting engrossing force in her works to readers who hope to find out what life means in different period.
自我在论文中包括身体自我(物质自我)、反思的自我(主体性)和关系自我中与道德本体论相联系的部分。由于主体性的协调功能,三部分构成了相对稳定的自我。大我或他者指人的集体身份,包括关系自我中用以解释个人和种族、民族、性别、政治信仰、年龄等产生关系的部分。大我和他者同时也指等级制社会中不同二元对立项中的两大对立社群。身体自我、主体性和关系自我的相互支持和互动和积极共存,构成了完整健康的个人身份和理想的个人和集体关系。但在现实中,由于社会和内化了的集体身份的强大压力,以主体性为核心的自我不得不有意识或无意识地屈服于体现意识形态等级制暴力的社会和个人的集体身份。自我的消极被动和无效抗争难免使得个人落入困惑、分裂和异化中。以自我、大我和他者的概念和关系作为贯穿全文的线索,论文探讨了莱辛的非洲小说——《野草在歌唱》、《非洲短篇故事集》、《金色笔记》部分内容、五部曲《暴力的儿女们》中的前四部:《玛莎?奎斯特》、《一场合适的婚姻》、《风暴余波》和《死胡同》中由于个人的集体身份——大我或他者或二者兼有的复杂身份和社会对自我的压制和破坏,主体性遭到扭曲,个人不可避免地落入了深深的异化之中。困惑、沮丧、失落、精神分裂和无根性如幽灵一般牢牢囚禁着人们心灵。
包括序言和结论在内论文共有七章。主干部分共有五章:第一章主要构建关于自我、大我和他者的理论框架。第二章到第四章为主题研究,主要探讨了生活在等级森严的社会中个人无以逃避的异化。第五章讨论阐释主题的叙事手法。
序言部分主要介绍了莱辛和她的非洲作品以及相关评论,为论文主干部分提供了必要的背景知识,并阐释了研究莱辛非洲作品的重要意义和论文的主题。
第一章锁定自我、大我、他者以及相关概念和它们之间的关系。由于各种“主义”的频繁使用造成了这些术语指涉不一,本章试图在追根溯源和区别他人用法的基础上给出定义。从论文主题和这些术语的关系出发,论文首先探讨了“自我身份”。“自我身份”在论文中包括自我、在不同环境下的大我或他者或者二者的互动,亦即实现主体性和集体身份、内心世界和外部世界相结合的身体自我、反思的自我和关系自我三方面。三者之间的积极共存和互为支持可形成完整健康的“自我身份”,反之,个人要么变成空洞的自大狂要么沦落为社会的应声虫。但体现等级制暴力本质的大我和他者却为关系自我涂上了浓浓的政治色彩,因此个人的集体身份根本无法和自我真正和谐相处。凭借有形或无形的力量和暴力支撑,个人的集体身份通常压抑着自我。自我包括主体性(反思的自我)、身体自我和将个人和人类联系起来的关系自我中的宏观方面。不同于人们普遍将自我等同于“自我身份”,该定义强调自我和“自我身份”是两个不同的概念,其中自我指构成个人的核心部分,而“自我身份”则指构成个人的全部总和。自我的核心部分是主体性,它和其它两部分密切相关。以创造性、独立性和自主性为特征的主体性构成了区别于他人的个人本质,而大我或他者却是具有共同特点的一类人和这类人的共同身份。由于他者是论文频繁使用的关键术语,本章的其余部分集中讨论了他者的历史沿革和在当代理论中的运用。他者总是和大我联系在一起,因此接下来的部分追溯了两个术语的历史定义。大我和他者起源于西方哲学史上的自我和他者这一对二元对立项,继承了自我和他者之间的等级制关系:大我完全凌驾于他者之上。“差异和他者”部分揭露了大我和他者之间等级制暴力的本质在于将差异合理化和合法化。为进一步使他者的概念明确化,本文也讨论了拉康关于他者的使用,论文认为拉康心理学意义上的他者概念显然不同于本文所要阐释的意识形态意义上的他者。他者在本文中指外在于或偏离西方正统文化的人或事物。接下来的两部分详细介绍了和论文密切相关的后殖民主义和女性主义中他者的涵义。
第二章讨论了白人殖民者(英国殖民者)将土著民和非洲大地视作他者后的异化人生。由于从某种意义上讲土著民和非洲大地密不可分,本章也将非洲大地视作白/黑冲突的必要组成部分。论文在探讨土著民和白人冲突的部分,分析了以英国人为代表的三类殖民者的异化人生。第一类殖民者视土著民为洪水猛兽、魔鬼的化身。这种将他者魔鬼化的行为,严重扭曲了殖民者自我的发展,以至于他们日夜生活在对他者的恐惧中。典型人物有玛丽和定格模式化的白人妇女奎斯特太太和卡森太太。以玛丽为例,尽管她将摩西视为她生命的最后一丝色彩和乐趣,她还是将自我屈服于种族身份的大我,不敢承受摩西的目光和被摩西点燃的内心情感。第二类殖民者为大多数普通白人,他们在坚持主仆关系的基础上对当地土人颇为友善。但这种表面平静的大我和他者关系,并未让大我一方感到幸福、安全和满足。相反,他们感到不安、恐惧和无家可归。国际上风起云涌的反殖民主义运动和民族主义运动,让他们担心他者终有一天会夺回一切。第三类殖民者为支持社会变革者。在强烈的负罪感驱使下,他们渴望废除种族歧视。然而,强大的社会力量和无法消弭的文化身份,却让他们的努力和崇高的理想付之东流。如果说土著民只是潜在的威胁,那么非洲大地则让白人殖民者的殖民行为屡屡受挫,本章的后半部分即围绕着“殖民地——他者,殖民者——无家可归者”展开。“生态殖民主义”是莱辛非洲小说的一个重要话题,其主要表现形式为殖民者对非洲大地无情掠夺和占有。在莱辛的小说中,非洲大地在殖民者眼中是不折不扣的他者,暗指殖民主义和男权制联合产物下的土著男人和女人。象征着土著男人的非洲丛林时刻威胁着被迫和房屋认同的白人女性,将她们囚禁在房内,让她们陷入孤独、恐惧、分裂甚至是精神崩溃。象征着大地母亲或土著女人的非洲土地令男性殖民者迷恋不已,但他们对这片土地的征服和掠夺遭遇了后者的抵制。野性他者的抵制阻碍了作为大我的男性殖民者获得男性身份认同,让那些期望在他者身上实现自我的浪漫农场主梦断南非高原。
第三章讨论了白人社会里个人的异化。由于英国人将白人社会内部少数派社群视为他者,白人社会纷争不断,严重影响了大我和他者双方个人的自我发展。他者在莱辛的非洲小说中除了指土著民、女性和非洲大地外,还有荷兰裔南非人、犹太人、希腊人、印度人和其它少数派社群。这些少数派社群处于英国人和土著民两大阵营之间,属于被边缘化的群体,他们的尴尬处境让他们品味着最深层意义上的无家可归和无能为力。就英国人和荷兰裔南非人而言,由于历史原因造成的民族仇恨、政治因素和民族差异,英国人和荷兰裔南非人矛盾尖锐。在家庭和家庭成员之间敌意取代了友谊。不过,在敌视之外,部分英国人也对荷兰裔南非人赤贫状态和土著民层次的生活感到恐惧和同情,因为在后者身上他们看到了白色神话的虚妄。就英国人和犹太人而言,遍布全球的反犹太浪潮让双方深受其害,例如《暴力的儿女们》五部曲的主人公玛莎。和犹太人的频繁接触使玛莎不得不时常在崇高理想、民族身份和内心情感中做出痛苦的选择。由于无法协调好身体自我、关系自我和主体性之间的关系,玛莎在追寻真理的过程中不可避免地落入了困惑、沮丧中。除荷兰裔南非人和犹太人外,白人社会还有两组重要的他者社群:运动俱乐部和共产主义学习小组。和前面的他者不同,他们自动偏离西方正统文化,自愿被视为他者。作为第二、三代的殖民者,运动俱乐部的成员希望确立一种新的生活方式。这种生活方式强调公开、共享,逃避责任。他们不得不承受父辈和大英帝国留给他们的日趋严重的殖民问题,也不得不遭受既生长在非洲又接受英式教育造成的情感分裂和异化。共产主义学习小组代表了另一种类型的他者。消灭一切形式的不公正和压迫是他们的奋斗目标,也是他们渴望消除异化的方式。然而,小组内部分歧和领导上的教条主义造成了小组压抑的氛围,再加上政府和媒体的破坏和压力,最终导致了小组最后的解散。
第四章分析了妇女在殖民主义和男权制双重压迫之下的悲惨生活。鉴于女性是莱辛小说中永远的话题,本章首先讨论了“莱辛和女性主义”,探讨了莱辛对女性和女性主义的基本态度。莱辛从来没有将女性解放当作个人为之奋斗的最终目标,因此她并非传统意义上的女性主义者。在莱辛看来,虽然妇女解放仅仅是人类解放的一个很小的组成部分,但女性在人类解放这个伟大事业中却扮演着至关重要的作用。尽管不是所有女性可以承担拯救人类的伟大使命,但少数女性的女性潜质可以帮助她们打通非理性和理性之间的隔阂,形成预言能力,从而可以拯救人类。对莱辛来说,女性主义提供了了解人类和宇宙的最佳视角。在莱辛的非洲小说中,女性将自己固着在社会所规定的特定性别角色,遭受着扭曲的自我所造成的异化。女性殖民者(英国女性)既是种族意义上的大我,又是性别意义上的他者,这种复杂的身份使她们成为莱辛所有作品中的一道风景线。在殖民主义和男权制相互勾结的社会里,她们只能是异域永远的流放者。南非高原和非洲丛林的围困,男权制社会道德规范的压制,使农场里的白人女性沦为囚禁在房屋和花园里的囚徒。贫穷的玛丽和卡洛瑟尔太太最终精神崩溃;孤独的格尔太太和巴恩斯太太表面上生活正常,内心却扭曲异化;特立独行的露西?格兰奇和兰西太太则被视为异类。城市里的白人女性则饱尝难以名状的焦虑。普通家庭妇女抱怨生活的无聊乏味;开明妇女如玛莎和凡太太,则为寻求解脱,积极投身于政治活动,却遭受着内心分裂和异化的痛苦。与白人女性相比,土著女人的生活要比白人女性悲惨得多。不管在白人眼中还是在土著男人眼中,她们都是地位卑下的他者。在白人女性眼中,她们是丑陋的怪物或是性欲和生殖力都很强的大地母亲的象征;在白人男子看来,她们不过是可以满足性需求又不需要自己负责任的他者;对土著男人来说,她们则是个人财产,可以像牲口一样自由买卖。
第五章剖析了莱辛在非洲小说中如何运用叙事手法批判和揭露社会和个人的集体身份对自我造成的毁灭性影响。第一部分“主题和叙事手法”指出叙事手法对表现主题具有不可或缺的作用同时探讨了作者运用这些手法的原因。第二部分分析了在《野草在歌唱》中作者如何运用全知全角第三人称叙述展示社会和个人的集体身份与自我的矛盾冲突。第三部分分析了卷首语——女性作家惯常采用以确立权威叙述声音的手法,在《野草在歌唱》和《玛莎?奎斯特》中的运用。第四部分分析了从孩子或青少年的角度来讲述故事的手法,论文认为作者在一些短篇小说中采用该手法,生动地揭示出了孩子们或青少年们在逐渐意识到自我和等级制社会、以及和自己的集体身份的矛盾冲突后,无奈地接受了令人痛苦的异化过程。最后一部分讨论了“矛盾辨证法”如何服务于主题。在斯普拉格看来,“矛盾辨证”不一定指马克思主义关于该词的特定用法,它可以指两个对立项之间由于相互作用和极度对立而产生的矛盾冲突。此外,“矛盾辨证”并不一定意味着对立双方会通过“对立统一”产生出第三股力量。“矛盾辨证法”是莱辛赖以展示主题的重要叙事手法,这点可在下面两个例子中找到佐证。《野草在歌唱》中马斯顿游走于大我和他者的集体身份之间说明大我和他者不可调和的矛盾,莱辛通过再现白人和土著民矛盾,突出了种族冲突是非洲殖民地无法消解的根本矛盾;通过对非洲丛林和非洲土地的象征化处理,改变了白黑对抗的悬殊力量对比,深化了二者之间的相互作用和对抗。
结论部分在总结论文主要内容的基础上,指出了论文的研究意义、局限和前景展望。论文认为通过研究莱辛的非洲小说突出了地域政治在文学作品中的重要作用,为文学作品研究提供了有益的思考。从自我和社会以及自我和内化了的集体身份之间的关系来分析莱辛的非洲小说,诠释了莱辛一直关注的主题——个人和集体之间的关系,揭示了莱辛笔下的各类人群和非洲大地,探讨了很多为评论家忽略的话题,比如:白人内部纷争和异化、土著女人等,拓展了研究范围,丰富了研究方法。但论文同时也省略或忽略了一些次要问题,比如:人物的想象和重复等。此外,论文仅仅涉及了莱辛作品的一小部分。相信假以时日,莱辛作品的独特魅力会大放异彩,呈现于广大读者之前。
The relationship between the individual and the collective resonates most of Doris Lessing’s fiction. The collective in her fiction refers to two things: the first being the society in the common sense and the second humanity. The collective is often at variance with the individual. Still, Lessing believes there should be a resting point between them where the individual can voluntarily submit to the demand of the collective without losing his own personal and private judgments. Such an ideal relationship between the individual and the collective is difficult to realize regarding the fact that only two female protagonists in The Four-Gated City and The Memoirs of a Survivor respectively of all Lessing’s fiction finally arrive at such a stage. Reflecting Sufism, it can only be obtained through female protagonist’s outward quest and inward quest as well as androgynous mastery of masculine rationality and feminine sensitivity. Most of Lessing’s other works dwell on the conflict between the individual and the collective, which invariably makes the self, the essence of individual’s selfhood, in confrontation with society which is characteristic of the classification of the Self and the Other, and with the Self or the Other or both the Self and the Other, the collective identities of the person. With colonial Africa as the special social space, Lessing’s African fiction vividly represents individual people’s alienation as the result of confrontation with his collective identities and the hierarchical society of which colonialism and its twin brother patriarchy constitute the confining force. Having internalized shallow collective identities in terms of race, nation, gender, political beliefs and other things, individual person gets accustomed to seeing people and things in categories that emphasize difference. In doing so, his natural feelings and subjectivity recede gradually to varieties of social forces resulting from strict ideological division of the Self and the Other and he is more the Self or the Other than the self. He is hopeless“self”exile.
The self in this dissertation includes the bodily (material) dimension and reflective dimension (subjectivity) and the aspect of relational dimension that connects with an ontological moral demand. Because of the negotiation of subjectivity, the three dimensions make a relatively stable self. The Self or the Other refers to one’s collective identity, the aspect of relational dimension that accounts for his relationship with race, nation, gender, political belief, age and other matters. By extension, the Self and the Other also refer to oppositional groups of binary opposition in hierarchical society. The mutual support or positive coexistence of three dimensions of selfhood in interaction makes a wholesome individual person and an ideal relationship between the individual and the collective. In reality, however, the self with subjectivity as the core often consciously or unconsciously submits to or fights against society and collective identities that reflect ideological hierarchical violence, which destroy or distort subjectivity of individual person. The passivity and futile rebellion of the self plunge people into inevitable confusion and alienation. With the self and the Self and the Other as the thread, this dissertation explores the inevitable alienation of individual people as a result of the coercive and damaging force the society and his collective identities exert on the self by distorting subjectivity in Doris Lessing’s African fiction that include The Grass Is Singing, African Stories, part of The Golden Notebook and the first four volumes of the Children of Violence sequence, namely, Martha Quest, A Proper Marriage, A Ripple from the Storm, and Landlocked. Suffocating forces of society and collective identities representing ideological violence greatly distort the self and curse people’s life with confusion, loss, frustration, fragmentation and uprootedness.
Altogether there are seven chapters in the dissertation including introduction and conclusion. There are five chapters that constitute the essentials of the dissertation. Chapter One is mainly on the theoretic framework of the Self (self) and the Other. Chapter Two, Three, and Four analyze the inevitable alienation of people dwelling in the hierarchical society. Chapter Five details how the theme is revealed by narrative methods employed in these works.
Introduction makes an overview of Lessing and her African fiction and related criticism, which serves as an indispensable background for the following analysis. More importantly, it points out the importance of exploring Lessing’s African fiction and introduces the theme of the study.
Chapter One focuses on defining the self, the Self and the Other and the relationship among them. As these terms are frequently used in different theories with different meanings, this chapter intends to provide definite definitions for them by tracing their historical development and differentiating them from other people’s usage. Beginning with the significance of these terms in exposing the theme of this study, this chapter introduces“Selfhood”, the first important term in the dissertation to the reader. Man’s selfhood in this dissertation comprises the self and the Self or the Other or the interaction of both in different situations which connects subjectivity and collective identities, internal world and external world considering bodily dimension, reflective dimension and relational dimension. The positive coexistence and mutual support of the three dimensions make a man wholesome, whereas the opposite makes a man either empty and arrogant or submissive. However, the Self and the Other, which represent hierarchical violence of society, turn relational dimension into a political one and therefore will never really have a harmonious relationship with the self. Backed up by perceptible or imperceptible force and violence, one’s collective identities often function as a coercive force on the self.“The self”comprises subjectivity or reflective dimension, bodily dimension and the macro aspect of relational dimension, which connects individual man with humanity and the universe. Different from popular usage of the self which means selfhood, this definition specifies the difference between them, the self making the essence of an individual man and selfhood the whole individual man. With subjectivity as the core of the self, this part accounts for the interconnection of its three component parts. Subjectivity characteristic of creativity, independence and freedom makes the essence of the self and distinguish people, whereas the Self or the Other refers to a category of people with the same attributes and collective identity of certain category of people. As the Other is of vital importance in the study, the following parts dwell on the concept of the Other in history and contemporary theories. As the Other in this dissertation is invariably related with the Self, next part traces the historical demarcation of the two terms. Developing from the self and the other in western philosophy, the Self and the Other inherit hierarchy between the self and the other: they are oppositional polarities of which the Self is absolutely superior to the Other. Part five with the heading of“Difference and the Other”exposes the cold violence of the seeming justification of difference for the binary opposition of the Self and the Other. To further specify the concept of the Other, part six introduces Lacan’s usage of the term and points out that his psychological employment of the Other is different from its ideological connotation in this dissertation, which argues that the Other refers to what is or those who are exterior to or outside of normal values of the western culture. Next two parts elaborate on the concept of the Other in light of Postcolonialism and Feminism which are of great significance for Lessing’s African fiction.
Chapter Two explores the inevitable alienation of white settlers (British settlers) who regard the native and the land as the Other. Since the native and the land are to some extent inseparable in Lessing’s African fiction, this chapter treats the land as an indispensable part of the white and the native conflict. Beginning with introducing the Self and the Other in colonial Africa, this chapter first elaborates on the relationship between the native and the settlers by analyzing three groups of British settlers. The first group demonizes the native and therefore is seized by great or irrational fear for the latter. Mary and stereotyped white women such as Mrs. Quest and Mrs. Carson make the representatives of this category. Surrendering the self to the Self, her racial identity, Mary cannot face Moses’look and her natural emotions despite the fact that Moses remains the last interest in her life. The second group is average white people who treat the native in a friendly manner on the basis of master-slave relationship that reflects the hierarchical nature of the Self and the Other. Such relationship brings to them increasingly haunting fear for the Other’s taking back everything one day with regard to international anti-colonization and nationalist movement. The third group is white liberals who hate or hope to eradicate the colour bar because of the guilt gnawing their conscience. Their efforts and noble ideals often turn out to be futile confronting the overwhelming social forces and the ineradicable cultural fabrication of their identities. If the native are merely potential enemy for the white, the African land directly obstructs British settlers’colonization. The following parts revolve around“The colonial land as the Other, the colonizer as the homeless”. This dissertation argues that“Ecological colonialism”is an important topic of Lessing’s African fiction in which the land is relegated into the position of the Other being conquered and raped with connotations of the mixture of both the native and native women resulting from the intricate collaboration of colonialism and patriarchy. The bush that often symbolizes the native threatens settler women who have to identify themselves with houses into loneliness, fear, fragmentation and nervous breakdown. The land in its limited sense that often refers to earth mother or native woman obstructs male settlers’ambition of raping more and gaining strong sense of manhood from her. It also disillusions those romantic farmers who hope to realize their self on the Other.
Chapter Three discusses conflicts among the white and individual person’s alienation as a result of varieties of binary oppositions of the Self and the Other in the white society. In Lessing’s African fiction the Other also applies to the Afrikaners, the Jews, the Greeks, the Italians and other minority groups, which are external to the normal values of the mainstream of the British society, the Self. Situated in the middle of two polarities, the British and the native, they are often ignored and marginalized and therefore suffer the deepest homelessness and powerlessness. Because of historical antagonism, political factors and difference between them, the British and the Afrikaners are found in constant conflict with each other. Hostility rather than friendship pervades families and personal relationship. Apart from antagonism there are also fear and sympathy on the part of some English people for the Afrikaners. The latter’s dire poverty tortures these people who believe the white are entitled to living a decent life and dread to see native life led by the white skin. The widespread anti-Semitism affects both British people and Jews. Martha is a case in point here. The contact with some Jewish people drives Martha constantly into making bitter choices among her noble ideal and her national identity and natural feelings. Failing to harmonize three dimensions of selfhood, Martha falls into violent confusion in her quest for truth. Apart from Afrikaners and Jews, there are two important types of the Other in the white society: the Sports Club crowd and the loosely organized Communist group. They deviate from the normal values of the western culture, making them willing Others. Representing the second or third generation of white settlers in the colony, the Sports Club crowd hopes to establish a new life style that is characteristic of shared emotions, a means that they employ to evade responsibility. Their rebellion, however, cannot help them get rid of their deep sense of alienation and fragmentation regarding the overwhelming pressure left by their parents and Home country on them and their dilemma of receiving British education and growing up in Africa. The Communist group represents another type of Other who hopes to put an end to any forms of injustice and oppression. However, the group turns out to be more suffocating than enlightening and finally falls apart because of internal conflicts resulting from dogmatic appropriation of Marxism and internal disagreements and external pressure from the government and media.
Chapter Four explores women’s tragic life under the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy. As women are the inexhaustible topic for Lessing, this chapter begins with discussion of“Lessing and Feminism”with intent to introduce her attitude towards women and feminism. Lessing is not a feminist in the traditional sense because she does not make women’s liberation as the final goal. Women’s liberation, for her, forms a small part of the liberation of humanity. But, woman plays a vital part in the great cause. With both female potentiality in its access to the irrationality and masculine rationality, a few women develop prophesying power and therefore are able to save humanity. These women are able to compromise male rationality and female sensitivity and deconstruct binarism between male and female, reason and feeling, the conscious and the unconscious. Feminism provides Lessing with an excellent perspective to understand humanity and the universe. Confined by gender role encoded by society, women in Lessing’s African fiction are lost in alienation with distorted self. White female settlers present a striking sight in all of her fiction for their complex social identities of being both the Self in terms of race and the Other in terms of gender. The collaboration of colonialism and patriarchy suffocates these women into permanent exiles on the alien land. Enclosed by the veld and the bush and encoded by patriarchal values, settler women on farms have to confine their activity within the house and the garden around the house. The coercive forces overwhelm the natural development of the self. Poor women such as Mary and Mrs. Carruthers have nervous breakdown, lonely women such as Mrs. Gale and Mrs. Barnes lead a“normal”daily life but an abnormal spiritual life, and Lucy Grange, Mrs. Lacey and Mary represent the excluded Others among settler women on farms because of their unconventionality. Unnamable anxiety of being the Other haunts settler women in town. Average housewives complain about their meaningless life of being mother and housewife, whereas liberal-minded women such as Martha and Mrs. Van are suffering inevitable alienation and fragmentation. More tragic than their white counterparts, native women are relentlessly and indiscriminately relegated into the position of the Other by both the white and the native. In the eyes of white female settlers, they are strange animals or earth mothers with strong sexuality and productivity. They are meaningful to white men only because of their female body in biological sense, which indicates white men do not need to be responsible for these women. In the eyes of native men, they are simply private property that can be transacted as cattle.
Chapter Five analyzes how Lessing strives to criticize in her African fiction the devastating influence of overwhelming collective identities and social forces on the self by way of narrative methods. There are five parts in this chapter. The first part with“the theme and narrative methods”as the subheading argues that these methods contribute a lot to exposing the theme and fathoms the factors for employing them in these works. Part two comes to“Omniscient third person narration”, analyzing how the theme is revealed through the method in the example of The Grass Is Singing. Part three focuses on“Epigraph”, a method that female writers often employ to establish the authoritative voice in their works. This part mainly analyzes how epigraphs in The Grass Is Singing and Martha Quest contribute to the revelation of the theme of this dissertation. Part four explores how in some short stories the gradual awareness of the conflict of the self and the division in the society throws children or adolescents into bitter thoughts of their inevitable frustration and alienation by way of narrating from the point of view of a child or an adolescent. Part five focuses on“Dialectical method”, exploring how it functions in Lessing’s African fiction in light of the theme.“Dialectic”in Sprague’s interpretation is not specifically Marxist, instead it“refers to the conflict between opposites, a conflict that can involve interaction as well as polarity”. Moreover,“Dialectic”does not mean that the conflict of opposites must result in the creation of the third force by way of the“unity of opposites”. Its vital significance in Lessing’s African fiction is vividly demonstrated by the examples of Marston’s changing roles of the Self and the Other in The Grass Is Singing and of Lessing’s elaboration of the white and the native relationship. The seemingly absolute importance of the white is counter-balanced by the force of treating the bush and the land symbolically, which greatly deepens the interaction and conflict of the two polarities.
Conclusion summarizes the main topics explicated above and points out the importance, limitations and prospect of the study. According to the study, analyzing Lessing’s African fiction greatly highlights the significance of geographical politics in literary works, and therefore provides a valuable perspective to literary criticism. Employing the self, the Self and the Other as the thread to explore her African fiction not only elaborates on what Lessing concerns most in almost all of her novels---the individual and the collective relationship, but also covers different types of groups and African land, exposing important topics such as native women, minority groups within the white, which were often ignored by critics. Such a perspective enriches research methods and broadens the scope of Lessing’s criticism. Dwelling on important topics, the study inevitably leaves out some less important aspects such as imagination, repetition and so on. Besides, it only analyzes a small part of Lessing’s voluminous product. Lessing’s prolific writings need more profound researches, which will definitely reveal the lasting engrossing force in her works to readers who hope to find out what life means in different period.
引文
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Hunter, Melanie and Darby McIntosh, “‘A Question of Wholes’: Spiritual Intersecting, Universal Re-Visioning in the Work of Doris Lessing”, Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing. Ed. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. 109-119.
Kauffman, Linda. “The Golden Notebook: Anna Wulf’s Schizoanalysis”, Feminist Critical Negotiations. Ed. Alice A. Parker & Elizabeth A. Meese, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 1992. 101-144.
Klein, Carole. Doris Lessing: a Biography. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 2000. Kort, Wesley A. Place and Space in Modern Fiction. The University Press of Florida, 2004.
Labovitz, Esther Kleinbord. The Myth of the Heroine: The Female Bildungsroman in the Twentieth Century: Dorothy Richardson, Simone de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing, Christa Wolf. 2nd edition. New York: Peter Lang, 1986.
Lanser, Susan Sniader. Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 1992.
Legler, Gretchen. “Toward a Postmodern Pastoral: The Erotic Landscape in the Work of Gretel Ehrlich”, The Isle Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. Ed. Michael P. Branch and Scott Slovic. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 22-32.
Lessing, Doris. Martha Quest (1952). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. A Proper Marriage (1954). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. A Ripple from the Storm (1958). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. Landlocked (1965). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. The Four-Gated City (1969). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.
——. Author’s notes to The Four-Gated City (1969). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.
——. The Grass Is Singing (1950). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc., 1976.
——. African Stories. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1981.
——. The Golden Notebook (1962). New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1981.
——. introduction (1971)to The Golden Notebook. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1981.
——. In Pursuit of English(1960). New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1961.
——. Going Home (1957). Frogmore, St Albans: Panther Books Ltd., 1968.
——. The Summer Before the Dark(1973). Penguin Books, 1975.
——. The Memoirs of a Survivor(1974). London: Pen Books Ltd., 1980.
——. The Diaries of Jane Somers(1983, 1984). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
——. “preface”(1984) to The Diaries of Jane Somers(1983, 1984). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
——. Under My Skin, Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949. HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
Lewis, Simon. “By Europe, out of Africa: White Women Writers on Farms and their African Invention,” Diss. University of Florida, 1996.
Loflin, Christine Adams. “Race, Nationalism and Colonialism in the African Landscape, ” Diss. The University of Wisconsin, 1989.
Martinson, Deborah. In the Presence of Audience: the Self in Diaries and Fiction. Ohio State University, 2003.
Maslen, Elizabeth. Political and Social Issues in British Women’s Fiction, 1928-1968. Palgrave, 2001.
McLeod, John. Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2004.
Morton, Stephen. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. London & New York: Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge, 2003.
Parry, Benita. Postcolonial Studies: A Material Critique, London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
Pelt, Tamise Van. The Other Side of Desire: Lacan’s Theory of the Registers. State University of New York, 2000.
Pierpont, Claudia Roth. Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2000.
Rege, Josna E. “Considering the Stars: The Expanding Universe of Doris Lessing’s Work”, Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing. Westport, Connecticut & London: Greenwood Press, 1999. 121-134.
Robinson, Sally. Engendering the Subject: Gender and Self-representation in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. State University of New York Press, 1991.
Rosner, Victoria. “Home Fires: Doris Lessing, Colonial Architecture, and the Reproduction of Mothering”, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol.18, No.1. (1999): 59-89.
Rubenstein, Roberta. The Novelistic of Doris Lessing: Breaking the Forms of Consciousness. Urbana, Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism (1978), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1980.
——. Culture and Imperialism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.
——. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Harvard University Press, 2000.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface to The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin Books, 1967.
Sarup, Madan. Jacques Lacan, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.
Sceats, Sarah. Food, Consumption and the Body in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schlueter, Paul. ed. A Small Personal Voice: Doris Lessing. Vantage Books, 1975.
Schwartz, Meryl Fern. “The Political Awakening Novels of Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, and Michelle Cliff: Narrative Strategy, Reader Responses, and Utopian Desire”. Diss. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999.
Seigel, Jerrold. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Seligman, Dee. “In Pursuit of Doris Lessing”, Approaches to Teaching Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1989. 21-29.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. Expanded edition, 1999. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
Soper, Kate. Humanism and Anti-Humanism, Hutchinson, 1986,
Sprague, Claire. Rereading Doris Lessing: Narrative Patterns of Doubling and Repetition, Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
——. “Multipersonal and Dialogic Modes in Mrs. Dalloway and The Golden Notebook,” Woolf and Lessing, Breaking the Mold. Ed. Ruth Saxton and Jean Tobin, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1994. 3-14.
Sukenick, Lynn. “Feeling and Reason in Doris Lessing’s Fiction.” Contemporary Literature. Vol.14, No.4. Special Number on Doris Lessing, (Autumn, 1973): 513-535.
Tallmadge, John. “Toward a Natural History of Reading”, The Isle Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 282-295.
Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Taylor, Jenny. “Introduction: situating reading”, Notebooks/memoirs/archives: Reading and Rereading Doris Lessing. Ed. Jenny Taylor, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. 1-41.
Thorpe, Michael. Doris Lessing’s Africa. Evans Brothers Limited. 1978.
Visel, Robin Ellen. “White Eve in the ‘Petrified Garden’: The Colonial African Heroine in the Writing of Olive Schreiner, Isale Dinesen, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.” Diss. The University of British Columbia, 1987.
Watkins, Susan. Twentieth-Century Women Novelists: Feminist Theory into Practice. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Whittaker, Ruth. Doris Lessing. MACMILLAN publishers LTD. 1988.
Yamazato, Katsunori. “Kitkitdizza, Zendo, and place: Gary Synder as Reinhabitory poet” The ISLE Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 10-21.
Young, Robert J. C. White Mythologies, Writing History and the West, Second edition, Routledge, 2003.
——. “Deconstruction and the Postcolonial”, Deconstruction: A User’s Guide. Ed. Nicholas Royle, Palgrave, 2000. 187-210.
Zak, Michele Wender. “The Grass Is Singing: A Little Novel About the Emotions”, Doris Lessing: Critical Studies. Ed. Annis Pratt and L.S. Dembo, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. 64-73. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Republic
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, volume 1, Ready Reference and Index in Depth, 15th edition. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1984.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, volume 17, knowledge in Depth, 15th edition. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1984.
卡尔文·斯·霍尔等(著):《弗洛伊德心理学与西方文学》. 包富华, 陈照全等(编译),长沙:湖南文艺出版社,1986 年。
陈榕,“凝视”,《西方文论关键词》主编:赵一凡,张中载,李德恩,北京:外语教学与研究出版社,2006 年。
艾勒克·博埃默(英)(Elleke Boehmer),《殖民与后殖民文学》,盛宁、韩敏中译。沈阳:辽宁教育出版社,1998 年。
户晓辉, “自我与他者” 《广西民族学院学报》哲社科版,(2000:3), 14-16。
黄汉平,“主体”,《西方文论关键词》主编:赵一凡,张中载,李德恩,北京:外语教学与研究出版社,2006 年。
林树明,《多维视野中的女性主义文学批评》北京:中国社会科学出版社,2004 年。
江宁康:“评《拉维尔斯坦》的文化母题:寻找自我的民族家园”,《当代外国文学》,(2006:1), 81-86。
乔纳森·布朗 (美)(Jonathon D. Brown),《自我》,陈浩莺、薛贵、曾盼盼译。北京:人民邮电出版社,2004 年。
Ashcroft, Bill et al. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London & New York: Routledge, 1989. 8.
Atkins, Kim. Edited with commentary. Self and Subjectivity. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005.
Barnes, Fiona Ruthren. “Explorations in Geography, Gender and Genre: Decolonizing Women’s Novels of Development,” Diss. The University of Wisconsin, 1992.
Barnouw, Dagmar. “Disorderly Company: From The Golden Notebook to The Four-Gated City”, Doris Lessing: Critical Studies. Ed. Annis Pratt and L.S. Dembo, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. 74-97.
Basterra, Gabriela. Seductions of Fate: Tragic Subjectivity, Ethics, Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Bazin, Nancy Topping. “Androgyny or Catastrophe: the Vision of Doris Lessing’s Later Novels”, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 5, no.3. (Autumn, 1980): 11-15.
Beauvoir, Simone de. Introduction to The Second Sex, Trans. & ed. By H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.
Bertelsen, Eve. “The Golden Notebook: The African Background”, Approaches to Teaching Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. Ed. Carey Kaplan & Ellen Cronan Rose, New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1989. 30-36.
Blake, Ann. “The London Observer: Doris Lessing”, England through Colonial Eyes in Twentieth-Century Fiction. Ann Blake, Leela Gandhi and Sue Thomas. New York: Palgrave. 2001.
Bhabha, Homi K. “The other question: Stereotype, discrimination and the discourse of colonialism”, The Location of Culture. Routledge, 2004.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1999.
Brewer, William D. & Carole J. Lambert. “Introduction”, Essays on the Modern Identity. Ed. William Brewer & Carole J. Lambert, New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2000. 1.
Brigg, Peter. The Span of Mainstream and Science Fiction: a Critical Study of a New Literary Genre, McFarland & Co., 2002.
Budhos, Shirley. The Theme of Enclosure in Selected Works of Doris Lessing. New York: The Whitston Publishing Company, 1987.
Cederstrom, Lorelei. Fine-Tuning the Feminine Psyche: Jungian Patterns in the Novels of Doris Lessing. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1990.
Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
Currie, Mark. Difference. London: Routledge, 2004.
Daniels, Patsy J. The Voice of the Oppressed in the Language of the Oppressor: A Discussion of Selected Postcolonial Literature from Ireland, Africa and America. New York & London: Routledge, 2001.
Danziger, Marie A. Text/Countertext: Postmodern Paranoia in Samuel Beckett, Doris Lessing, and Philip Roth. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1996.
Downward, Lisa. “Female Developments in the Modern Novel: Neera, George Eliot, Susanna Tamaro, Sibilla Aleramo, Doris Lessing, and Gertrude Stein”, Diss. City University of New York, 2003.
Fahim, Shadia S. Doris Lessing: Sufi Equilibrium and the Form of the Novel. The University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Penguin Books, 1967.
Galin, Muge. Between East and West: Sufism in the Novels of Doris Lessing. State University of New York Press, 1997.
Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. London & New York: Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge, 2004.
Greene, Gayle. Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change. The University of Michigan Press. 1994.
Hall, Donald E. Subjectivity. New York & London: Routledge, 2004.
Hamilton, Paul. Historicism. 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2003.
Heller, Chaia. “For the Love of Nature: Ecology and the Cult of the Romantic”, Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. Ed. Greta Gaard, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. 219-242.
Holmquist, Ingrid. From Society to Nature. Diss. Goteborg University, 1980. Minab, Surte, 1980.
Hunter, Melanie and Darby McIntosh, “‘A Question of Wholes’: Spiritual Intersecting, Universal Re-Visioning in the Work of Doris Lessing”, Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing. Ed. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. 109-119.
Kauffman, Linda. “The Golden Notebook: Anna Wulf’s Schizoanalysis”, Feminist Critical Negotiations. Ed. Alice A. Parker & Elizabeth A. Meese, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 1992. 101-144.
Klein, Carole. Doris Lessing: a Biography. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 2000. Kort, Wesley A. Place and Space in Modern Fiction. The University Press of Florida, 2004.
Labovitz, Esther Kleinbord. The Myth of the Heroine: The Female Bildungsroman in the Twentieth Century: Dorothy Richardson, Simone de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing, Christa Wolf. 2nd edition. New York: Peter Lang, 1986.
Lanser, Susan Sniader. Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 1992.
Legler, Gretchen. “Toward a Postmodern Pastoral: The Erotic Landscape in the Work of Gretel Ehrlich”, The Isle Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. Ed. Michael P. Branch and Scott Slovic. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 22-32.
Lessing, Doris. Martha Quest (1952). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. A Proper Marriage (1954). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. A Ripple from the Storm (1958). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. Landlocked (1965). New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1970.
——. The Four-Gated City (1969). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.
——. Author’s notes to The Four-Gated City (1969). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.
——. The Grass Is Singing (1950). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc., 1976.
——. African Stories. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1981.
——. The Golden Notebook (1962). New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1981.
——. introduction (1971)to The Golden Notebook. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1981.
——. In Pursuit of English(1960). New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1961.
——. Going Home (1957). Frogmore, St Albans: Panther Books Ltd., 1968.
——. The Summer Before the Dark(1973). Penguin Books, 1975.
——. The Memoirs of a Survivor(1974). London: Pen Books Ltd., 1980.
——. The Diaries of Jane Somers(1983, 1984). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
——. “preface”(1984) to The Diaries of Jane Somers(1983, 1984). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
——. Under My Skin, Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949. HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
Lewis, Simon. “By Europe, out of Africa: White Women Writers on Farms and their African Invention,” Diss. University of Florida, 1996.
Loflin, Christine Adams. “Race, Nationalism and Colonialism in the African Landscape, ” Diss. The University of Wisconsin, 1989.
Martinson, Deborah. In the Presence of Audience: the Self in Diaries and Fiction. Ohio State University, 2003.
Maslen, Elizabeth. Political and Social Issues in British Women’s Fiction, 1928-1968. Palgrave, 2001.
McLeod, John. Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2004.
Morton, Stephen. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. London & New York: Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge, 2003.
Parry, Benita. Postcolonial Studies: A Material Critique, London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
Pelt, Tamise Van. The Other Side of Desire: Lacan’s Theory of the Registers. State University of New York, 2000.
Pierpont, Claudia Roth. Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2000.
Rege, Josna E. “Considering the Stars: The Expanding Universe of Doris Lessing’s Work”, Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing. Westport, Connecticut & London: Greenwood Press, 1999. 121-134.
Robinson, Sally. Engendering the Subject: Gender and Self-representation in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. State University of New York Press, 1991.
Rosner, Victoria. “Home Fires: Doris Lessing, Colonial Architecture, and the Reproduction of Mothering”, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol.18, No.1. (1999): 59-89.
Rubenstein, Roberta. The Novelistic of Doris Lessing: Breaking the Forms of Consciousness. Urbana, Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism (1978), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1980.
——. Culture and Imperialism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.
——. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Harvard University Press, 2000.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface to The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin Books, 1967.
Sarup, Madan. Jacques Lacan, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.
Sceats, Sarah. Food, Consumption and the Body in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schlueter, Paul. ed. A Small Personal Voice: Doris Lessing. Vantage Books, 1975.
Schwartz, Meryl Fern. “The Political Awakening Novels of Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, and Michelle Cliff: Narrative Strategy, Reader Responses, and Utopian Desire”. Diss. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999.
Seigel, Jerrold. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Seligman, Dee. “In Pursuit of Doris Lessing”, Approaches to Teaching Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1989. 21-29.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. Expanded edition, 1999. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
Soper, Kate. Humanism and Anti-Humanism, Hutchinson, 1986,
Sprague, Claire. Rereading Doris Lessing: Narrative Patterns of Doubling and Repetition, Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
——. “Multipersonal and Dialogic Modes in Mrs. Dalloway and The Golden Notebook,” Woolf and Lessing, Breaking the Mold. Ed. Ruth Saxton and Jean Tobin, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1994. 3-14.
Sukenick, Lynn. “Feeling and Reason in Doris Lessing’s Fiction.” Contemporary Literature. Vol.14, No.4. Special Number on Doris Lessing, (Autumn, 1973): 513-535.
Tallmadge, John. “Toward a Natural History of Reading”, The Isle Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 282-295.
Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Taylor, Jenny. “Introduction: situating reading”, Notebooks/memoirs/archives: Reading and Rereading Doris Lessing. Ed. Jenny Taylor, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. 1-41.
Thorpe, Michael. Doris Lessing’s Africa. Evans Brothers Limited. 1978.
Visel, Robin Ellen. “White Eve in the ‘Petrified Garden’: The Colonial African Heroine in the Writing of Olive Schreiner, Isale Dinesen, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.” Diss. The University of British Columbia, 1987.
Watkins, Susan. Twentieth-Century Women Novelists: Feminist Theory into Practice. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Whittaker, Ruth. Doris Lessing. MACMILLAN publishers LTD. 1988.
Yamazato, Katsunori. “Kitkitdizza, Zendo, and place: Gary Synder as Reinhabitory poet” The ISLE Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003. The University of Georgia Press, 2003. 10-21.
Young, Robert J. C. White Mythologies, Writing History and the West, Second edition, Routledge, 2003.
——. “Deconstruction and the Postcolonial”, Deconstruction: A User’s Guide. Ed. Nicholas Royle, Palgrave, 2000. 187-210.
Zak, Michele Wender. “The Grass Is Singing: A Little Novel About the Emotions”, Doris Lessing: Critical Studies. Ed. Annis Pratt and L.S. Dembo, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. 64-73. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Republic
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, volume 1, Ready Reference and Index in Depth, 15th edition. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1984.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, volume 17, knowledge in Depth, 15th edition. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1984.
卡尔文·斯·霍尔等(著):《弗洛伊德心理学与西方文学》. 包富华, 陈照全等(编译),长沙:湖南文艺出版社,1986 年。
陈榕,“凝视”,《西方文论关键词》主编:赵一凡,张中载,李德恩,北京:外语教学与研究出版社,2006 年。
艾勒克·博埃默(英)(Elleke Boehmer),《殖民与后殖民文学》,盛宁、韩敏中译。沈阳:辽宁教育出版社,1998 年。
户晓辉, “自我与他者” 《广西民族学院学报》哲社科版,(2000:3), 14-16。
黄汉平,“主体”,《西方文论关键词》主编:赵一凡,张中载,李德恩,北京:外语教学与研究出版社,2006 年。
林树明,《多维视野中的女性主义文学批评》北京:中国社会科学出版社,2004 年。
江宁康:“评《拉维尔斯坦》的文化母题:寻找自我的民族家园”,《当代外国文学》,(2006:1), 81-86。
乔纳森·布朗 (美)(Jonathon D. Brown),《自我》,陈浩莺、薛贵、曾盼盼译。北京:人民邮电出版社,2004 年。