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This dissertation investigates the problematic locality ¡§home¡¨ and its relationship with the female protagonists in Doris Lessing¡¦s novels by studying the interrelationship between gender and space. By applying the concepts of feminist geographers Linda McDowell and Doreen Masssey, this dissertation interprets how Lessing develops her childhood home, the source of nostalgia, to a fluid and dynamic domain in her imaginary world. I will argue that Lessing¡¦s women break through the arbitrary distinctions between the domestic and public, feminine and masculine, within and without the boundaries by infusing into contemporary elements such as mobility and globalization of women. The first chapter introduces the motivation of my dissertation, the intertextuality between these texts, then literature reviews on Lessing scholars, and on the speculative aspect of feminist geography, and finally the methodology and organization of the whole dissertation. In Chapter Two, the impact of domestic space on female subjectivity is the focus in The Grass Is Singing. Gender, race, and class barriers are violated by the female protagonist Mary Turner when she transgress the boundaries between domestic and public, white and black, master and servant. Chapter Three deals with the self-development of the female protagonist in Summer before the Dark. The female subjectivity must be reconstructed through the process of negotiation between the private and the public spaces. The heroine Kate Brown undertakes an ordeal physically and spiritually to achieve her self-awakening in sexuality and autonomy. Chapter Four focuses on women¡¦s anxiety about their identities in urban city in The Golden Notebook. The sense of insecurity in both private and public spaces is manifested in Anna Wulf, her writing, and her reflection of sexual relationship. In the fifth chapter, three essential factors that affect the concepts of home in this novel: time-space compression, globalization, and the changing relationship between biological mothers and their daughters are discussed in Lessing¡¦s latest full-length novel The Sweetest Dream. The final chapter is a conclusion of the whole dissertation.

This study explores the representations of masculinity in selected contemporary children’s adventure literature. According to John Stephens (2002:x), a problem for boys, both in narrative fictions and in the world, is that hegemonic masculinity ‘appears simultaneously to propose a schema for behaviour and to insist on their subordination as children, to conflate agency with hegemonic masculinity, and to disclose that, for them, such agency is illusory’. This issue, among others, forms the basis of the research as this paradox is particularly evident in texts that fall within the adventure genre, where protagonists present an image of empowered masculinity that has little or no correlation in real, that is, non-literary, childhood. Nevertheless, despite this apparent conflict, the discourses portrayed in these texts continue to influence society (in varying degrees) as they are promoted, perpetuated and disseminated through cultural productions. Moreover, as this research rests on the premise of a belief ‘in the cultural productivity of fictions’ (Knights 1999:vii), it focuses on literary material that forms part of the landscape of childhood in contemporary society. Therefore, this study analyses selected 21st century children’s texts in order to identify and discuss the representations of masculinity in these texts in the context of their publication at a time when hegemonic masculinity has long been a topic of popular and academic debate. The primary texts include the Arthur series by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series, the Young Bond series by Charlie Higson and Steve Cole and the Bodyguard books by Chris Bradford.By using discourse theory as a lens to complement the masculinity studies approach, this research investigates the questions posed under the problem statement and presents findings that demonstrate that the gender models presented in the texts are, for the most part, cast in ‘the masculinist and patriarchal conventions that characterised imperialist adventure’ (Capdevila 2003:216). Thus, it is evident that the children’s adventure genre seems to be rather tardy in keeping with the times. Nevertheless, much of the conflict surrounding the performance of masculinity in contemporary society is represented through the texts and forms a significant part of the narrative. / Linguistics and Modern Languages