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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0911107-161450 |
| Date | 11 September 2007 |
| Creators | Lin, Fang-li |
| Contributors | none, none, Yuan-jung Cheng, none, none |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0911107-161450 |
| Rights | campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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