A Study Of The Construction Of The Female Identity In Doris Lessing's Major Works

Doris Lessing(1919-), as the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007, is one of the most prominent writers in contemporary British literature. Despite her multi-polarized thematic concerns and her prolific writing, Doris Lessing has long been concerned about the issues on female self-fulfillments. From her first novel-The Grass is Singing to the recent novels, such as, The Diaries of Jane Somers, Love, Again, Doris Lessing concerns more with the state of female existence and reveals women's spiritual confusion and identity crisis both in scope and profundity, and thus arousing both praise from feminists and violent arguments from critics.In this thesis, the author selects Doris Lessing's five representative works from the 1950s to the 1990s as the investigation texts and analyses the different female images and the states of their existence and also focues on exploring the construction of the different female self-identities in Doris Lessing's representative works from the perspective of feminism. At the same time, this thesis also pays more attentation to the development of Doris Lessing's feminist views and Doris Lessing's thinking of the dilemma and outlet of the women's life by analyzing the construction of the different female self-identities in the different periods. More importantly, by studying Doris Lessing's feminist views, the author hopes that it can help the modern women to better deal with the relationship between women and men, women and family, women and job so that they can have a happy life.This thesis mainly consists of four parts. The first part is about the introduction. It mainly introduces Doris Lessing and Doris Lessing's representative novels that my thesis concerns. Furthermore, it introduces feminism and Doris Lessing's feminist views and the development of her views. In the second part, it focuses on showing the different female images and the dilemma of their lives. At the same time, it also explores the roots of the dilemma of the women's lives. In the third part, it mainly focues on the unyielding quest of the different females and the construction of female self-identity. Meanwhile, it also explores the outlet of the different females. The fourth, also the last part is the conclusion.