A Jungian Psychological Study Of Anna’s Individuation In The Golden Notebook

Doris Lessing(1919-2013)is recognized as one of the most distinguished and acclaimed writers since Virginia Woolf in the contemporary English literature.She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007 and evaluated by the Swedish Academy to be “that epicist of the female experience,who with skepticism,fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny”.Although her novels touch upon varieties of themes,women’s issues have always been her focus from the outset of her writing career.The Golden Notebook,as Lessing’s representative work,welcomed by many reviewers as soon as published in1962,is also a novel concerning about women’s spiritual confusion with a particularly elaborate design of the structure.In regard to the staple plot,it depicts the protagonist Anna Wulf’s strenuous process from inner disintegration to mental unity.This thesis attempts to analyze Anna’s individuation from Jungian Psychology.It consists of three parts,which are the introduction,the four-chapter main body and the conclusion.The introduction briefly presents the general information of the writer Lessing and the novel The Golden Notebook,and gives a comprehensive review of the studies on the novel both abroad and at home.In addition,the relevant theory about Jungian Psychology is also included.Chapter One elaborates on the protagonist Anna’s first step into the individuation.At the very beginning,Anna blindly feels that everything works in a satisfactory way and presents a perfect image to the outer world.However,with the excessive immersion in her own personas,what brings her is only the disillusionment in the political belief,the plight in the literary creation and depression in the emotional world.Having noticed the self-split,the agony and the torment in her inner world,she is conscious of the inflated personas.Chapter Two dissects how Anna copes with the shadow.It is in those series of joy-in-spite nightmares that Anna realizes one dark side which is the hankering for destruction.And she sees another dark aspect that is the aspiration for death through the record of the suicide scene in the blue notebook and The Shadow of the Third.With the professional treatment from Mother Sugar and her self-introspection,Anna accepts her shadow and sees the positive qualities and creative instincts from the nightmares.She understands the evil shadow can also become the source of her writing.At this stage,she successfully integrates the rejected and hidden aspects.Chapter Three probes Anna’s confrontation with the animus.In the novel,Anna and Saul Green project their animus and anima onto each other.Under the assistance and support from Saul,Anna achieves the final self-knowledge and gains a new understanding about herself and the life.She clearly knows that she should face up to all the challenges.She breaks through the limitation of her own male complex.Both Anna and Saul triumphantly break the writer’s block and extricate themselves from the disintegration.Chapter Four is about the final stage of the individuation,which is the knowledge of the Self.When Anna packs up those four separate notebooks and decides to use one golden-colored notebook,it marks that she has already possessed the integrated self.Those delightful dreams also imply she has been delivered from the fragmentation.In reality,she becomes a laborite,accomplishes the novel Free Women with flying colors,finds her sincere lover Saul and chooses to be a boulder-pusher taking a job as a voluntary counselor about marriage.In the end,she is no longer the divided Anna.She gets very close to the Self-realization.The last part is conclusion.In the whole individuation,Anna always makes arduous efforts to integrate these archetypes.Finally,she frees herself from the mental breakdown and has the recognition about the Self.However,the individuation is a lifelong process,so she needs to keep on moving to achieve the ultimate goal that is the Self-realization.The thesis only concentrates on the protagonist Anna’s individuation.Actually,Anna is an epitome of many women.Through the study of Anna,the readers could see Lessing’s deep concern about the women’s psychological state and existential status in the disordered world.In addition,the way that Anna deals with the plight still works as a quite useful reference to the modern women to maintain and fulfill the complete self.