The Two Opposing Voices In Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing

Doris Lessing, the winner of the Noble Prize, is honored as "an evergreen" in British literary history. Being her first fame-establishing novel, The Grass Is Singing, is both a chronicle of human disintegration and a beautifully understated social critique. Since its publication in 1950, it has received a worldwide attention from many critics and scholars. And so much ink has spilled on it with the ideas of racism, Marxism, colonialism, feminism, postcolonialism and psychological analysis. However, the previous studies have either overlooked the colonial consciousness of Lessing in this novel or generalized from several African novels without one novel being the focus and study these two coexistent consciousnesses systematically. This thesis, based on the previous studies and implemented by the postcolonial theory, aims to analyze systematically the coexistent anti-colonial consciousness and colonial consciousness in The Grass Is Singing.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis can be divided into four parts:Chapter one serves as a skimming up of previous studies on Lessing and her works. Following the critical reception of Lessing abroad and at home, there are distinctive comments on The Grass Is Singing from diverse perspective. However, the previous studies are still inadequate, for they either overlooked the colonial discourse embedded in the anti-colonial discourse, or have not studied this two coexistent consciousnesses systematically with one novel being the focus. Therefore, thesis is still in need, and fills up this gap.Chapter two deals with the theoretical framework. It mainly introduces some basic concepts of postcolonial theory and its theoretical assumptions with Said as the central figure whose theory will be explained in detail in the hope of resulting in a deep and brand-new understanding of the author and her novel, The Grass Is Singing.Chapter three narrates the anti-colonial consciousness of Doris Lessing in The Grass Is Singing. Under the study of her life experience, social involvement and philosophical ideas on life and human existence, it can be concluded that Lessing is a person of humanism, who cares about human fate and existence. Indisputably and naturally, in this novel, Lessing has expressed her sympathy with the natives, and has given a thoroughgoing and biting criticism of the cruel and hypocritical white colonizers and their colonial system. With her positive characterization of Moses and negative portrait of the white colonizers, Lessing has reversed the colonial myth completely, which holds that the colonized are dirty, filthy, violent and savagery and the colonizers intelligent, civilized, capable of rescuing the colonized from degeneration and savage.Chapter four discusses the colonial consciousness of the author revealed by her colonial discourse latent in her anti-colonial discourse. Enlightened by the knowledge of her born identity, cultural influence and the social matrix, it can be summed that Lessing is subconsciously an intellect of imperial ideology. This is illustrated fully with her disgusting and vomiting description of the African natives and their living condition, and the favored characterization of the white colonizers, which permeates everywhere in the novel. Additionally, the impending death of Moses, the forced silence of tony and the madness of Dick prevent the true cause of Mary's death from being known, which is considered as a humiliation to the white community, and therefore threatens their self-assumed superiority over the natives. All these combined together have demonstrated Lessing's acquiescence of the imperialism. Finally, the mysterious and transcendental depiction for the African landscape revives the colonial myth which holds that the colonized environment is a place full of fatal disease, mystery and magical power far beyond human beings'understanding.All in one word, Lessing has exposed the colonial consciousness under her anti-colonial consciousness in the novel. This thesis, based on the previous studies, takes this two opposing voices into exploration from the angel of Postcolonialism, aiming to fruit a brand new understanding of Lessing and her novel, The Grass Is Singing.