Dancing With A Chain

The present study of The Golden Notebook is focused on the literary text per se, illuminated by a combination of insights and ideas from body theories and feminist studies. Due to its profound portrayal of the dilemma faced by modern women, The Golden Notebook was praised as "a trumpet for Women's Liberation" and awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Recent years witness the analysis of The Golden Notebook from the perspective of female body. However, most research is made in relation either to Lessing's other works, or to the works of other women writers. A detailed and systematic analysis of the female embodied experiences in The Golden Notebook is still lacking in academic circles. On the other hand, most feminist studies based on body theories only touched upon the relation between women and their bodies, few have paid enough attention to what a female body means to a woman writer.To redress this critical balance, the present study attempts to approach The Golden Notebook in terms of the relation between women, body and representation in the hope of contributing something new to the field in the following ways: (1) By focusing on the female bodily experiences from a combination of such perspectives as body theories, feminist studies and feminist-narratology, this thesis aims to gain a new insight into the text per se. (2) Through investigating the female body representation in different sections of the novel, this thesis argues that the female consciousness in this novel is not so absolutely unified as some feminists have claimed, nor as dispersed as argued by other feminists. The Golden Notebook is about the female protagonist's consciousness in progress.The whole thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The body consists of three chapters. Chapter One examines the female embodied experiences and their representation in the black, red, and blue notebooks, arguing that the woman writer at first stage has limited female consciousness, for the female body represented is fragmented and objective. Due to the limits of her own view and the overshadowing influence of patriarchal narrative, Anna's attempt to depict the female body only results in objective female body representation, and the narrative strategies used by her can Only lead to more obscure and fragmented body representation.Chapter Two concentrates on the yellow notebook from a combined perspective of body theories and feminist-narratology, positing that the woman writer at the second stage possesses certain degree of female consciousness, exemplified by the representation of subjective female body. The feminine focalization changes a woman's position of being objectified by male gaze, and the assertion of female desire, especially female sexuality is also subversive to male conventions. Anna frees her female characters from subjection in language through "writing the feminine", but "real" women in the story-level can not gain subjective power through her writing.Chapter Three is concerned with the relation between the woman writer and female body in "Free Women" and the inner golden notebook, contending that woman writer at the third stage has more profound female consciousness, for her integrated representation of female body. Through fictionalization and symbolization, "Free Women" displays the process of Anna's spiritual growth. And the inner golden notebook witnesses the process from self-loathing to self-recognition of her body. Meanwhile, she finally finds out the way to a full and responsible representation of female body.In short, the present thesis seeks to explore in some detail the relationships between women, body, and their representation in The Golden Notebook in the hope that it may make some new contribution to the existing criticism of this novel.