Doris Lessing's African Stories And Her Views Of South Africa

Doris Lessing covers a spectrum of literary genres in her long-spanned writing career. Her early novels with realistic touch and later novels with post-modernism influence are all the favorite of the critics. My thesis concentrates on Lessing's early works, which are based on her African experiences and tries to discuss the social issues reflected in her works: racial issue, the tension between the white and the native, the psychological status of women and men, and the ecological problems.To seek clues for Lessing's standpoint in the colonial issue, the thesis adopts text analysis approach and reader response criticism. Through Lessing's narrative strategy, we can find traces of the writer's switches between the reliable narrator and the unreliable narrator which also reflect her contradictory colonial standpoint. The life of the white settlers is the utmost concern of the writer. Lessing sympathizes with the aboriginal, the misfortune brought to them by the colonizers yet she still defends for the colonizer for they are also the victims of the ill society.As for man-woman relationship, Lessing never deliberately stresses the oppression men had on women, but pays attention to the process of women's search for their own identity. The search of one's own identity, although doubtful and painful, is quite an essential for women to become mature psychologically.Lessing's Sufism thoughts are reflected in her attitudes on nature. Nature, in her opinion, is connected to human-beings in many aspects, affecting their life and shaping their personalities. Confronting with hostile environment, people have to take it as it comes, show tolerance and keep a tranquil mind.Lessing, with her insightful observation, depicts to us a comprehensive picture of South Rhodesia. She is a humanitarian who sympathizes with all the human-beings and yet shows no tolerance for the human weaknesses. She dreams for a better world but never loses hope in the presence. The limited perspective does not prevent her hope for betterment for the whole society.