On The Individuation Of Kate Brown In The Summer Before The Dark

Doris Lessing(1919—),one of the most prominent and energetic writers in contemporary English literature,appeals to a large readership all over the world with her prolific writing of multi-polarized thematic concerns,distinctive perspectives and daring experimental narration. After the publication of her maiden work-The Grass is Singing,there have been by now over 20 novels,11 short story anthologies,10 collected literary works,5 dramas and 1 poetic anthology bobbing up.Many of Lessing's works both in scope and profundity reflect women's spiritual confusion and identity crisis,thus arousing both praise from feminists and violent argument from critics.This paper mainly tackles her bestseller—The Summer before the Dark.This novel still centers around female problems,faithfully depicting the middle-aged women confronted with problems and crisis.This novel represents the more mature meditation of Lessing who's readily moving toward middle age on female problems,especially the concerns about the destiny of ordinary women in real life.Therefore,in the light of Jungian "individuation" theory,this thesis makes a tentative study of the inner world of the protagonist reflected in the novel.It aims to explore the process and the significance of the self-discovery and reveal the loss of self in spiritual world and the essence of self-discovery. The thesis is made up of four parts. Introduction contains the general information of the novelist Doris Lessing,the fiction The Summer before the Dark,the methodology of the research and the critical responses to the novel.The first chapter of this thesis analyzes the first step of individuation—the stage of consciousness,that is,a preliminary realization of the persona,shadow and self in the unconscious mind.Kate's persona encompasses the three roles—wife,mother and sexual object.Her shadow represents the repressed desire in her mind.She cherishes the strong desire to be a "free" woman in economy,sexuality and spirit in her deep heart.The appearance of self takes the form of dreams.Jung regards dream as the clearest reflection of unconscious mind and indicates that one can recognize one's self by studying the dreams. Kate's recognition of her true self comes through her seal dreams. The second chapter explores the integrating stage of the process of individuation,which is very crucial to the individuation.In this stage,the opposites of persona and shadow in the psyche tend to be balanced.Therefore,in the self-discovery,it is necessary to deal with her inflated and fixed persona and the negative factors of shadow respectively.Thus a stable and mature "individuation" physic can be accomplished,or any one-sided development of psychic would undoubtedly result in the twisting and deformity of psychic,and ultimately the doom in agonizing struggle.The Third Chapter is about the realization stage of individuation.This part mainly analyzes Kate's quest for individuation from two parts:the essence of individuation and the success of individuation.The self is the goal as well as essence of individuation.During the long and painful process of individuation,Kate has changed her appearance,qualities and languages and finally gains the new birth of self.At the same time,Kate's final return to her family both physically and spiritually symbolizes the success of the individuation.Her success owes to the appropriate environment,her endeavor and the help of sisterhood. ConclusionThe final part summarizes the whole paper,and reaches a conclusion:The Summer before the Dark is a novel of self-discovery,which typically unfolds a process of individuation.As an ordinary woman in the modern times,how on earth she should create her own life with salient dignity,how to realize her independent persona and how to deal with the relationship between social obligation and personal freedom,all of which are the problems worth dwelling upon.This novel is Lessing's another mature and independent thinking after many years of exploration in women's value orientation.It not only elevates the recognition and development history to a higher level,but also are profound and edifying,granting the women in the works more salient and solid images.Through the exploration of the self-discovery process of a typical middle-aged woman,Lessing guides the direction in the self-quest and psychological maturity for modern middle-aged women,thus it has profound social and realistic significance.