A Sad Song For Colonialism

Doris Lessing,an important writer in British contemporary literature,is regarded as the greatest female writer after Woolf.She is an epicist of the female experience,whose fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.Her first novel The Grass Is Singing depicts the reality of South Africa in 1930s-1940s,reflecting the hard life of the colonizers and the colonized under colonization.This study,based on postcolonialism,analyzes the colonial myth composed by the colonizers in the view of its social background.It reflects the colonized's awakened ethnic consciousness and interprets Lessing's anti-colonial thoughts in The Grass Is Singing.This thesis can be divided into five parts,besides the introduction and the conclusion:Chapter One is the literature review.This chapter generally sums up the previous studies on The Grass Is Singing at home and abroad.These studies mainly probe into the image of the female protagonist,the writing skills and the colonial themes.However,the studies on the colonial themes are still inadequate.Therefore,on the ground of the previous studies,this thesis attempts to analyze the colonial themes embodied in the novel from the perspective of postcolonialism.Chapter Two is the theoretical framework.It mainly introduces the postcolonial theories of Fanon,Foucault,Said and Bhabha.Chapter Three discusses the colonial myth composed by the colonizers.The Grass Is Singing is the reflection of this myth.The colonizers represented by Mary and Charlie have a prejudice against the colonized.For them,the colonizers are superior and the colonized inferior. The colonized's poor life and their inherent weaknesses make the colonizers firmly believe in their superiority.Such a myth is branded on the colonizers and the colonized's mind.Chapter Four is an interrogation of the colonial myth.On the one hand,the disillusion of the colonial myth comes from the division of the colonizers.The government sacrifices the colonizers' interests and changes its ruling policies to safeguard the colonial rule.Dick's failure and Mary's death in the colony hint that the colonial authority is getting weakened.On the other hand,the civilization and resistance of the colonized shakes the colonial ruling severely.The colonized realizes their human rights.Moses,the representative of the colonized,shows his shining human nature and his cold-blooded resistance to the mainstream culture.Therefore,the colonial rule faces its unprecedented crisis.Chapter Five analyzes the collapse of the colonial system.The Grass Is Singing sings a sad song for the colonial rule.The colonizers find that they are disillusioned,which exposes the fragility of the colonial myth.Meanwhile,the natives begin to realize their ethnic consciousness. Moses,the spokesman of the natives,carries on their historical tradition.It is proved that the colonial rule,confronted with successive challenges from the colonized,withers away.The thesis thinks that The Grass Is Singing embodies Lessing's anti-colonial ideas.The colonial myth composed by the colonizers tries to shape the positive colonizers and the negative colonized.However,the colonial facts in the novel interrogate the colonial myth,which makes the colonial rule more difficult.Besides,the colonized's ethnic consciousness aggravates this colonial condition.These makes people realize that the colony belongs to the colonized.