Dialogue And Communication-Analysis Of The Feminist Strategy In The Golden Notebook

As one of the most respectable and prolific female writers in British literary history, Doris Lessing has created more than 40 books, including short stories, novels, plays and so on. The most representative novel--The Golden Notebook brought her the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007. It has rightly offered an understanding of issues such as political repression, sexual abuse, single parenthood, writer's block and the women's movement. This novel was published in 1962, when the second wave of feminist movements was in the embryonic stage. Consequently, Lessing's statement about twentieth-century women leading independent lives aroused much interest in critics. Walter Allen commented the book as "impressive in its honesty and integrity, and unique...as an exposition of the emotional problems that face an intelligent woman who wished to live in...freedom." (Greene 95)Most researches about The Golden Notebook concentrated on its feminist theme. Some critics thought that Lessing was promoting feminist movements in the book for its focus on modern women's life experiences. Others thought that on the contrary Lessing was just satirizing feminism through her ironical depiction of free women's predicaments. Each group sticks to their own stand. This thesis presents its view that these two views are too partial; furthermore it expounds that the uniqueness of Lessing's feminist ideas lies in the distinctive feminist strategy suggested by her in The Golden Notebook.By analyzing the text, this paper explores abundant feminist elements. Lessing uses woman as protagonist as well as narrator, creates an anti-traditional novel structure different from the traditional one formulated by men, and describes free women's unique life experiences. All these bestow The Golden Notebook a strong feminist color. Undoubtedly, this novel is advocating feminism. At least, it is about feminism. The aim of describing women's political disillusionment and emotional crisis is to show the uselessness of the strategies suggested by modern feminist fighters—triving for political rights, escaping from family and fighting against men. In Lessing's own words, "I support their aims, but I don't like their shrill voices and their nasty ill-mannered ways. I don't think that women's liberation will change much though, not because there is any thing wrong with their aims,..." Though Lessing herself always refuses to be called a feminist writer and doesn't approve that The Golden Notebook is referred to as "a bible for feminists", through her statement, we can see clearly that what she objects is not feminism itself but the method adopted by the feminists to win women liberation. Through the construction of a harmonious relationship between Anna and Saul, Lessing expresses that the best way for women to obtain freedom—cooperation through dialogue and communication.In terms of building a harmonious society, the key point is to properly deal with the numerous relationships especially the various interpersonal relationships, among which one of the most important is the relationship between men and women. So Lessing's promoting to establish a friendly relationship between the two genders through dialogue and communication has its profound meaning.