Sufic Transcendence In Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook

Awarded for the Nobel Prize in literature in 2007, Doris Lessing is considered to be the most extraordinary woman writer after Virginia Woolf. The Golden Notebook is universally highlighted as Lessing's real breakthrough. The form is in accordance with the theme of the metamorphosis from breakdown to wholeness. Besides, it is obvious that the protagonist Anna and Doris Lessing herself share mutual roles and similar experience, although Lessing herself doesn't like the'autographical'thing.Lessing has been a student of Sufism since 1960s and she has written plenty of articles and essays on Sufism since 1964. However, It is Lessing herself who admits that The Golden Notebook is her"most Sufi book"written before she encounters Sufism. With this consideration, based on close textual analyses on metamorphosis of the protagonist, this thesis attempts to interpret The Golden Notebook through Sufic lens, thus to stress the function of Sufic transcendence in self evolution, and in this way portrays the subversion of the Western traditional philosophy in Lessing's work. In addition, integrated with the self experience of Lessing, the thesis also aims at exploring the influence of creating this novel, which leads Lessing to Sufism, thus emphasizing the retroaction of literature works.This thesis is composed of five parts. The introduction part briefly introduces Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, Sufism and related critical theories. The following three parts of the body focus on the process of Anna's metamorphosis, from mental breakdown due to the difficulties in identity construction (according to four notebooks) in Chapter Two, to her attempts to get integration in Chapter Three, and to the final unification of a real person (according to the golden notebook) in Chapter Four. The conclusion part is a summary of the function of Sufic transcendence in self healing, which subverts the Western traditional philosophy, as well as displays the retroaction of the novel that leads to Lessing's way to Sufism.