An Interpretation Of Martha Quest From Post-Colonialist Feminism

Doris Lessing (1919-) is one of the world's most famous living English novelist. She has written more than ten novels, seventy short stories, two dramas, one collection of poems, many papers and reminiscences. In 1954 she was awarded Somerset Maugham Award for short novel, and in 1976 she was granted French Prix Medici's Award for The Golden Notebook. In 2007, she was awarded The Novel Prize. Lessing is recognized as the most outstanding writer nowadays.Martha Quest is her first book in Children of Violence Series, which begins with Martha's questioning adolescence and ends with her first marriage. Based on Doris Lessing's own life and personal experience she vividly describes the African society and racial problems in the 1930s. This thesis is a tentative attempt at an analysis of Martha Quest from postcolonial perspective and feminist viewpoint. It conducts a detailed analysis of the social relationship of African colonial society and Martha's quest for freedom, equality and "the self as woman.The thesis includes three parts, which are introduction, main body, and conclusion. Introduction starts with a brief presentation of Doris Lessing and her work Martha Quest as well as reviews on the book from both overseas and domestic academic circle, and it ends with the introduction about postcolonial and feminist theories.The main body analyzes the text from three chapters:Chapter one makes a thorough inquiry in Martha's quest for freedom. Firstly, this chapter analyzes claustrophobic family circumstances of Martha. To be specific, both her parents' education and her claustrophobic family life shape Martha into a double character. On one hand, she is intolerant of repetitive life which her parents have. She is eager to get freedom when facing confinement. On the other hand, she is influenced by her parents and inevitably inherits some degree of conventional thoughts, which become the frustrations in her later quest. Secondly, the strict hierarchy makes Martha feel choky. She yearns for free life. Facing confinement, Martha starts her quest.Chapter Two makes a detailed analysis of Martha's quest for equality under the background of colonial domination. The chapter elaborates Martha's democratic dream, the friendship with Jews Brothers, her love affair with Adolph, her new life in the Sports Club before a deep analysis of Martha's quest for equality.Chapter Three discusses Martha's quest for "the self" as a woman. This chapter expounds Martha's rebellion for adolescence, love and marriage under the background of colonial domination and patriarchal society, and then makes a thorough inquiry for Martha's quest in "the self".The concluding part of the thesis makes it clear that there exists cold violence of hierarchy in Doris Lessing's African novel Martha Quest. As a woman, Martha is confined in the African society, she is destined to be thwarted in questing freedom, equality and "the self". Her democratic dream is doomed to be broken.