Analysis Of The Grass Is Singing By Doris Lessing From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Doris Lessing (1919—), a contemporary famous British writer, is the eleventh woman who wins the Nobel Prize for literature. Her early works, based on Africa, mainly discuss the problems of human survival circumstances, and are famous for the unique autobiographical style. This paper studies her maiden novel The Grass Is Singing from the space angle and goes deep into the text. It analyses different kinds of unharmonious relations in the Southern African society including the relationships between men and nature, men and women, class and racial problems, and helps the readers understand clearly that each element in people’s living space shall be in a coordinated process, which is essential to build a harmonious society.The thesis is composed of six parts.The introduction gives a brief account of Doris Lessing and her maiden work The Grass Is Singing. The current situation of study on The Grass Is Singing both at home and abroad is also included.Chapter One introduces the concept of space, and focuses on the space theories by Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault and Michael Crang. Henry Lefebvre claims that "(social) space is a (social) product "and divides space into three dimensions:physical space, social space and mental space; Michel Foucault emphasizes the significance of space from the social and power perspective; Michael Crang sticks that space contains more cultural meaning and is endowed with identity such as gender and so forth. In addition, Fredric Jameson puts forward the concept of hyperspace which implys that it is not a real space, but a virtual space filled with illusion and unreal mages.Chapter Two explains in detail the metaphor of "house" or "household" as an important space in the novel. The household before Mary’s marriage and Mary’s household on the veld after her marriage, seemingly as the resident space, are both paradise lost, in other words, the place of different contradictory and unharmonious relationships. House is the epitome of social space, in which racial conflict, class contradictions, and women problems are all reflected in the important space "house". It is endowed with new meanings, labeled with the racial, class and gender marks.Chapter Three analyses further the social space in The Grass Is Singing. Power space and cultural geography theories are used to explain the social space on the African veld. First of all, The veld and the farm described by Lessing are the natural landscapes, which lay a tragic tone, implying the theme of spiritual decay and revealing the contradiction between men and nature. Secondly, the veld and the farm, as the married Mary and Dick’s living place, carry different moral values and all kinds of relations between people and the values and moral orientation, which just are the target of the social space theory. By the analysis of oppression and of vying for power between different groups in the social space, this chapter reveals various disharmonious factors on the Southern African veld and the farm, including unharmonious relationship between people and nature, race and class problems, male and female problems.Chapter Four explores three different individual spaces. According to the space theories, individual space includes the living space and psychological space. Mary is in a struggling but hopeless space; Dick escapes from the city and lives lonely on the farm, and he is too capricious to be capable; Moses is separated physically and psychologically but independent. By probing the three different individual spaces, this chapter illustrates the great tragedy caused by the racial and class conflicts.The conclusion part points out the significance of interpreting The Grass Is Singing by using the theory of spatial criticism. It also indicates that space is a heterogeneous field which is the result of all kinds of power. No matter what kind of space, the harmonious relationship of all of the factors is a must. Social development needs a consistent multi-dimensional space. Human beings can coexist and develop together in a harmonious space through constant communication and understanding between different individuals.