A Study Of The Fifth Child From The Perspective Of New Historicism

Doris Lessing is one of the most significant British writers in the contemporary literatureworld. She is famous for her productive works and various writing styles during her nearlysixty years’ career. In2007, Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature and became thisaward’s oldest winner, which also aroused more widely attention of the critics and researchersfor her. The multiple cultural background and multidimensional perspective of Lessing makeher works have respectively broad themes. The researches on Doris Lessing in China aremainly concentrated on her masterpieces The Golden Notebook and The Grass Is Singing withthe theoretical view of post-colonialism, Feminism, Marxism, and Sufism; and it mainlyfocuses on the themes in abroad.This thesis selects her novel The Fifth Child as research object, which belongs to themid-term works in which period Lessing focused on the social reality. Although the realisticnovel does not bring so much honor to Lessing, it also shows the author’s unique feelings tothe work which is uncommon in the author’s writing career. It is a successful trial whichconveys her strong sense of social and moral responsibility through the application ofhistoricism in The Fifth Child. Meanwhile, it symbolizes Lessing turns back to realisticwriting from out-space fiction with the application of historicism. The thesis combinespsychoanalysis to analyze the novel aiming at showing Lessing’s revelation of dark side ofhuman nature, the predicament of the marginalized, and meditation on rationality andcivilization.The thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter one presents a brief introduction toDoris Lessing and The Fifth Child, the critical views of The Fifth Child at home and abroad.Chapter two presents the development of New Historicism and prominent elements of NewHistoricism. Chapter three uses New Historicism and psychoanalysis literary theories tointerpret the novel. Chapter four concludes that in The Fifth Child Doris Lessing reveals thedark side of human nature and shows her concern about the predicament of the marginalizedand conveys her reflections of rationality and civilization.