Acceptance Of Differences And Quest For Harmonious Coexistence:a Feminist Interpretation Of Doris Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three,Four And Five

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five is a space fiction produced by a British female writer, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in2007, Doris Lessing. It belongs to her science fictions series:The Canopus in Argos:Archives, and was published in1980. The novel tells a story about marriages of three zones in outer space that reveals Lessing’s deep concern about the relationship of two sexes in future society. The marriages also reveal Lessing’s wish to build a balanced society with differences and multi-cultures.Lessing used to call her The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five space fiction instead of science fiction for the convenience to analyze the social and cultural elements. However, since the publication the academic studies on The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five made by researchers both at home and abroad are limited and negative.This thesis analyzes three different social models of The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five from feminist perspective. Zone Three is a matriarchal society in which female traits are emphasized; Zone Four is a patriarchal land in which male values are stressed; Zone Five is an anarchical place in which absolute freedom is advocated by the nomads. Different social models are troubled with different problems which block social development. The paper discusses Lessing’s expectation to two sexes’relationship model and social relationship of people in the future society by analyzing the tortuous process from opposition to cooperation and then her expectation to integration: acceptance of differences and quest for harmonious coexistence.This thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is a sketch of Doris Lessing and her The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, it also arranges the status quo of the study on the novel both at home and abroad. Secondly, it makes a brief introduction to feminism thought, the focuses of three development stages, and Lessing’s attitudes toward it. The second chapter studies serious social problems of the three divisive zones:conservatism and self-importance of Zone Three, poverty and oppression of Zone Four, and moral degeneration of Zone Five. The third chapter discusses the tentative cooperation of opposing sexes and different social culture. It is the harmonious relationship that Lessing tends to express. The fourth chapter analyzes Lessing’s imagination of integration of the different cultures which Lessing’s quest for a multi-cultural society in. The fifth chapter is a conclusion, it shows Lessing’s wish to build a harmonious and integrated society.