The Trilogy Of Self-perfection: A Study Of Sufism On Doris Lessing’s Novels

Doris Lessing, the eleventh female winner of Nobel Prize in Literature, is hailed as the greatest female writer after Virginia Woolf. Her works are pervasively renowned for their rich contents, various styles and unique perspectives, of which the multi-artistic and philosophic concepts have been acclaimed as the treasure of world literature. As a prominently prolific writer, Lessing’s works have always been the focus of scholars both at home and abroad, whose researches mainly focus on colonialism, feminism and the art of space, whereas few of them have done systematic research on her works in terms of Sufism. Based on the Sufi perfection theory and taking her three novels of different periods as examples, of which are The Grass Is Singing(1950), The Golden Notebook(1962), and The Memoirs of a Survivor(1974), the thesis expounds that the perfection of the protagonists in these three novels are the representation of the three stages of Sufism,including self-exile, self-revelation as well as self-perfection, thus further reveals the increasing and progressive influence of Sufism on Lessing’s creating.The thesis is divided into four parts. Based on The Grass Is Singing, Chapter One analyzes the helplessness and frustration of Mary in her struggles against the outer world in the self-exile stage, who realizes ultimately that death is the only salvation. Chapter Two takes Anna in The Golden Notebook as the example and discusses her exploration of the inner world and the female freedom in the self-revelation stage, who realizes the breakthrough of self after a series of division and unity, and comes to understand further that everyone can be the “boulder pusher” for the development of human society. Chapter Three depicts the positive exploration of the anonymous narrator and Emily for the way of salvation in a world which is on the verge of extinction, both of whom realize the perfection of self and achieve the illumination of spirits through the equilibrium of the inner and outer world. Chapter Four explores the influence of Sufism on Lessing’s creating by analyzing the protagonists’ different ways of perfection in these three novels,thus to reveal that the equilibrium of the inner psychology and the outer world turns out to be the best way of Sufi perfection. The study of Sufism in Lessing’s novels contributes to further study of her creating ideas and artistic styles, while the equilibrium of the inner and outer world provides the modern society which is deeply influenced by the fast food culture with the best prescription for its abundance of material while lacking spirits.