Depression, Alienation And Identities: An Analysis Of The Self-other Relationship In Doris Lessing’s African Fiction

Doris Lessing(1919-2013) is one of the most important British female writers in the literary world. Since her first novel was issued in 1950, she has published more than 50 novels, novellas and collections of short stories, two autobiographies, a s well as a large number of poems, plays, essays, books on literary theories and documentary writings.Lessing’s early novels are mainly about African life. When she dwells on African colony, she explores such essential issues as individual-collective relationship, colonialism, the meaning of home in traditional realism with an omniscient narrator telling and judging occurrences and prevalent views. Based on Lessing’s African novels, The Grass Is Singing and The Golden Notebook, as well as the collections of African Stories, she reveals grave meditation and expresses her deep concern on the recurring theme–the essential binary relationship between the Self and the Other, and the meaning of home for different people in different situations.This thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, body and conclusion.The introduction part respectively presents Doris Lessing’s life and creation, domestic and overseas research status, as well as the research methods of the thesis. The body part is divided into four chapters. Chapter One generalizes the definition of the Self and the Other, the post-colonialism and the relationship among them by overall theoretical analysis of the content. Chapter Two mainly explores the inevitable alienation of white dwellers who regard natives and the land as the Other. Chapter Three discusses the conflicts among the whites and individual alienation as a result of the varieties of binary oppositions of the Self and the Other in the white society. Chapter Four focuses on women‘s tragic life under the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy. It can be concluded that from the previous three chapters that the Other not only appears as aphasia groups but also will be redefined on the basis of the foundation between confrontation and integration. The Other, which has its own premise of the voice, actually has already aware of their social status and responsibility. The conclusion part is to summarize and sublimate the content of the thesis, sum up the overall characteristics of Lessing’s African fiction writings and her persistence. Lessing‘s works will definitely make a lasting engrossing force among readers who find out what life means in different periods.