Gothic Style In Lessing's The Fifth Child From The Perspective Of Spatial Narrative

The Fifth Child is a novel written by British woman writer Doris Lessing,the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 2007.The novel reveals the dark side of human beings by depicting a story that the fifth child Ben is repelled by Lovatt's family.This thesis uses the framework of spatial narrative to analyze the gothic style in the novel from three aspects:topographical space,chronotopic space and psychological space.Then the ugly side and the coldness of the society are shown.This thesis first introduces the author Doris Lessing and her novel The Fifth Child as well as the literature review of The Fifth Child at home and abroad.Then spatial narrative is introduced as theoretical framework.The characteristic of gothic style is also introduced.The body is composed of three parts:the first part presents the gothic style in topographical space through describing the Lovatt's scary house,the charnel institution and other ogreish places;the second part analyzes the gothic style in the family space and the space outside the family;the third part analyzes the gothic style in the psychological space of Harriet and Ben.The psychological space of Harriet is mainly constructed by her image of marginal people and lady Macbeth.Ben's psychological space is constructed by his atavism and satanic image.Finally,the summary of the thesis is presented.Using spatial narrative to analyze the gothic style in The Fifth Child provides a preference and contributes a strength for the study of Doris Lessing's work and makes an attempt to combine spatial narrative with gothic fiction and reveals the coldness of the world.Then the summon for love and responsibility are revealed.