Dilemma Of Female Identity In Terms Of Diaspora

Doris Lessing(1919-2013)is an outstanding British female writer who wins the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.Her works covers a wide range of topics,such as racial conflict,gender relations,women's destiny,identity confusion and so on.Among them,women's identity and women's consciousness are important topics of her works.The Marriages Between Zones Three,Four and Five(hereinafter referred to as"The Marriages")is the second novel of Lessing's science fiction series,Canopus in Argos:Archives.This works tells that the earth is ruled by colonial power and divided into five zones.Among them,zone three becomes the agent of colonial rule on behalf of the colonizer because of the absence of the supreme colonial power.Meanwhile,zone three is also a colonized country.In this cultural context,the queen of zone three,Al·Ith is forced to marry the king of zone four and exiles in zone four after she receives the decree from the "provider".She experiences cultural alienation and identity confusion due to her diaspora in Zone Four.At last,she gets a new life in Zone Two which she has been longing for.She completes her transformation and achieves the perfection of her soul with extraordinary courage and perseverance.Therefore,diaspora,the terms of postcolonial criticism can explain this phenomenon better.In addition,throughout the literature review at home and abroad,Some critics have been involved in the study of the heroine,Al·Ith's cultural identity,but due to the different focus of the study,there is still room for further interpretation in its manifestation,reasons and way out.Therefore,from the postcolonial critical perspective,this thesis focuses on analyzing the dilemma of Al-Ith's female identity in Lessing's space novel The Marriages in terms of diaspora,highlights her female identity,and further explores the causes of Al-Ith's identity dilemma and the way out of it,so as to illustrate Lessing's efforts to redefine her self-identity in this works and her attention to diasporic women.Apart from the introduction and conclusion,this thesis has five chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces Doris Lessing and her works,summarizes the research results of the novel The Marriages at home and abroad,puts forward research methods and significance,which lays the foundation for the following discussion.The second chapter mainly analyzes the theory of postcolonial diasporic criticism and female identity.It introduces the diasporic theories of famous postcolonialists Said,Hall and Homi Bahaba and the theory of female identity in details,which provide direction and target for the following study.The third chapter focuses on the manifestation and reasons of the dilemma of Al·Ith's female identity in diaspora.After she is forced to marry Ben Anta,the king of Zone Four,Al·Ith first has a marriage emotional crisis and identity confusion as a wife;secondly,as a queen,sister and mother,she has a family alienation with her relatives in Zone Three and a shortage of the sense of belonging,falling into identity confusion;Finally,she loses the identity as wife and queen,and then becomes the marginal Other of the two cultures,which makes the diaspora,Al·Ith lonely and confused.The fourth chapter discusses the way out of Al·Ith's identity dilemma.The first section analyzes that the way out of Al·Ith's identity dilemma lies in her self-independence and self-transcendence;The second section explains how Al·Ith finds the way out of her identity dilemma in "third space",and then constructs her own identity.The third section proposes that Al·Ith is the representative of Lessing.It is the transcendence of Lessing's self-consciousness that provides the way out for Al·Ith's identity dilemma.The fifth chapter is the conclusion.As exiles,Al·Ith and Lessing have similar experiences.They finally bravely get rid of the social constraints,embark on the journey of active diaspora,and find way out in the "third space".Lessing shows readers in the form of science fiction that marginal women must be self-independent and self-transcendent to regain self-identity in the face of their identity dilemma.