Ecofeminist Turn Towards The Future:A Study In Doris Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three,Four And Five

The Marriages Between Zones Three,Four and Five is the SF novel collected in Doris Lessing’s ‘Canopus in Argos: Archives’ series in which Lessing renders the consideration of the futuristic human conditions and destiny through the fable story of queen Al·lth and king Ben Ata whose love shifts from conflict into integration.Her sudden shift towards the future to manifest the feminist thought and the concern of ecology is closely tied with her personal conceptions and the epochal background,further bringing considerations and changes for human’s living and development in the society where technology is developed rapidly.Based on close reading of the text,this thesis aims to study the eco-feminist turn towards the future in the novel.Firstly,centering on the ecological feminist theory that endeavors to attribute the oppressed status of woman and nature to the same dominated framework ― patriarchal value and advocate the emancipation of woman should be carried out with the unfettering of nature,this thesis analyzes Lessing’s vista of the utopian society and the harmonious sexual relationship based on the following points: first,the establishment of Lessing’s feminist utopian society approximates the ecological harmony in zone three.Meanwhile,the feminist utopian society should also be devoted to the sexual harmony.Second,Lessing has exhibited the limitations of zone three,four and five.Under the control of the ribald king in zone four and the radical queen in zone five,human and nature as well as woman and man have gone into the way of opposition.Though zone three Lessing has established achieves the ecological harmony,the defects lie in that man’s lessen participation in the society and the repressed personal emotions.Third,Lessing has demonstrated that the conflict has been resolved through the co-marriage.As for Lessing’s vista of a futuristic world,it aims to give people some alert of ecological crisis in the future and the repression of woman’s status under the androcentrism.Through the co-marriages and cultural integration between zones three,four and five,Al·lth,closer to nature and animals in zone three,helps Ben Ata alter the attitudes toward woman based on the perspective of female and learns the way to respect the woman’s subjectivity and difference,furthers eradicating the opposition towards woman and nature.This thesis draws a conclusion that in the futuristic world that Lessing has depicted,an ideal construction of the equal sexuality must be based on the emphasis of the difference as much as continuity of both man and woman as well in the way of eradication of binary opposition,it is unreliable on the sole woman’s power and it must through the joint-work of man and woman can be worked out to change“the other” status of both woman and nature so that a more well-balanced society and the harmony between human and nature can be achieved.