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Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was a British writer born in Iran who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her novel The Golden Notebook is composed of four notebooks within one novel, each representing different parts of the main character Anna Wulf's life. The complex structure was meant to represent the difficulty women faced in achieving freedom and their own identity in a time of social and political shifts. While seen as a feminist work, Lessing did not want the novel categorized that way as it explored more than just gender relations. The fragmented form demonstrated women's alienation from an authentic sense of self as they tried to find meaning and liberation.

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58 views

Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was a British writer born in Iran who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her novel The Golden Notebook is composed of four notebooks within one novel, each representing different parts of the main character Anna Wulf's life. The complex structure was meant to represent the difficulty women faced in achieving freedom and their own identity in a time of social and political shifts. While seen as a feminist work, Lessing did not want the novel categorized that way as it explored more than just gender relations. The fragmented form demonstrated women's alienation from an authentic sense of self as they tried to find meaning and liberation.

Uploaded by

Mersiha Jašarević
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Doris Lessing, born in Iran, was a British writer, whose works are concerned with people in

political and social shifts in the 20th century. In 2007, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Editors of Encyclopaedia, 2020) Her novel The Golden Notebook is one of the most
complex novels. (ibid.)
To understand the book, one has to understand its form, which is way too complex. Lessing
did a great job to confuse her readers, but she did it for a reason. The novel and its form speak
for themselves, and to grasp its idea, you have to go outside the box, and beyond things, you
already know. Why would she write four differents notebooks within one novel? Is not it
easier to write only one, coherent book, which is easily understood? I would answer no. The
reason is the time in which she wrote the book. We cannot help but notice the differences
between sexes in the work, and Lessing's observations of it and „denials of the importance of
discomfort with the sexual status quo“, as Morgan (1973, p. 4) wrote it.
It is understandable why people thought of the book as a feminist work. However, Lessing
was not happy about it and did not want her book to be classified that way, since it does not
only describe gender relations but also social and political topics and as such, it does not fit
into being exclusively feminist work. (Jordison, 2019)
Lessing's deliberate division of her novel into four sections indeed presents this „alienation
from the authentic female perspective“. Four sections, each of them representing parts from
Anna Wulf's life, say much about women's striving for liberation. The writer made our
reading experience more difficult by introducing many characters and their experiences,
especially those of women. Also, the section „Free Woman“describes Anna Wulf in the third
person. Taking all these things into consideration, it is evident that Lessing attempted to
represent what it means to live in such conditions for women and what it takes to achieve
your goals, your sexual desires, and to be free. Each of these sections resembles Anna's parts
of her psyche. Through these female characters, she is trying to find a sense and herself. It is
like when people try to do something for a long time and fail, and they forget who are they
anymore – it drains them and they start looking for meaning. It is the same with this book and
her characters. Anna's attempt to put her life together ended up an illusion that she is free. The
truth is that she still depends on man, she still has her obligations. None of these women are
liberated since each of them still turn to men. Anna's alter-ego Ella is one more attempt of
hers to express her frustration and find her identity. With her emotional breakdown, we get
those sections, that together make sense, because each of them consists of something that is
not in the other, and vice versa. The structure is „cracked, broken in pieces, and, at the same
time, hinged, held together by folding joints.“ (Schweickart, 1985, p. 268)
As Morgan claimed in this quote, the book is „alienation from authentic selfhood” as Anna
takes on other identities to express herself and tell her story. She is unable to be herself, she is
in shadow. In fact, Anna, as well as her alter-ego, never escape alienation. When Paul broke
up with Ella, she felt weak as her whole life depended on a man. She realized she lost her
independence and freedom, but yet the thought that men and women are not equal is inscribed
in her mind, and she behaves according to it. (Morgan, 1973, p. 476) That is why women in
the book never escape alienation, they embrace it. Inability to be their authentic self makes
them feel as they are not enough and they always need a man to give them approval.
This „alienation from the authentic female perspective“ has its role. (Schweickart, 1985, p.
268) It is proof of women's fragmentation and loss of identity trying to be themselves again.
The novel is a quest to overcome obstacles and norms that tie women to one place until one
finally find sense. This deliberate alienation shows how difficult the path to freedom is (if
anyone ever comes to it), and how difficult it is to find your true identity, even when you
imagine yourself to be someone else. Then you think you have run away from yourself and
your experiences. We all do that when we feel hopeless. It is easier when you imagine your
experiences as someone else's and when you do not accept it as your own. Eventually, like
Anna, you realize you cannot escape it, and you are forever tied to fragments of your life,
trying to put them together.

Sources:
Morgan, E. (1973). Alienation of the Woman Writer in "The Golden Notebook". Contemporary Literature,
14(4), 471-480. doi:10.2307/1207467
Schweickart, P. (1985). READING A WORDLESS STATEMENT: THE STRUCTURE OF DORIS LESSING'S
"THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK". Modern Fiction Studies, 31(2), 263-279. Retrieved January 24, 2021,
from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26281494
Jordison, S. (2019). Struggling with The Golden Notebook? The hard work is worth it. Retrieved 24
January 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/oct/22/the-golden-notebook-
hard-work-doris-lessing-reading-group

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