Reviewing the Politics of Schizophrenic Alienation in Doris Lessing’s Selected Novels

Authors

  • Dr. Taruni Audichya Former Assistant Professor of English and Business Communication, JGI-Center for Management Studies, Bangalore (Karnataka)

Keywords:

Self-identity, Fragmentation, Consciousness, Schizophrenic Isolation

Abstract

In this paper an attempt is made to focus on fragmentation of consciousness originating from organic sensibility of an alienated and appalled post World War II society in Doris Lessing’s selected novels. Lessing’s protagonists seem absolute victims of the postmodern schizophrenic alienation and fractioned self. She has generated unprecedented characters and vivid themes related to the second half of twentieth century through her novels. Lessing’s writing career, spread over six decades, covers an era marked by World Wars, Cold Wars, and an infuriating time of nuclear-arms race. She meticulously presents the gloom of the era after the World Wars in her works as she ventilates her fictional energy covering the aspect of alienation and estrangement. Lessing’s novels explore the alienation of civilization as well as of the consciousness of an individual. In her novels, the struggle for self-identity transforms middle class protagonists into alienated individuals. They endeavour hard till the end of their lives to achieve fulfilment in a fragmented society. This conflict moves these protagonists towards schizophrenic isolation

References

Duvall, John N., and Ann J. Abadie, ed. Faulkner and Postmodernism: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1999. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.

Ingersoll, Earl G. ed. Doris Lessing: Conversations. New York: Ontario Review Press, 1994.

Laing, R. D. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Lessing, Doris. The Golden Notebook. London: Harper Perennial, 2007.

---. The Grass is Singing. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1973.

---. Landlocked. London: Flamingo, 1993.

---. A Proper Marriage. London: Flamingo, 2002.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “A Visit with Doris Lessing.” Southern Review, October 1973. University of San Francisco. 10 Aug 2009 <http://jco.usfca.edu/lessing.html>.

Quinn, Edward, ed. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms. 2nd ed. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Published

01.04.2012

How to Cite

Taruni Audichya. (2012). Reviewing the Politics of Schizophrenic Alienation in Doris Lessing’s Selected Novels. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 3(4), 2–5. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL030402

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4 (2012): April

Section

Research Articles

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