The Construction of Mother Archetypes in Five Novels by Doris Lessing
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ADVERTIMENT. Lʼaccés als continguts dʼaquesta tesi queda condicionat a lʼacceptació de les condicions dʼús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commons: http://cat.creativecommons.org/?page_id=184 ADVERTENCIA. El acceso a los contenidos de esta tesis queda condicionado a la aceptación de las condiciones de uso establecidas por la siguiente licencia Creative Commons: http://es.creativecommons.org/blog/licencias/ WARNING. The access to the contents of this doctoral thesis it is limited to the acceptance of the use conditions set by the following Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en Ph.D. Thesis Closing Circles: The Construction of Mother Archetypes in Five Novels by Doris Lessing. Anna Casablancas i Cervantes Thesis supervisor: Dr. Andrew Monnickendam. Programa de doctorat en Filologia Anglesa. Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Germanística. Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 2016. Als meus pares, que mereixen veure’s reconeguts en tots els meus èxits pel seu exemple d’esforç i sacrifici, i per saber sempre que ho aconseguiria. Als meus fills, Júlia i Bernat, que són la motivació, la força i l’alegria en cadascun dels projectes que goso emprendre. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Andrew Monnickendam, for the continuous support and guidance of my Ph.D. study. His wise advice and encouragement made it possible to finally complete this thesis. My sincere thanks also goes to Sara Granja, administrative assistant for the Doctorate programme at the Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Germanística, for her professionalism and efficiency whenever I got lost among the bureaucracy. But the person who unquestionably deserves my deepest gratitude is, for countless reasons, Dr. Joan Curbet Soler, who gave me my first literature lessons at the university and aroused my fascination in the subject. This thesis has accompanied us, and your love and support have turned it into a fascinating experience. Thank you for your inestimable help, and wise advice; for your patience, your indomitable enthusiasm, and for understanding my motivations better than anyone else. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Structure of the thesis. ....................................................................................... 6 1.2. Justification of the corpus. ............................................................................... 10 1.3. Literature review. ............................................................................................. 18 1.3.1. Biographical readings. .............................................................................. 19 1.3.2. Approaches based on form. ...................................................................... 23 1.3.3. Studies on identity. ................................................................................... 26 1.3.4. Age studies. .............................................................................................. 33 1.3.5. Other approaches. ..................................................................................... 35 1.4. Theoretical background and methodology. ..................................................... 36 1.4.1. Jungian psychoanalysis. ........................................................................... 37 1.4.2. Feminism. ................................................................................................. 41 1.4.3. Lacanian psychoanalysis and the post-Lacanians. ................................... 45 2. THE GRASS IS SINGING, 1950. ......................................................................... 53 2.1. Introduction. ..................................................................................................... 53 2.2. Theoretical basis for a psychological reading. ................................................. 55 2.3. Revision of the previous psychoanalytical readings. ....................................... 57 2.4. Working of the mind. ....................................................................................... 61 2.4.1. A circularity of memories and imagination. ............................................. 61 2.4.2. Jungian archetypes and the mother-image in Mary’s individuation process. …………………………………………………………………………...66 2.4.3. Lacanian influence on Mary’s individuation process. .............................. 74 2.4.4. Kristevan influence on Mary’s individuation process. ............................. 78 2.5. The psychology of spaces. ............................................................................... 80 2.6. Conclusion. ...................................................................................................... 84 3. THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, 1962. ..................................................................... 95 3.1. Introduction. ..................................................................................................... 95 3.2. Notebook writing and the fragmented self..................................................... 101 3.3. Roles, archetypes and individuation. ............................................................. 112 3.3.1. Perspectives on fragmentation and the self. ........................................... 112 3.3.2. The men in the novel: animus and anima. .............................................. 117 3.3.3. The women in the novel: the shadow. .................................................... 130 3.3.4. Animus, anima and the mother-image. ................................................... 139 3.4. The domestic space as symbol. ...................................................................... 149 3.5. Conclusion. .................................................................................................... 151 4. THE SUMMER BEFORE THE DARK, 1973. .................................................... 159 i 4.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................... 159 4.2. Subconscious life and symbols. ..................................................................... 165 4.3. The individuation process. ............................................................................. 178 4.4. The psychology of spaces. ............................................................................. 185 4.5. Language and the symbolic. .......................................................................... 187 4.6. Conclusion. .................................................................................................... 194 5. THE FIFTH CHILD, 1988. .................................................................................. 201 5.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................... 201 5.2. Construction of an identity based on imaginary ground. ............................... 205 5.2.1. The good mother. .................................................................................... 211 5.3. Destruction of identity and mismatch with reality. ........................................ 214 5.3.1. The bad mother. ...................................................................................... 216 5.4. The Jungian process of individuation and the archetypes. ............................ 224 5.5. Conclusion. .................................................................................................... 230 6. ALFRED AND EMILY, 2008. ............................................................................ 235 6.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................... 235 6.2. Intertextuality / fact and fiction. .................................................................... 237 6.3. The Individuation process. ............................................................................. 241 6.3.1. The fragmented self. ............................................................................... 241 6.4. Archetypes. .................................................................................................... 246 6.5. Motherhood and the mother archetype. ......................................................... 253 6.6. Conclusion. .................................................................................................... 263 7. CONCLUSIONS. ................................................................................................. 269 7.1. Revisiting theoretical perspectives. ............................................................... 270 7.1.1. Psychoanalysis. ....................................................................................... 270 7.1.2. Feminism. ............................................................................................... 277 7.2. Observations on the main critical approaches. .............................................. 285 7.3. Female identity-building and the mother figure: final interpretations. .......... 290 7.4. Suggestions for further research. ................................................................... 297 8. WORKS CITED ................................................................................................... 301 ii TABLE OF FIGURES Diagram 1: distribution of the Paul/Michael character. ............................................... 123 Diagram 2: characters who embody the anima/animus dichotomy, and their doubles.