..,.. TRANSCENDENCE THROUGH DISORDER: A STUDY OF THE FICTION OF DORIS LESSING BY ~ EILEEN MANION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT Of THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY MCGILL UNIVERSITY, 1979 0 ii ABSTRACT This thesis explores the way that Doris Lessing depicts the colonial order in her fiction by juxtaposing a discussion of her portrayal of colonialism with an examination of several descriptive analyses of the colonial situation and with a summary of Rhodesia's development as a colony. Looking at her work in the light of these socio-political and historical materials reveals that Lessing in her portrayal of colonialism concentrates on the way authoritarian bonds are forged and maintained. Her fictions represent family situations involving whites and African servants where relations based on domination come to seem normal, ordinary and inevitable. Racial and sexual oppression reinforce and support one another, combining to form a peculiar form of inconsistent paternalism which stultifies whites and undermines African resistance. Within her work as a whole, Lessing's portrayal of colonialism is importan~ not only because it recreates a vivid sense of a particular historical situation, but also because it represents a typical example of a complex authori­ tarian system. Lessing is preoccupied with revealing both the tenacity of the social order, which persists because its assumptions are internalized and form the individual conscious­ ness, and the efforts of individuals to transcend society's constraints. Lessing has her characters explore the two modes 0 of human liberation offered in the twentieth century: socialism iii and psychoanalysis/therapy. In the Children of Violence and The Golden Notebook we see the failure of political organiz- ations whose aim is to revolutionize society and free the human spirit. These groups take account only of political and economic oppression and ignore the domain of human subjectivity. However, institutionalized psychotherapy also fails in her novels, for it is uncritical of the system into which it attempts to reintegrate indiv~als, and with its narrow, ideological view of sanity, it repressively isolates and destroys those who refuse to accept its norms. In both these works Lessing suggests that a complete recovery of the irrational elements of the human mind which are repressed in a civilization dominated by instrumental reason is both possible and necessary. Her work does not merely exalt the irrational, however, for she structures her novels dialect- ically. The open-ended form of her more ambitious fiction provokes the reader to an imaginative response which takes him beyond the text, even beyond actuality, to consider alternative social possibilities. iv ABSTRAIT Cette these analyse les representations de l'ordre colonial depeintes par Doris Lessing et elle joint a cette definition du colonialisme plusiers analyses descriptives et un resume du developpement de la Rhodesie en guise d'exemple. A J lumiere de son approche socio-politico-historique nous percevons nettement que Lessing s'attache a dechiffrer la genese et !'institutionalisation des liens fortement hierarch­ ises. Son scenario met en scene des familles blanches employ­ ant des serviteurs africains; leurs relations s'etablissent sur des liens de domination et ceux-ci apparaissent normaux, ordinaires et inevitables. L'oppression raciale et la domin­ ation sexuelle se consolident mutuellement sous la forme d'un paternalisme a caractere indelebile qui ridiculise les blancs et denigre la resistance des noirs. Dans son approche globale le portrait du colonialisme depeint par Lessing est important, non seulement parce qu'il recree une situation historique part­ iculiere mais surtout parce qu'il decrit un exemple typique et complexe d'un systeme autoritaire. Lessing se soucie de mettre a nu les secrets de la vigueur de cet ordre social, sa longevite s'explique ainsi; ses liens organiques sont integres a la conscience individuelle et egalement aux efforts des individus pour briser les contraintes sociales. Dans son analyse Lessing etudie les possibilites de liberation offertes par le XXe siecle aux humains: le socialisme et la therapie psychanalytique. V Dans ses livres Children of Violence et The Golden Notebook, nous notons les insuffisances des organisations politiques qui pretendent a la revolution sociale et a la liberation de l'esprit humain. Les groupes se concentrent sur les dimensions economico-politiques de !'oppression et ils minimisent !'importance de la subjectivite humaine. D'un autre cote, la psychotherapie institutionelle accuse des lacunes graves dans la realisation de sa tache! son attitude a-critique l'incite a tenter de reintegrer les patients dans un cadre mesquin et nettement ideologique de la sante mentalei de plus elle n'hesite pas a broyer ceux qui refusent d'accepter ses regles. Dans ces deux ecrits, Lessing laisse entendre qu'il est possible et necessaire de realiser une guerison des "malades mentaux" meme si ceux-ci sont reprimes par le mode de pensee techniciste de notre civilisation. Son oeuvre ne privilegie pas l'irrationel, elle structure dialectiquement ses essais. Les conclusions de ses nouvelles les plus ambit- ieuses suscitent le reflexion chez le lecteur et l'invitent a depasser le texte et l'actualite afin de considerer les eventuelles alternatives sociales. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the encouragement of my thesis advisor, Mike Bristol, I would never have begun this dissertation, and without his critical comments at every stage of the process, I could not have finished it. I would also like to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Leanore Lieblein and Don Theall, both for their advice and for their support. I am sincerely grateful to Michael Smith and Henry Srebrnik who read parts of the introductory material and gave me helpful criticism based on their expertise. I cannot forget to thank Mary Papke who was always ready to discuss Leasing's work with me, and who gave me helpful comments on the final draft, nor can I fail to acknowledge the help I received from Herda Guttman who listened patiently to all the problems I've had with my work. Completing this dissertation would have been almost impossible without the support of my lover and friend, Charles Levin, who has in our discussions over the years, helped me to deepen my understanding of Leasing's work. Also invaluable to my work have been the meetings of my thesis group, the other members of which, Elaine Bander, Prances Early, Mimi Morton, and Suzanne Peter~ have read portions of the text at all stages and given me their detailed criticisms. The intellectual exchange and emotional support provided by these sessions overcame a large part of the isolation inherent in vii this kind of endeavour. Finally I would like to thank my friend Sue Schein, who helped proof-read the final text, and the typists, Kathryn and Bill Shanley, who made the proof- reading more of a formality than a necessity. viii C 0 N T E N T 5 Chapter I Introduction 1 Psychodynamics of colonialism 15 Rhodesia: Prototype of settler colonialism 42 Communism: Search for political alternatives 65 Chapter II Lessing's portrayal of colonialism Separation and connection in the colonial 99 context Patterns of accomodation 121 Images of possibility 145 Chapter III Modes of liberation Lessing's portrayal of political organizations 187 Lessing's use of psychotherapy and madness 224 in her fiction Chapter IV Metaphors of liberation Structure of The Golden Notebook 258 Structure of the Children of Violence 290 Bibliography 316 0 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Psychodynamics of colonialism Rhodesia: Prototype of settler colonialism Communism: Search for political alternatives 1 INTRODUCTION Doris Lessing is one of the most difficult of modern novelists to categorize. To make the attempt does some violence to the spirit of her work for she transcends the limits of neat critical divisions and distinctions. In the 1950's she began writing novels and stories that were unambig- uously in the tradition of nineteenth century realism. Her own published statements in essays and interviews endorsed the realist tradition and made it clear that she embraced this tradition and its humanist values with the belief that novels "should be read, for illumination, in order to enlarge one's perception of life."1 Publication of The Golden Notebook, however, demonstrated that Lessing was not limited by the conventions of the tradition in which she had begun writing, nor was she unaware of the problems raised by the modernists. Instead, she could take the conventions of realism and adapt them in a highly self-conscious way to her own purposes which transcended the dichotomy between realism and modernism. Her subsequent publications, especially The Four-Gated City, Briefing for ~ Descent into Hell, and Memoirs of a Survivor, have shown that Lessing is a highly versatile writer capable of integrating realism, speculative fiction, and fantasy into a form that is uniquely her own. Lessing has a large number of devoted readers who 2 recognize in her fiction a serious attempt to illuminate the complex connections between the individual and the social world. Her important characters are constantly struggling to avoid the privatization of personal experience as well as to overcome the exhaustion which sets in from the failure of various kinds of idealism. Her work portrays not only the constricted lives into which so many of her characters are forced, but also the potential