多麗絲.萊辛女性主義意識的構成

摘要：多麗絲·萊辛是一位富有女性主義思想的女作家，她密切關注男權社會中的女性地位，這篇文章主要討論其女性主義意識的構成。

KEY WORDS: Feminist Women Consciousness

關鍵詞：女性主義；女性；意識

[中圖分類號]：I106[文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-04-0198-01

Most of Lessing’s works are about the fate of women and their social status in patriarchal society. Feminist novels concern the indicators of power-gender， race， class， sexuality-that affect women’s lives， women’s consciousness， women’s subjectivity and therefore， women’s agency. Some women writers openly advocate the use of fiction as revenge against a patriarchal society， persuade women to lead “emancipated” individual lives and overcome the limitations of the feminine role. They attack the idealization of women by men in territories occupied by women such as the home， reproduction and care for others as well as the image of women silenced， dependent， and marginal. The feminists challenge many of the restrictions on women’s self-expression， denounce the gospel of self-sacrifice， attack patriarchal religion， and construct a theoretical model of female oppression. Making their fiction the vehicle for a dramatization of wronged womanhood， they demand changes in the social and political systems that will grant women male privileges and require chastity and fidelity from men. They transform the feminine code of self-sacrifice into an annihilation of the narrative self and apply the cultural analysis of the feminists to words， sentences， and structure of language in the novel. Their works are the records of feminist consciousness expanding and maturing. Lessing clearly supports women’s rights.

As a female writer， Doris Lessing shows her commitment to women’s right and she also shows her dissatisfaction with the women’s liberation. Lessing sees that the aims of women’s liberation will look very small and quaint. Ever since 1963， when Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique， this chorus of protest has been amplified by the impassioned voices of angry women. The literature that now seems to speak out most eloquently against the status quo is being written by women-women of color， women of lower class， women who are feminists， lesbians and political separatists. Not only do they criticize Western values and customs， but also they criticize the very language that has been used to preserve their customs. Dale Spender’s Man-Made language， as the title suggests， considers that women have been fundamentally oppressed by a male-dominated language. If we accept Foucault’s argument that what is true depends on who controls the discourse， then it is reasonable to believe that men’s domination of discourses has trapped women inside a male truth. From this point of view it makes sense for women writers to contest men’s control of language rather than merely to retreat into a ghetto of feminine discourse. These women primarily assert their right to speak and write explore female experience， introduce a new voice and subject matter into poetry. Women writers have a voice in our society. The conditions under which men and women produce literature are materially different and influence the form and content of what they write.

According to themes of her novels， some critics consider her as an African writer， a communist writer， a feminist writer， a mystic writer， a psychological writer， and a science fiction writer. Lessing herself resists all attempts to categorize what she has written. She maintains that her themes have remained unchanged since she wrote the first novel The Grass Is Singing at the very beginning of her career， preferring that her work be looked at as a whole. It is true that her basic themes have always been present even though the connections between them have not necessarily been obvious from the start. Lessing’s early fiction has many similarities to Victorian feminine and feminist writing.

Bibliography:

[1]、Agarwal， Bina， “The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India.” Feminist Studies， 1992

[2]、Christ， Carol P， and Judith Plaskow， eds. Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reading in Religion. NY: HarperRow， Publishers， 1979