“So Why Write Novels?” The Golden Notebook, Mikhail Bakhtin, and the Politics of Authorship

Barnes, Sophia

doi:10.1057/9781137477422_8

Doris Lessing’s the Golden Notebook After Fifty 2015

DOI: 10.1057/9781137477422_8

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“So Why Write Novels?” The Golden Notebook, Mikhail Bakhtin, and the Politics of Authorship

Sophia Barnes¹

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Cited by 2 publications

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The Paradox of Free Women in Doris Lessing's “The Golden Notebook”

Doğan

2021

Ankara Üniversitesi Dil Ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi

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Although Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook" is regarded as a feminist novel by many scholars, it is also mostly criticised due to the overt male domination upon various female characters. Moving away from the feminist purpose by focusing on the experiences and struggles of these different women characters, Lessing emphasises the signicance of peeling off all the socially constructed labels and recognising the distinctive true identity particular to each woman. Following this focus, the author also creates an analogy between the content and the form of the novel by reecting the chaos in the mind of the women characters to the chaotic form which is divided into parts. Hereby, it can be aptly argued that by building a chaotic atmosphere around the women characters who deem themselves free, Lessing problematises the concept of free women in this particular novel. This paper sets out to analyse how Lessing illustrates the paradox of free women in "The Golden Notebook" through the chaotic content and form. Doris Lessing'in "Altın Defter" adlı romanı birçokları tarafından feminist bir roman olarak değerlendirilmesine rağmen, çeşitli kadın karakterler üzerinde bariz bir şekilde görülen erkek egemenliğinden ötürü de çoğunlukla eleştirilmiştir. Farklı kadınların deneyim ve mücadelelerine odaklanarak feminist amacından uzaklaşan Lessing, bu romanda sosyal çevre tarafından inşa edilmiş etiketlerden sıyrılıp her kadına özgü doğru ve gerçek kimliği bulmanın önemini vurgular. Bu odak noktası doğrultusunda yazar, kadınların zihinlerindeki kaosu, romanda bölümlere ayrılmış olan kaotik düzene yansıtarak romanın içeriği ve formatı arasında da bir paralellik kurar. Bundan dolayı, Lessing'in kendilerini özgür addeden kadın karakterler için kaotik bir atmosfer yaratarak özgür kadınlar krini sorunsallaştırdığını iddia etmek yerinde olur. Bu çalışma, Lessing'in "Altın Defter" romanında özgür kadın çelişkisini kaotik bir içerik ve format kullanarak nasıl resmettiğini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

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The Paradox of Free Women in Doris Lessing's “The Golden Notebook”

Doğan

2021

Ankara Üniversitesi Dil Ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi

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The Journey to Dialogic Self in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and The Diary of a Good Neighbour

Çün

2023

Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

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The Golden Notebook (1962) and The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983) by Doris Lessing are two novels providing insight into the perceptions of their protagonists, Anna and Janna, regarding life and self. When approached from the dialogic standpoint of Russian linguist and literary theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin, both novels are notable with respect to the conflicts they issue between the self as a monologic outcome of life experiences, and the necessity felt for moving towards a dialogic conceptualization of self, and hence, of life. While addressing the one-sided observation an individual performs in the way she understands her self and surroundings, the novels carry a scrutinizing aspect to the psychological and social impacts of this monologic demeanor. This paper reveals how, in Lessing’s two novels, Bakhtin’s dialogic principle, and based on this, a concept of dialogic self is applicable. Analyzing the protagonists’ relations with their selves, it argues that their monologic interactions with the self and the world evolve into living, dialogic ones fed by their new perceptions.

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“So Why Write Novels?” The Golden Notebook, Mikhail Bakhtin, and the Politics of Authorship

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

The Paradox of Free Women in Doris Lessing's “The Golden Notebook”

The Paradox of Free Women in Doris Lessing's “The Golden Notebook”

The Journey to Dialogic Self in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and The Diary of a Good Neighbour

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