The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence
dc.contributor.advisor | Bertelsen, Eve | en_ZA |
dc.contributor.author | Kapp, Rochelle Lynne | en_ZA |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-04-12T14:39:46Z | |
dc.date.available | 2016-04-12T14:39:46Z | |
dc.date.issued | 1991 | en_ZA |
dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study is to examine Doris Lessing's relationship to Africa and to politics as reflected in the Children of Violence series, and to examine the impact of this on the form of the texts. The study plots the ideology of the series (which is strongly autobiographical) by examining Lessing's own biography over the seventeen years of writing the series, and by means of close textual analysis of narrative focalisation and representation of subjectivity. It is a central contention of the study that literature is influenced by political and historical events and emerges from a social and cultural milieu which helps shape form and content. The importance of engaging with rupture as it manifests itself in the text in the form of silences and contradictions, is stressed. The first two novels, Martha Quest and A Proper Marriage were written while Lessing was still a member of the Communist Party; A Ripple From The Storm, Landlocked and A Four-Gated City after she had left. Despite this, the ideology of the series is remarkably consistent in that we are presented with a humanist perspective which poses the conception of an essential self throughout, despite Lessing's political affiliation. Whereas the ideas of individual essence are evident only in silences and contradictions in the earlier texts, Lessing's romanticism is increasingly openly expressed in the texts which were written after she leaves the Party. Her increasing sympathy with her protagonist is represented in the change in narrative focalisation from omniscience to free-indirect speech. The central change in the series is in Lessing's depiction of her protagonist's relationship to Africa. Before Lessing leaves the Party, her protagonist desires a construction of herself as African, after Lessing leaves, her protagonist is described as alienated from Africa and having no role to play there. The Children of Violence series enacts the reworking of the protagonist's (and Lessing's) contradictory position as African and exile. | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.apacitation | Kapp, R. L. (1991). <i>The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18829 | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Kapp, Rochelle Lynne. <i>"The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18829 | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.citation | Kapp, R. 1991. The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence. University of Cape Town. | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.ris | TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Kapp, Rochelle Lynne AB - The aim of this study is to examine Doris Lessing's relationship to Africa and to politics as reflected in the Children of Violence series, and to examine the impact of this on the form of the texts. The study plots the ideology of the series (which is strongly autobiographical) by examining Lessing's own biography over the seventeen years of writing the series, and by means of close textual analysis of narrative focalisation and representation of subjectivity. It is a central contention of the study that literature is influenced by political and historical events and emerges from a social and cultural milieu which helps shape form and content. The importance of engaging with rupture as it manifests itself in the text in the form of silences and contradictions, is stressed. The first two novels, Martha Quest and A Proper Marriage were written while Lessing was still a member of the Communist Party; A Ripple From The Storm, Landlocked and A Four-Gated City after she had left. Despite this, the ideology of the series is remarkably consistent in that we are presented with a humanist perspective which poses the conception of an essential self throughout, despite Lessing's political affiliation. Whereas the ideas of individual essence are evident only in silences and contradictions in the earlier texts, Lessing's romanticism is increasingly openly expressed in the texts which were written after she leaves the Party. Her increasing sympathy with her protagonist is represented in the change in narrative focalisation from omniscience to free-indirect speech. The central change in the series is in Lessing's depiction of her protagonist's relationship to Africa. Before Lessing leaves the Party, her protagonist desires a construction of herself as African, after Lessing leaves, her protagonist is described as alienated from Africa and having no role to play there. The Children of Violence series enacts the reworking of the protagonist's (and Lessing's) contradictory position as African and exile. DA - 1991 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1991 T1 - The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence TI - The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18829 ER - | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18829 | |
dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Kapp RL. The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1991 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18829 | en_ZA |
dc.language.iso | eng | en_ZA |
dc.publisher.department | Department of English Language and Literature | en_ZA |
dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
dc.subject.other | English Language and Literature | en_ZA |
dc.title | The relation between form and ideology in Doris Lessing's Children of violence | en_ZA |
dc.type | Master Thesis | |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Masters | |
dc.type.qualificationname | MA | en_ZA |
uct.type.filetype | Text | |
uct.type.filetype | Image | |
uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
uct.type.resource | Thesis | en_ZA |
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