A Literary Geographical Interpretation Of The Grass Is Singing

Doris Lessing. a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007, is an outstanding and prolific woman writer in contemporary England. Her early works were usually set in the social reality of Southern Africa. The reality and the life experience in Southern Africa are the sources of her literary creation. So her works mirror many social problems in Southern Africa, such as colonialism, feministic problems, and racialism. Various theories have been employed to analyze Lessing's novels, especially from the perspective of feminism and post-colonialism. However, the description of geographical environment in the novel has seldom been mentioned.The thesis makes a concrete text-analysis of Lessing's maiden work The Grass is Singing by using the relevant theory of literary geography. Through the analysis, the meaning of the geographical environment and the construction of geographical space are the focuses. The thesis is composed of six parts. The part of introduction gives a brief introduction to Doris Lessing and her major works; literary review and research significance are also mentioned in this chapter. Chapter Two summarizes the general views of literary geography. Chapter Three focuses on the genuine geographical environment in Southern Africa. Chapter Four deals with the reality and the meaning of geographical environment in The Grass is Singing by using literary geographical theories. Chapter Five analyzes the construction of geographical space in the novel. The conclusion part objectively evaluates the meaning of geographical environment and geographical space in the novel. Geographical environment does not only act as a background of the story, more importantly, it has much more significant meanings.Lessing depicts a mass of geographical environment of Southern Africa in the novel, which demonstrates that the geographical environment plays an important role in the novel. On one hand the readers actually can feel the primitive beauty of Southern African geographical environment; on the other hand, it reflects that the white farmers in Southern Africa will never conquer this mystery and desolate land. Meanwhile they will pay harrowing price for their destruction to the land. More importantly, Lessing condemns the colonialism through the destruction of geographical environment. At the same time, the writer appeals to the harmonious relationship with nature.