| Doris Lessing has a constant concern for women's spiritual progress, and there are already critiques on her Children of Violence sequence, The Grass Is Singing and The Diary of a Good Neighbour from the perspective of female Bildungsroman. However, The Golden Notebook, widely acknowledged as Doris Lessing's masterpiece, has been ignored in the light of female Bildungsroman, though the novel embodies both traditional elements and newly developed characteristics of the genre.Through the analysis of The Golden Notebook from mentors such as Mrs. Marks, quest motifs such as the heroine's quest for the meaning of life, the archetype of adult ritual as plot frame, and some other indispensable elements in the Bildungsroman genre, the thesis shows that the novel not only accords with the genre's traditional essentials, but also conforms to the new characteristics of the genre, which proves that the novel is a typical female Bildungsroman after World Warâ…¡according to Francois Jost's and Gholman's definitions. The great tradition of the Bildungsroman and Lessing's individual talent fit so well that The Golden Notebook vividly depicts the progress of an intellectual woman with manifold identities in a specific and special social context. The thesis sheds a new light on the studies of The Golden Notebook by interpreting it from the perspective of female Bildungsroman. |
