Love, Respect And Expectation

Doris Lessing, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in2007, is one ofthe most outstanding writers both in the British literature and in the world. Most ofLessing’s works are based on her own experiences, reflecting her great concernabout the society and the world as a brilliant writer. Lessing has devoted herself towriting since her first novel The Grass Is Singing and until the21stcentury she stillsticks to her writing career, keeps a keen observation on the society and holds thesense of responsibility and mission as a writer.Lessing herself and many of her works, for example, The Grass Is Singing, TheGolden Notebook, The Diaries of Jane Somers and The Fifth Child, etc. are theresearch subjects to the critics both in China and abroad. They study her works frommany perspectives, for instance, feminism, Marxism, colonialism, post-colonialismand so forth. However, few people study her values on heterogeneous culturespecifically. Most of the discussion on this issue is set as one of the aspects whichserve for the settlement of other issues and thus it leads to the ignorance of her viewsand opinions towards the heterogeneous culture. In my thesis I’d like to interpret hervalues on the heterogeneous culture as a cross-cultural writer mainly from The GrassIs Singing and The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five.My thesis is mainly divided into five parts. The first chapter includes a briefintroduction to Doris Lessing, a brief interpretation of some theoretical terms andliterature review. In chapter two and chapter three I’d take The Grass Is Singing andThe Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five as two examples to interpret hervalues on heterogeneous culture. Lessing takes The Grass Is Singing as a negativeexample to prove that every culture has its uniqueness to be in the world and it mustbe tragic to be opposite of the heterogeneous culture regardless of the black or thewhite; she also states her stand that she holds the belief that different cultures shouldmerge with each other and it is possible from the The Marriages Between ZonesThree, Four and Five. She still thinks that there is no division of superiority andinferiority in culture, instead different cultures should be equal and learn from eachother. Chapter four lists the motives of Lessing’s creation on heterogeneous culture,the relation between her works and her cultural values and its significance. The last chapter comes to the conclusion that Lessing is for the merging with heterogeneousculture and there should be no discrimination in culture. All the people shouldrecognize both native culture and heterogeneous culture equally, learning the rightmindset to enhance the weaknesses. Only in this way can a better communicationand harmonious coexistence be among different cultures all around the world.