| Doris Lessing,the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature,“has been analyzing the split civilization as an epic writer” all her life.She not only advocates and practices the realistic narrative techniques,but also applies the post-modern ones into giving new forms and vitality to the content of novels.As a humanist,Lessing believes that in order to recognize reality,we must understand history and learn from history experience and lessons,and thus learning how to assess ourselves and our society.Based on Linda Hutcheon’s theory of Historiographic Metafiction on Poetics of postmodernism,the thesis analyzes the problematization of “historical facts” in Lessing’s novels to explore Lessing’s attitude towards history and human society.Through various narrative techniques,Lessing problematizes the grand concepts of history,reality,subjectivity and humanism,which not only uses but also abuses,first establishes and then questions the various concepts that it challenges.The thesis elaborates her “problematization” literary theory in the following three chapters.The first chapter probes into why Lessing questions the existing history and “historical facts”.The reasons are explained from three aspects: social cultural system,power discourse and personal cultural background.Firstly,in the post-modern context,various “centers” collapse,social norms create a crisis of legitimacy,and the mainstream cultural system of society is eliminated.Secondly,Lessing has been influenced by many cultures since she was a child,thus breaking her single understanding of things.Thirdly,the developmental view of self-consciousness makes her question the rational thinking mode.The second chapter analyzes how Lessing problematizes “historical facts” in novels.She uncovers historical construction,verisimilization and fragmentation through narrative techniques such as self-representation,parody and juxtaposition.Lessing seamlessly bridges “historic” and “poetic” together,allowing a dialogue between real history and fiction,thus clearly exposing various power consciousness and relations to readers.The third chapter expounds the effects of problematizing “historical facts”.Lessing dares to break through the tradition,analyzing and questioning the existing various doctrines and established ideas,so as to reveal fiction of generally accepted common sense or a certain social concept,and finally constructing her own view in the query.Lessing’s problematization of “historical facts” in her novels is actually transgression of boundaries,such as racial,gender boundaries and that between animals and humans in historical memory of white-centrism,male-centrism and anthropocentrism.Through examining Lessing’s theoretical presupposition in her novels,the thesis draws a conclusion that Lessing does not deny the tradition and various social thoughts,but re-combs and re-understands the value and shortcomings of history,so as to create a thinking system of reflecting--re-recognizing history.Lessing’s problematizing “historical facts” aims to eliminate the opposites and conflicts among things,striving for harmonious coexistence,which fully embodies her keen concern on the development of society and human history. |
