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Sources

Doris Lessing: A Retrospective, www.dorislessing.org/.

“Four Waves of Feminism.” Pacific University, 13 July 2020, www.pacificu.edu/magazine/four-waves-feminism.

“NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. Doris Lessing -- A Bill Moyers Interview . 1.24.03.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_lessing.html.

Samukange, Tinotenda. “Timeline: The Life of Doris Lessing.” NewsDay Zimbabwe, 18 Nov. 2013, www.newsday.co.zw/2013/11/timeline-life-doris-lessing/.

“These Sayings By Doris Lessing Is The Best Read For The Week.” 74 Top Quotes by Doris Lessing, The Author of The Golden Notebook, quotes.thefamouspeople.com/doris-lessing-3873.php.

Verongos, Helen T. “Doris Lessing, Author Who Swept Aside Convention, Is Dead at 94.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/books/doris-lessing-novelist-who-won-2007-nobel-is-dead-at-94.html.

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Feminism and Doris

Feminism is defined as the advocacy for the equal rights of women. But, how does Doris Lessing fit into the long line of heroic women in support of feminism? The majority of Doris Lessing's works consist of her own life experiences, graphic details of societal and political problems, and descriptive characteristics of the relationships between men and women. Being that Lessing's writings are unconventional and conscientious of politics and societal issues, they can easily be described as intertwined with feminist agendas. Lessing often wrote on sensitive topics for the 20th century, such as anti-war, menstruation, and taboo sexual relationships. Being born in 1919, she grew up in the first wave of feminism where women were held to high expectations of femininity and feminists fought for a more political voice, actively protesting and fighting for the right to vote. Lessing participated in the first wave by writing on politically sensitive issues and outwardly protesting against the apartheid. By the second wave of feminism in the 1960s, which was geared towards breaking the mold of femininity for women to be free from the patriarchy, Lessing had already written on the trials of female livelihood in vivid detail and continue to do so. Doris Lessing was prided on having the ability to capture the horrors of humanity in political, societal, and emotional concepts, winning numerous prestigious awards for her writings. Not only was that an accomplishment for Lessing, but it was also for feminism and women everywhere. The more women who receive recognition, the more possibility there is for men and women to become equal.

Here are some examples of Doris Lessing's unconventional works: 

"For women like me, integrity isn't chastity, it isn't fidelity, it isn't any of the old words. Integrity is the orgasm. That is something I haven't any control over."

"I hated the 1960's feminists," she says. "They were dogmatists, you see. In comes, ideology, and out goes common sense. This is my experience of life."

"This is an inevitable and easily recognizable stage in every revolutionary movement: reformers must expect to be disowned by those who are only too happy to enjoy what has been won for them."

"Sometimes I dislike women I dislike us all because of our capacity for not thinking when it suits us..."

"Yes, cannibals. People are just cannibals unless they leave each other alone."

"Women often get dropped from memory, and then history."

"Her source of self respect was that she had not - as she put it - given up and crawled into safety somewhere. Into a safe marriage."

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The History of Doris

Doris Lessing was born on October 22, 1919, in Persia, now Iran, as Doris May Tayler to her father Captain Alfred Cook Tayler, and her mother Emily Maud Maude Tayler. Her father was a British WW1 veteran who was crippled in combat, then became a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia and her mother, a British nurse. In 1921, her brother Harry John Tayler was born, then in 1925, the family moved to South Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in hopes of becoming rich through maize farming. Unfortunately, the thousands of acres of bush her father purchased failed to produce any wealth. To combat the pain of living as a poor farm family, Harry and Dorris explored nature until their mother enrolled Doris in a strict convent school where the nuns terrified the students with stories of hell and damnation. At the age of 14, Doris dropped out of the rigid all-girls school and soon left home at 15. She then moved to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and became a typist. In 1937, Lessing met Frank Wisdom to whom she married and later had two children with, John and Jean before the marriage ended in 1943. That same year, 1943, she met Gottfried Lessing and married but soon divorced in 1949. Doris Lessing never married again. Additionally, in 1949 Doris left Zimbabwe for London due to being banned from Zimbabwe for campaigning against nuclear arms and apartheid, leaving two toddlers behind. The year after, she published her first novel, The Grass is Singing, which detailed the racial politics of blacks and whites in colonial South Rhodesia. Then, in 1962, she published her noble prize-winning novel, The Golden Notebook, which painted a picture of mental and societal breakdowns with themes of anti-war and anti-Stalinism which had been translated into dozens of different languages. Throughout the rest of Doris's life, she created over 50 written works, won at least 11 prestigious awards, and explored life, in her words, as a free woman. In an interview with Bill Moyers on PBS Doris Lessing explains her thoughts on writing and why she decided to start writing, "Well, I was writing all my childhood. And I wrote two novels when I was 17, which were terrible. And I'm not sorry I threw them out. So, I wrote. I had to write. You know, the thing was, I had no education... No. I don't think writers should have missions… what we forget is that novels continually introducing areas of life which we haven't thought of before, that haven't really been in public consciousness until that novel. It's happened particularly in America. I remember-- some of your great novelists. Who would have known about the Deep South, without your great Southern novelists? I mean we know all about Russia because of the novelists. And I think that is a function of the novel we forget." Moreover, Doris Lessing dedicated her life to depicting her ideas of the world into beautifully detailed writings that were recognized throughout the world as being extraordinary.

Doris died November 17th, 2013.

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Lessing’s works

From 1949 until 2008, Doris Lessing created over 50 novels expressing her unconventional ideas on the relationships between men and women and the society that engulfs them. Her works include: Adore

A story about two women who have been best friends since childhood. Each have teenage sons and end up being caught up in love affairs with each other’s son. This story explores the passionate nature of their taboo affairs until the two women end their affairs for the sake of their old age.

African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe

A story about Doris Lessing’s visits to her home in South Africa from which she had been banned from for 25 years while it was still Southern Rhodesia because of her opposition of the government. This book details the vivid passions of modern African life, portraying how society has changed since its colonial rule.

  African Stories

A collection of stories about Doris Lessing’s new and old memories and experiences in Africa, including all of her works on Africa. 

  Alfred and Emily

A story about the life Doris Lessing lived in South Africa, following her parents. This book explores the inner-workings of how World War 1 affected her parents. Lessing details the lives her parents could’ve had without the war and how damaged they became because the war happened. 

  Ben, in the World

The sequel to her story “The Fifth Child,” this is a story about Ben, a misunderstood teenager in the world. The story follows Ben as he meets with fear and mockery but enough kindness to help him on his journey from London to South France to South America in hopes of finding community, peace and compassion. 

  The Black Madonna

A short story collection that comments on the social structure and political attitudes of colonial South Rhodesia, a part of the African Stories collection.

As well as:

  Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Canopus in Argos: Archives (series), Children of Violence (series), The Cleft, Conversations, The Diaries of Jane Somers, The Diary of a Good Neighbour by Jane Somers, The Doris Lessing Reader, Each His Own Wilderness, The Fifth Child, Five, The Four-Gated City Children of Violence, Fourteen Poems, Going Home, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist, The Grass is Singing,The Grandmothers, The Habit of Loving, If the Old Could by Jane Somers, The Wolf People - INPOPA Anthology 2002, In Pursuit of the English, Landlocked Children of Violence, London Observed Stories & Sketches, Love Again, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 Canopus in Argos: Archives, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 - (Libretto), A Man and Two Women, Mara and Dann An Adventure, The Marriages Between Zones, Three, Four, and Five Canopus in Argos: Archives, Martha Quest Children of Violence, The Memoirs of a Survivor, The Old Age of El Magnifico, On Cats, Particularly Cats, Particularly Cats and More Cats, Particularly Cats...and Rufus, The Pit, Play with a Tiger, Play with a Tiger and Other Plays, Playing the Game, Prisons We Choose to Live Inside, Problems, Myths and Stories, A Proper, Marriage Children of Violence, Putting the Questions Differently, The Real Thing, Stories & Sketches, A Ripple from the Storm Children of Violence, The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire Canopus in Argos: Archives, Shadows on the Wall of the Cave, Shikasta Re: Colonised Planet 5 - Canopus In Argos: Archives, The Sirian Experiments Canopus in Argos: Archives, A Small Personal Voice - Essays, Reviews, Interviews, Spies I Have Known and other stories, Stories, The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the snow dog, The Story of a Non-Marrying Man, The Summer Before the Dark, The Sun Between Their Feet Collected African Stories-Volume Two, The Sweetest Dream, The Temptation of Jack Orkney & Other Stories, The Temptation of Jack Orkney Collected Stories Volume Two, This Was the Old Chief's Country, This Was the Old Chief's Country Collected African Stories-Volume One, Through The Tunnel, Time Bites, To Room Nineteen Collected Stories Volume One, Under My Skin Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949, Walking in the Shade Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949 to 1962, The Wind Blows Away Our Words, and Winter in July.

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Did you know, Doris Lessing loved cats? She even wrote two stories about cats, “On Cats,” and “Particularly Cats.”

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This is Doris Lessing, a British-Zimbabwean novelist whose short stories, novels, poems, essays, and plays are heavily influential in the political and social revolution of the 20th century. In 2007, she was the oldest person to ever win a noble prize in literature for her lifetime of unconventional writing. Her best-known work is "The Golden Notebook," which was written in 1962 and based loosely on her childhood, exploring the inner workings of women free from marriage, raising children or not, menstruation, orgasms, and emotional breakdowns. When Lessing was told that she had won the Nobel prize she exclaimed, "Oh Christ! I couldn't care less!" The official Nobel announcement stated that Lessing is "the epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." Through her works, Lessing redefined the meaning of the relationship between men and women, social and racial inequalities. She explored life as what she defined as a "free woman," pursuing her own passions professionally, sexually, and politically. She had abandoned her husband and two children to take a job as a typist and continue writing on her own terms. She determined that she hated her life with her husband and she did not wish to corrupt her children. In interviews, she never claimed to regret her decision nor did she fully explain her reasoning behind leaving. However, Lessing went on to publish over 50 successful novels and even published two other works under another name to express the difficulties of publishing works as a new author. Doris Lessing's works relied on her own experiences through wartime and postwar time as a woman and writer. Lessing expressed her artistry as she saw fit which was widely defined as unconventional and for the new age of women. An example of her unique take on society would be, "Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgments. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being molded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society,” (Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook). Furthermore, Doris Lessing was notably one of the most influential authors of the 20th-21st century for women and anyone who hopes to break the mold of societal expectations.