The marriage quest in Canopus : a study of Doris Lessing's The marriages between zones three, four, and five
Date
1992
Authors
Shaw, Deborah Ann
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Abstract
Although Doris Lessing's fiction is remarkable for the scope of its vision, its multiplicity of perspective, and its quest to marry binary opposition, critics often approach it with singular perspectives. The focus of this thesis is on the metaphorical model offered by marriages as central to an understanding of Canopus, and as consistent with the apparent development of Lessing's work to date.
The introduction affiliates Lessing with visionaries like Blake and Yeats, as well as emergent stream of feminist writers who move beyond dualistic opposition into multiplicity. It is important heed Lessing's challenged to view things as a whole, to read Canopus within the context of her work to date. The introduction establishes Marriages as a metaphorical model of Lessing's deconstruction of binary opposition in Canopus, and in her earlier supposedly realistic fiction. This chapter also focuses on the feminist, deconstructive, and metafictive tendencies of Lessing's work. It is an integrative approach, using the matrix of marriage as a vantage point from which to view Marriages in the context of Canopus, and in relation to her other work.
Chapter One considers how Canopus fits in to the Lessing canon, recognizing that her writing has always been subversive. The relationship between perception and reality is discussed in regard to theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, and feminist and deconstructive discourse--all of which inform her fiction. I consider Lessing's developing vision of paradox using a limited number of her earlier and later works, bringing into focus her characteristic marriage of binaries.
The second chapter examines Marriages in relation to the other Canopus novels. Lessing's marriage of the usually discrete traditions of the romance novel and science fiction. I explore the Canopus novels as a dance, a reader's experience in moving through shifting perspectives. Canopus is ironic, dynamic, feminist, and metafictive. This chapter explores Lessing's process of undermining the dualistic authority of "either/or," through the relationship between the apparent official text and the subversive subtext of Canopus.
Chapter Three examines Marriages as a matrix, a model of the dynamics of the subversive subtext of Canopu. It is romantic/antiromantic, utopic/dystopic, science/art, allegory. The shifts in perspective initiatied by the interzonal marriages are analogous to the shifts in perspective in Canopus. The authority of Canopus and the Providers is undermined, the Necessity is questioned.
The conclusion to this the thesis considers Marriages as the conceptual denominator of the literary, philosophic, and scientific theories that inform Lessing's writing perception creates reality.
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UN SDG 5: Gender Equality