Introduction Doris Lessing and Her African Fiction 1
0.1 Reaching Lessing 1
0.2 The Relationship between the Individual and the Collective 5
0.3 Understanding Lessing's African Fiction 8
0.4 Pursuit in Lessing's Africa 15
0.5 Literary Reviews on Lessing's African Fiction 17
0.6 The Theme and Brief Introduction to the Organization 23
Chapter 1 The(s)Selfandthe(o)Other 26
1.1 The Theme and the Theoretical Framework 26
1.2 Selfhood 29
1.3 The self 32
1.4 Historical Demarcation of the Self and the Other 38
1.5 Difference and the Other 41
1.6 Lacan's Concept of the Other and the other 44
1.7 The Other in Light of Postcolonialism 45
1.8 Woman and the Other 51
Chapter 2 The Natives and the Land as the Other,the Whites as the Bewildered Keepers of the White Mythology 58
2.1 The Self and the Other in Colonial Africa 58
2.2 Demonizing the Other,Destroying the self 63
2.2.1 Moses'Look,Mary's Uneasiness 65
2.2.2 Crippled Life of Stereotyped White Women 75
2.3 Increasing Haunting Fear and Homelessness of the Average White People 80
2.4 White Liberals'Fragmentation 83
2.5 Nature and"Ecological Imperialism" 89
2.6 The Revenge of the Bush 92
2.6.1 House,Settler Women and the Bush 92
2.6.2 Menacing the House,Imprisoning Settler Women 96
2.7 The Resistance of the Land 100
2.7.1 Slatter,an"Automaton"of Colonialism 101
2.7.2 Disillusioned Romantic Farmers 102
Chapter 3 Minority Groups as the Other,Irreconcilable Conflicts within the Whites 110
3.1 Minority Groups within the Whites 110
3.2 Piled-up Grievances between the British and the Afrikaners 113
3.2.1 Frail Friendship between the Quests and the Van Rensbergs 116
3.2.2 White Skin,Native Life 119
3.3 Martha and Jews,Victims of Anti-Semitism 122
3.3.1 Corrupted Friendship with the Cohen Boys 125
3.3.2 Distorted Love Affair with Adolph 126
3.3.3 Martha and Thomas,the Permanent Exile 130
3.4 The Bitter Alienation of"the Sports Club Crowd" 132
3.4.1 Receiving Typical English Education and Growing up in Africa 135
3.4.2 Reducing Themselves to the Other in Ethics and Marriage 138
3.5 The Inevitable Frustration of the Communist Group 141
Chapter 4 Women,the Hopeless Other in Colonial Africa 145
4.1 Lessing and Feminism 145
4.2 Poor,Lonely and Depressed Housewives on Remote Farms 154
4.3 Exiled Eves on the Veld:"Normal"Daily Life,Abnormal Emotional Life 162
4.4 The Other among Housewives on Farm 166
4.5 Martha,a Townswoman with Distorted Subjectivity 169
4.5.1 Adolescent Rebellion 171
4.5.2 Inevitable Alienation Resulting from Romantic Love and Marriage 173
4.6 Mrs.Van,a Townswoman Leading a Double Life 180
4.7 No Enunciation Position for Native Women 182
4.7.1 In the Eyes of White Female Settlers 184
4.7.2 In the Eyes of White Men 188
4.7.3 In the Eyes of Native Men 190
Chapter 5 Narrative Methods 192
5.1 The Theme and Narrative Methods 192
5.2 Omniscient Third Person Narration 199
5.3 Epigraph 203
5.4 From the Point of View of a Child or an Adolescent 209
5.5 Dialectical Method 214
5.5.1 Dialectical Method and the Theme 214
5.5.2 Marston's Dialectical Roles 217
5.5.3 Dialectical Method and the White and the Native Relationship 219
Conclusion 222
Works Cited 228