"The Ecofeminist and Gaian Spirituality: Subverting the Patriarchal Discourse in Doris Lessing’s Selected Novels " | ||
| هرمس | ||
| Article 7, Volume 13, Issue 3 - Serial Number 49, July 2024, Pages 103-135 PDF (609.71 K) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/herms.2024.393505 | ||
| Author | ||
| Shereen Safwat | ||
| Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science, The British University in Cairo | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Doris May Lessing (1919-2013) lived most her life on the veld of South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and came back to London in 1949. Her multicultural upbringing allowed her to gain a special connection with nature via her intuitive instinct. This article sheds light on three novels by Lessing namely, The Golden Notebook (1962), The Four-Gated City (1969) and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) that are to be tackled within the theoretical frame of ecofeminist and Gaian spirituality. This paper dives into the depth of the Gaian and ecofeminist spiritual realm in the selected novels. It explores the alternative path of female spirituality that the novels pave to counterbalance patriarchal destruction. It analyzes the metaphor of motherhood within the ecofeminist and Gaian frame to expose the myth of gendered nature, which is constructed by the masculine discourse to exploit women and nature. It also draws on the close connection between nature and spirituality; the synthesis of these two constituents forms a doorway to a new sensibility that is attained by madness. This research will rely on primary sources such as Lessing’s selected novels, interviews, and related writings. Major books on ecofeminism by Catherine Roach (1974), Greta Gaard (2017), Carolyn Merchant (1980, 1995), Maria Mies (2014), Ariel Salleh (1997), Rosemary Radford Ruether (1994), Susan Griffin (1980), and Val Plumwood (1993) among others, and on Gaia by James Lovelock (2000) will be under study as well. It also relies on articles published in databases and academic journals based on the primary sources. | ||
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