UNIVERSITY OF TUZLA FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ENGLISH LITERATURE V

THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK BY DORIS LESSING

Professor: dr. sc. Damir Arsenijevic Student: Amra Hasanagic

Tuzla, 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................3 2. The issue of social identity................................................................................4 3. The issue of gender and sexuality....................................................................5 4. The issue of self identity...................................................................................6 5. The issue of political identity............................................................................7 6. Conclusion.........................................................................................................9 7. References.......................................................................................................10

1. Introduction

The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing, was written in the time when women were not seen as writers and women in literature were found redundant. When approaching the matter from the historical point of view, the ability to write was a skill and a quality which was given only to men. Since it was published in 1962, at the time when the Second Wave of Feminism began to emerge, the novel was given many epithets, such as being called a feminist bible, it also drawn negative criticism as well as negative revie ws clamming that the novel provokes man hater and ball breaker attitude in women. 1 For many reasons Doris Lessing disagrees with the claim that the Golden Notebook is a feminist novel claiming that her major aim was to shape a book which would make its own comment, a wordless statement: to talk through the way it was shaped. 2 The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing is certainly a type of a book that influences the reader regardless of sex. It is in its own manner a reflection of different thoughts, believes, emotions and feelings of a women which are present and which followed her through her life. We, as readers, are given an insight to the complexity of human nature, in this case to the different layers of our protagonists life. Doris Lessing gives us Anna Wolf who in a way cannot be perceived as an adventurous person, a person who does not have much going on in her life, so to say nothing much happens. These are some of the reasons why it is easy for other women to identify with this woman who can easily be perceived as a vulnerable creature but at the same time powerful within. The reason why it is somewhat easy to identify with Anna is because she comes with a package of different identities. We recognize Anna through her social, political and sexual identity, and the most important one is her self - identity. My aim is to explore these different identities and to explore her strengths and weaknesses through these identities which she is given as a character. In addition to this, I will presen t my reaction provoked by this novel.

1.

2.

Lessing, Doris (2007) Guarded Welcome Guardian book club with John Mullan (online) accessed on 13th September 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/jan/27/featuresreviews.guardianreview25 The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing, Preface pg. 6

2. The issue of social identity

The Golden Notebook as a novel consists of several notebooks through which we are given different experiences of our protagonist Anna Wulf. In these notebooks we find different issues such as motherhood, social relationships, and politics and so on. Her social identity is mostly built through her relationship with Molly, her best friend, as well as through other people she comes in contact with. Both of them are perceived as Free Women, who in a way are emancipated in the sense of traditional women figure. In several occasions, Anna expresses her opinion on the way of societies attempt to label women in accordance to their relationships with men. It appears that the society, as she states, does not see the status of free women as a positive characteristic of Anna and other characters who lead they lives in such manner. The basic point of being a free women is that women regard themselves as independent, not following the traditional norms of being a woman, in other words must follow the ideal pattern: married, a mother, submissive, obedient, subordinate, etc. What is mainly different about Anna and Molly in this sense is that they stand for new women, women who are in o pposition of the conventional status of a woman, and obtaining power of their own . Main difference in case of Anna and Molly is that they are divorced, single mothers and independent women. The problem which comes up because of such belief is that women tend to be alienated from the society, as if they were outcasts or in other hand they isolate themselves as a result of their dissatisfaction with the society they live in. In any case the result is not in favor of these new women at least not as they desire it to be. Though their attempt is courageous and admirable, there is another aspect of new womens life that is stressed out, and this is the issue of motherhood. One contrast which has to be made in this case is between Anna, Molly and Marion, who are all mothers, and the way Lessing presents it along with the overall view of women. On one side we have Anna and Molly who are both struggling with single- motherhood and Marion who is a mother of three sons of Mollys ex husband Richard. As an example of such problem, we have Richard criticizing

Molly for the way she raises their son, mentioning how she left him to take care of himself for an entire year, thus stressing out that she is not doing a good job as a mother, and a description of Marion who apparently fits perfectly into the description of a traditional woman.

3. The issue of gender and sexuality

The novel was written in the time when second wave feminism was in its rise, when women decided to take matters in their own hands to be free to decide o f their future. Women were given a chance to gain control over their lives, to fight against injustice, sexual harassment and other kinds of mistreat of women. There are various other issues that new women face. Along with key issue of this novel, human relationships, the relationship between men and women portray an image of a modern society. When it comes to sexuality and gender issue, from this novel we already understand that changes concerning sexual liberty are highlighted, which suggests that changes were necessary. Even now, in the 21 st century, although social status of a free women is different from the time when this novel was written, it seems that the image of new women lingers from the past, thus portraying them sometimes as immoral and loose, and sometimes as powerful and authoritative. Even now, when portrayed by male as well as female authors, free women are taken with a grain of salt. In case of Anna, who has earned for herself in the past, she can choose what she wants to do for a living and not even considering how high or low her paycheck is, since she still has her income of the novel she has written, as well as her friend Molly, it appears that they are emancipated, and not just in the sense earning money, and providing for themselves and their children. It seems that they are also emancipated in terms of sexuality, and given the opportunity to lead a male lifestyle so to say. When considering such circumstances, in reality, a free women would seem to be contented with who s he is, but in the

novel, Doris Lessing gives us an insight to Annas psyche and shows us how the free woman of that time actually comprehends her situation and how her acceptance or rejection from society affects her. Lessing does give us an image of a women who is in her time, in terms of freedom, free from a range of domestic and financial stresses, does not follow norms of morality which are linked to traditional believes and standards. The problem occurs when she is then treated as a sexual object by men, just like Richard treats all women as objects. It is not just Richard who does injustice to them, Anna is also mistreated by only man she holds close to her heart Michael, who does not show any signs that he wants to bound to her permanently, and is in a way giving her signs that he is there but at the same time is not, as if he does not want to have her settled. It actually appears that Michael is afraid of responsibilities, and bonding. It can be said that he, just like Anna and Molly, does not want to lose his freedom, where as the two of them are trying to obtain theirs.

4. The issue of the self-identity

One other major issue which Anna faces is the issue of self -identity. In her attempt to live her live as a free woman or as some may understand to live her life freely, just lime men do, it is evident that she sometimes suffers from emotional and psychical breakdowns. Every month, as a woman, she goes through same problems regarding her physical nature. It does not matter how hard she tries to hold control over her life, over her finances, or over her emotions, this natural occurrence makes her in a way lose control over herself, vulnerable and exposed. Unwillingly, her emotions go out of control, when she finds herself vulnerable, in need of love and companion, in need of someone who can, so to say, protect her from her. It is undeniable that both Anna and Molly are searching for love, or someone with whom they could share believes and opinions, the problem is that the way of their seeking and choosing a companion resembles a wild-goose chase. In their opinion, there are only a few good men left who would be emotionally,

psychically and physically adequate. Because of this, Anna seems to engage herself with different men, but the only man who is meaningful to her seems to be Michael. When it comes to him, it seems that she would do everything and anything for him, which puts her back to the start line in becoming independent emotionally, as well as physically and psychically. He resents the fact that she has written a book and he mocks it and her as an author. He is also selfish and needy when it comes to A nnas distribution of love and attention between him and her daughter and on top of all that he expresses that he has no intentions in marrying her. It seems that Anna is again attached to one thing she despises but actually does not expect much from this relationship at the very end. At the end we can as well say that this relationship between Anna and Michael is rather of a social nature than of individual. The bottom line to the issue of self-identity is that Anna is still just a woman, who as well gets overtaken by her needs and emotions regardless of the effort she puts in covering them and locking them inside herself. Although she is aware that she lives in a male-dominant world, where interests of opposite sides clash and collide continuously in the field of their interests, and where women are still very much dependent of men, Anna is disappointed by the realization, that such a problem could never be completely solved.

5. The issue of political identity

Finally we have the issue of political identity. It appears that the political aspect plays a great role in the novel, as well as it seems that Doris Lessing implemented her own believes and attitudes in her heroine. The novel gave a

critique of Communism as well as opening many questions regarding the political situation. Anna writes about her experiences in her notebooks, so that we have, in this political sense, her black notebook where she describes a period when she was in African colony, during the WWII. There she encounters a group of people who are communists and who share their life stories after the war. Such stories

inspired her to write her brilliant novel which had records of her life as a writer, which ended up being a best-seller. Another notebook which is filled with various descriptions of Annas political life is the red notebook . Through this notebook we follow and analyze Annas political orientation in which she considers freedoms of the mind and freedoms given by the state. Anna certainly had her doubts about joining the party, but she had the need to fit in somewhere, to feel that she is a part of something. She was young when she joined the Party, she believed that things will change and had dreamed of a better life. Here we see how naive and delusional Anna really was when it comes to Communism. Even she was afterwards questioning her decision fearing that it might not be neither smart nor right choice. The same fear made her chose not to tell Molly about her political activity. Through the story, Anna comes to the conclusion that political ideas were not as important as it seemed at the beginning. When realizing that the interpretation of communism was in fact misinterpreted, Anna addresses Stalin thanking him for making her realize what communism was really about 3 . She leaves the Party when she faces hypocrisy and disappointment in communism.

3. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing, pg. 275

6. Conclusion

There were always two personalities in her, the communist and Anna, and Anna judged the communist all the time. 4 Even though this novel deals with Communism as such, we can see that the development of our heroine and her identity is the main focus. It could be interpreted that Anna stands for those women who believe that they can make a change in the world. After all she was seen as a woman, mother, communist and a writer. It is clear that throughout this novel, her identities, or better said personalities intertwine with one another. We are always given fragments of Anna s personalities. Sometimes it is a woman who is struggling with her career other times with her single parenthood and all the prejudices that the society throws at her. Throughout the novel we can see how Anna is determined to establish herself as a free woman without being judged and criticized by the society. For this and many other reasons, this novel, or better said, Anna has influenced many women, encouraging them to fight against stereotypes and norms which are imposed by their society. Doris opened a whole new world of possibilities for women through her heroine. Anna is definitely not just a model of every woman in the world who is fighting with her daemons ; Anna represents every person who is still trying to find their way in the world they are living in.

4. The Black Notebook, pg 69

7. References

Kellum, Dan (2007) The political Doris Lessing Lessing, Doris (2007) Guardian Welcome Guardian book club with John Mullan Lessing, Doris (1962) The Golden Notebook Mamoto, Suzuko The quest for Integration in Doris Lessing s The Golden Notebook