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Doris May Lessing

ドリス・メイ・レッシング

Doris May Lessing

Pen Names: Jane Somers（Pen name used to publish novels about the realities of middle-aged women）, Doris May Tayler (birth name)（Birth name）, Doris May (given name)（Commonly used given name）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1919-10-22 （Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran)）
Died
2013-11-17 （London, United Kingdom） age 94
Nationality
United Kingdom
Languages
English
Residence History
Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran) → Tehran (early childhood) → United Kingdom (returned) → Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) → London (later life)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Novelist, Poet, Essayist
Active Years
1949-2013
Memberships
Communist Party of Great Britain (1954–1956)
Influenced By
Marxist thinkers and activists, Experiences of colonial Africa and its societies
Influenced
British women writers such as Margaret Drabble, Writers of feminist and anti-colonial literature

Education

Dominican Convent High School (Salisbury)
Period: 1920年代 - 1930年代（中途退学）
Country: Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Left school at 14 and continued education informally

Awards

Somerset Maugham Prize
1954
Work: Short story 'Five'
Organization: Somerset Maugham Prize committee
Result: 受賞
Prix Médicis (Foreign Literature)
1976
Work: Selected foreign novel
Category: 外国小説部門
Organization: Prix Médicis committee
Result: 受賞
Austrian State Prize for European Literature
1981
Work: For her body of work
Organization: Government of Austria
Result: 受賞
Prince of Asturias Award
2001
Work: Outstanding literary achievement
Category: 文学
Organization: Prince of Asturias Foundation
Result: 受賞
Nobel Prize in Literature
2007
Work: For her life's work
Category: 文学
Organization: The Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Booker Prize (nominated)
1985
Work: The Good Terrorist
Organization: Booker Prize committee
Result: ノミネート
Grinzane Cavour Prize
1989
Work: The Fifth Child
Organization: Grinzane Cavour Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Grass Is Singing

1950 Novel (colonial literature)

Set in Rhodesia, it depicts the tensions between a white woman and the local society, and the collapse of personal relationships.

colonialismraceisolationgender
Adaptations
  • [Film] Killing Heat / ハーマン・ヤコブス（Herman Jacobson） (1981)
Translations
  • 'The Grass Is Singing' translated into Japanese by Tsutomu Yamazaki & Itaru Sakai

The Golden Notebook

1962 Novel (feminist, experimental)

A major work exploring women's interior lives, the writer's conflicts, and the interplay of politics and the private, influential to the women's liberation movement.

female experienceself-expressionpolitics vs. privatefragmented self
Translations
  • 'The Golden Notebook' translated into Japanese (various translators)

Memoirs of a Survivor

1974 Novel (dystopian)

A quasi-dystopian account of post-catastrophe Britain, exploring survival and social breakdown.

dystopiasocial collapseindividual vs community
Translations
  • 'Memoirs of a Survivor' translated into Japanese by Yoshiko Taisha

Shikasta (Canopus in Argos series)

1979 Science fiction (cosmic saga)

The first book in a series that views Earth's history and cultural change from the perspective of cosmic civilizations.

civilization critiquehistorical perspectivecolonial connections
Translations
  • 'Shikasta' translated into Japanese by Yoshiko Taisha

The Fifth Child

1988 Novel (domestic fiction with horror elements)

A disturbing tale of a family coping with the birth of an abnormal child, exposing anxieties within family and society.

familyothernessfear and exclusion
Translations
  • 'The Fifth Child' translated into Japanese by Kazuo Ueda

Bibliography

  • The Grass Is Singing (1950)
  • The Golden Notebook (1962)
  • Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
  • Shikasta (1979)
  • The Fifth Child (1988)

Adaptations

  • Killing Heat (film adaptation of The Grass Is Singing, 1981)
  • Adoration (film, based on 'The Grandmothers', 2013)

Translations of Works

  • Many works translated into Japanese and other languages (e.g. The Grass Is Singing, The Golden Notebook)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Realistic depiction combined with social critiqueFeminist perspectiveExperimental narrative and fragmented structure
Recurring Motifs
female experience and autonomycolonialism and raceindividual isolation and the unconsciousfamily and social breakdown

Health

  • Back pain
    2007（ノーベル賞授賞式時）
    Missed the Nobel ceremony; her speech was read by a proxy

Legacy

Internationally acclaimed for depicting female experience, she significantly influenced feminist literature and anti-colonial critique; she also engaged in book-sending and cultural support for Zimbabwe.

Academic Societies

  • Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Archives

  • Holdings in the British Library and various national library authority files

In Popular Culture

  • Adaptations into film and opera (e.g. Philip Glass opera based on her work)

Quotes

  • "That epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."
    Source: Nobel Prize citation (The Swedish Academy) (2007)
  • "On not winning the Nobel Prize" (title of her Nobel speech)
    Source: Nobel lecture (read by proxy) (2007)

Trivia

  • At the time of her 2007 Nobel Prize she became the oldest laureate in Literature
  • Published under the pen name 'Jane Somers'
  • Was monitored by MI5 for many years (later revealed)
  • Banned from entering apartheid South Africa for a long period after 1956