Women and the city of London in Doris Lessing’s The Diaries of Jane Somers (1984)
Keywords:
Doris Lessing, Londres como teatro, palimpsesto, flâneuse, ruptura de fronterasAbstract
This paper examines the feminine perspective of London in Doris Lessing’s The Diaries of Jane Somers (1984). Lessing offers a feminist vision of the city representing London as a stage. Janna, the protagonist, strolls around the city, becoming a flâneuse as she gazes at the spectacle of urban life. Janna’s relationship to the old woman Maudie Fowler enables her to see the different layers of time and space of London and read the city as a palimpsest, a manuscript that shows traces of earlier texts. Lessing blends the theatrical view of city with the palimpsest. Furthermore, nature is not separated from the urban environment, but included as an essential part of the city. The femininity in Lessing’s view of London resides in the combination of theatre, palimpsest and nature.
Downloads
References
Arias, R., «‘All the world’s a stage’: Theatricality, spectacle and the flâneuse in Doris Lessing’s vision of London». Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 14.1 (2005).
Brand, D., The Spectator of the City in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Epstein Nord, D., Walking the Victorian Streets: Women, Representation, and the City. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Greene, G., Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Hidalgo, Pilar, «Female flânerie in Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage». Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, vol. 6, (1993).
Kirchknopf, A., «(Re)Workings of nineteenth-century fiction: Definitions, terminology, contexts». Neo-Victorian Studies, vol. 1. 1 (2008).
Kristeva, Julia, «Women’s time».Signs,vol. 7.1 (1981).Lessing, Doris, «Doris Lessing talks about Jane Somers». Doris Lessing Newsletter, vol. 1. 10 (1986), pp. 2-3.
——, The Diaries of Jane Somers. London: Harper Collins, 2002 (1a ed. 198 4).
Malish, B., «The flâneur: From spectator to representation»,in K. Tester (ed.), The Flâneur, London & New York: Routledge, 2004.
Moi, Toril (ed.), The Kristeva Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
Schroeder, P., The Possibilities of Dramatic Realism. Farleigh & London: Associated University Press, 1996.
Shields, R., «Fancy footwork: Walter Benjamin’s notes on Flânerie», in K. Tester (ed.), The Flâneur, London & New York: Routledge, 2004.
Benjamin, Walter, «Introduction», in K. Tester (ed.), The Flâneur, London & New York: Routledge, 2004.
Watkins, S., «‘Grande dame’ or ‘New Woman’: Doris Lessing and the palimpsest». LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory, vol. 3.17 (2006).
Wick Sizemore, C., A Female Vision of the City: London in the Novels of Five British Women. Knox-ville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
Wilson, E., «The invisible flâneur». New Left Review, vol. 191(1991).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Articles are the property of their respective authors, who freely grant the journal the right of first publication.
