THE DECLINE OF MECHANIZED WESTERN CULTURE IN DORIS LESSING'S MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR
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Date
2022-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF MOHAMED BOUDIAF
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Doris Lessing has always used her bad background and reputation in writing her
novels, and as a result of the cultural diversity she was exposed to during her life, she
was able to use it in her writings, which often talked about problems and events in
that period of time. Her novel Memoirs of a Survivor embodies the hunger and
inadequacy of language, where Lessing resorts to metaphors to rationally fill this need
so that it does not slip into unreality. So she tells about the future history of a city
whose streets are terrorized by rats and gangs, as the ruling authority has abandoned
its responsibilities. Through her heroine narrator she describes the events and crisis
that befell a city that is fading with the passage of time, causing it to lose its identity
in a way that provokes terror in a calm manner. Moreover, this study emphasizes the
decline of identity and western civilization and the importance of the individual caring
out is responsibilities. Thus the study is divided into two chapters. The first chapter
presents the socio-historical context and theoretical framework. The second chapter,
analyze the decline of the Western culture in the light of Doris Lessing’s ‘Memoirs of
a survivor.’
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Western culture; civilization; decline; identity; individual; utopian; dystopian