Cracking up' : female identity decentredness in doris lessing's the goldennotebook

Abstract EN

The present research paper studies the theme of identity decentredness in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook.

It analyses the novel's protagonist's disintegrated identity and consciousness through the study of the postmodernist fragmentary narrative techniques and also the hotchpotch of themes the author tried a hand on.

The paper challenges modernist association of the subject with coherence and unity and, in turn, supports postmodern theoretical views on fragmentation, division, and compartmentalisation of the human identity.

The analysis traces first the decentredness of the female identity by relating it to the fragmentary structure of the novel and the fragmentary techniques that characterises it and then moves to the analysis of sexism and racism, focusing mainly on ways to subvert the two discourses successively through sex war and postcolonial hybridity.

The paper dwells upon some postmodern and postcolonial theoretical.

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