Violence
is often defined narrowly as a physical act. Such narrow definitions
limit efforts to stop violence by failing to make necessary connections
between physical violence and what can be termed structural violence--non-physical
violence, often a byproduct of a cultural system or structure, that
results in shortened life or reduced quality of life (Brock-Utne
8). Because structural violence can have physical effects and even
cause retaliatoryviolence, ignoring its participation in the issue
of violence can have dangerous consequences. Namely, lack of physical
violence may not constitute peace when other factors, such as oppressive
racial, sexual, or class attitudes, also exist.
Representation
of violence as both physical and structural occurs in a number of
20th-century women's novels including Doris Lessing's The Golden
Notebook, which chronicles the life of fictional author Anna Wulf.
The examination of violence in this novel occurs through complex
juxtapositions caused by the relegation of the story into Anna's
various notebooks and an entire novel within the novel. By juxtaposing
seemingly unrelated events, thisfragmented structure encourages
readers to see the violence alluded to inthe backdrop of the novel
as intimately associated with the issues of race,sex, and class
depicted in the foreground of the narrative. Furthermore,the structure
itself suggests a means of resisting violence: the reader,who is
responsible for more work in creating meaning in fragmentedpostmodern
texts like The Golden Notebook than inconventional realist fiction,
learns, through reading, the critical stancenecessary for connecting
seemingly disparate events and for deconstructingrhetoric used to
perpetuate violent human relations. In particular,Lessing's novel
probes the thought processes that underlie violence inany form--the
dualistic thinking that uses a negative concept of the otherto define
the self..
By
dualistic thinking, of course,I mean the logic of binary oppositions
in general--the assumption thatpairings like good/bad, male/female,
dark/light, or black/white include twocompletely antithetical terms.
Although this binary logic may soundreasonable to anyone educated
in a system that teaches synonyms andantonyms, such thinking becomes
problematic when transferred from the realmof language to relations
of power among people. When an individual imagineshim- or herself
as belonging to a group partaking of characteristics on oneside
of a binary opposition, those partaking of opposing characteristicscan
be denigrated in order to elevate the self. Such thinking undergirdsunequal
power relationships including sexism and racism, as scholars likeSimone
de Beauvoir and Edward Said have argued. This denigration orothering
is essentially an extreme utopian urge,conceptually cleansing and
empowering the self by expelling all negativeaspects and projecting
them onto and thus disempowering people who aresomehow different
from the self. When this dualistic thinking becomesentangled in
economics or politics, for example, the results can bedevastating.
Lessing's
novel reveals that dualistic thinkingoccurs in the relationships
between men and women, between colonizers andthe colonized, between
soldiers on the battlefield, between parents andchildren, and between
political party insiders and outsiders. Such thinkingpervades both
structural and physical violence. One way the novel depictsthis
pervasiveness is by using the fragmentary quality of the novel tojuxtapose
dualistic thinking in otherwise non-violent everyday life withsituations
in which this thinking clearly involves physical violence. Thisjuxtaposition
indicates the intimate connection between structural andphysical
violence and the need to eradicate dualistic thinking in order toeliminate
both kinds of violence.
This
juxtaposition of violentbackdrop and seemingly peaceful foreground
occurs within sections andbetween sections. For example, the novel
mentions war as the catalyst formore mundane activity: the Spanish
Civil War is the event during whichAnna's friend Molly and Molly's
ex-husband Richard originally meet(16) and World War II is the reason
for Molly's becoming a journalist(17). Other examples include Anna's
ex-lover Michael's memories of1952 Czechoslovakia where members
of Michael's family were executed ingas chambers (332) and the events
of 1956--the invasions of Hungary andSuez, and Khrushchev's revelations
at the 20th Congress of the CommunistParty of the Soviet Union about
Stalin's ruthless purges--which causeAnna, like Lessing herself,
to leave the British Communist Party. Theseinstances of violence
mentioned as part of the novel's backdrop--wenever actually see
any of them depicted--help us interpret the seeminglyless violent
activities of day-to-day life. Similarly, World War II is thecontext
for Anna's less adventurous experiences at the Mashopi Hotel inSouthern
Rhodesia that fill the black notebook. Anna's novelFrontiers of
War, which chronicles her Mashopiexperiences, lurks behind what
Anna intends to be the more truthful detailsin the black notebook.
Although excerpts from the novel itself never appearin Lessing's
novel, the emphasis on war in the novel's titleaccompanies the black-notebook
characters' activities on the Rhodesianhomefront. Thus, The Golden
Notebook reveals thefrontiers of war exist not surrounding some
distant battlefield but in themidst of our mundane lives.
Another
kind of violence also lurks inthe backdrop of the Mashopi events--imperialism.
Although the narrativefocuses primarily on the social activities
of the white people staying atthe Mashopi Hotel, the narrative also
provides glimpses into the life ofJackson, the hotel's black cook.
In particular, Anna's friend Georgehas an affair with Jackson's
wife, resulting in a child, and the hotelproprietor, Mrs. Boothbay,
fires Jackson on the pretext of what appears toher to be homosexual
behavior, but her real reason is most likely thatJackson discusses
politics with the white guests. While we witness nophysical violence
associated with colonialism in Africa, the incidentssurrounding
Jackson point to the widespread oppression of Africans on theirown
territory, oppression that can be seen as structural violence, whicheven
though not physically violent in the novel, can reduce the comfort
andlength of life and can lead to physical violence, as it has throughoutAfrica.
Like instances of war, colonialism in the backdrop reflects on thebehavior
of the more rounded characters depicted in the novel'sforeground.
Necessary for all the instances of violence occurring inbackdrop
and foreground is the belief that certain people deserve to bekilled
or oppressed, a belief that requires the dualistic thinking thatseparates
self and other. Thus, the violence in the backdrop of the novelcalls
attention to the violence caused by the binary system from which
Annacan't seem to extricate herself. The juxtaposition of physical
violencein the backdrop with structural violence in the foreground
also points toviolence as an outcome of binary thinking even in
seemingly peacefulrelationships.
The
most frequently dramatized instance of binarythinking affecting
otherwise non-violent relationships between people isAnna's repeated
pattern of taking lovers who are not capable of lovingher. Willi,
Anna's lover in the Mashopi sequences, is the first. Perhapsbecause
we don't glimpse much of his consciousness, he seems more of abully
than the others. Anna observes that Willi applies the need for a"'good
hiding'" to women in the way the colonials apply it tonatives
(98). Notice the way the text explicitly uses the more violentcolonial
backdrop as a metaphor for intimate relationships. However, thefault
is not only the bully but also the woman who loves a bully. Annacomments,
"It was from Willi I learned how many women like to bebullied"
(98). Here, the binary logic that makes blacks and whitesinherent
opposites applies to women and men; men are supposed to bully, andwomen
are supposed to admire them for it. Implicit in the assumed absoluteopposition
between these roles is the fact that one part of the pair, themale
part, has considerable advantages over the other. This alignmentbetween
the structural violence occurring in male-female relationships andthe
physical violence pervading the novel's backdrop is what makesThe
Golden Notebook such a powerful and influentialcomment on gender
issues.
Besides
calling attentionto the relationship between structural and physical
violence in thejuxtaposition of background and foreground events,
the novel's critiqueof dualistic thought also occurs through the
novel's testing ofpotential solutions to violence, particularly
through Anna's search foran ethical artistic means to render life.
The most significant potentialsolution to violence that the novel
rejects is communism. The novel'sexploration of communism indicates
it fails to address the root cause ofviolence because, although
communism calls attention to structural violenceoccurring through
economics, it does not account for the dualistic thinkingunderlying
both structural and physical violence. Although communism'segalitarian
vision sounds like it might help people overcoming the"othering"
that divides them, the Communist Party itself, inAnna's experience,
becomes just one more way to "other" people asoutsiders.
For example, being a party member forces Anna into a defensiveposition
when speaking with people from outside the party (157, 161). Thisdefensive
position oversimplifies and polarizes issues, reducing thelikelihood
of discussing and solving complex problems and thereby doingviolence
to the critical thought necessary for effective activism. An imageof
the problem with this defensive position occurs when Anna notices
theglass on the Communist Party building: "The protective glass
gave me twofeelings-one of fear; the world of violence. The other,
a feeling ofprotectiveness-the need to protect an organization that
people throwstones at" (155). Both fear and protectiveness
can lead to anoversimplified, reactionary stance. Unless members
can criticize the partyline, they are unable to compromise, and
if they are not allowed to seeoutside party doctrine, they will
be reduced to stereotypes (49), unable totranscend us/them, either/or
issues. As Anna writes in the red notebook,"[. . .] somewhere
at the back of my mind when I joined the Party was aneed for wholeness,
for an end to the split, divided, unsatisfactory way weall live.
Yet joining the Party intensified the split [. . .]" (161).
Inpromising the unified, humanist reality people seek and yet creating
adefensive in-group anxiety, the Communist Party ironically precludes
theunity it promises. Where communism ideally should make everyone
equal, whenit becomes an imposed ideology, it can be used inthe
same way that other values can be used, to establish the righteousnessof
the self at the expense of others, to justify, for example, ComradeIrene's
spitting at Michael "'for wearing a very slightly bettersuit
than her husband has'" (163). Communism's unifying visionthus
becomes an extreme utopian urge necessitating the expulsion of any"other"
to a subordinate position where the other can be usedinversely to
define the self and can be treated as a seemingly deservingtarget
for violence.
Instead
of providing a unifyingversion of truth like that supplied by communism,
The GoldenNotebook urges readers toward a more realistic, complex
solutionto the problem of dualistic thinking than communism can
provide--criticalthinking. Instead of giving our free will to large
movements like communismthat will determine our thinking for us,
we should keep a critical distancefrom issues and movements so that
we can make informed decisions about waysto move toward more peaceful
living. The GoldenNotebook not only dramatizes critical thought
as a solution byshowing Anna's psychological development through
the course of the novelbut also models critical thinking by insisting
the reader take a moreactive role in making meaning from the novel
than the reader might inreading more conventional literature. In
particular, the novel invites thereader to navigate the juxtaposition
between the fragmented, multi-genericnotebooks and the novel-within-the-novel
Free Women, which can be considered traditional realism (Sprague
19). Juxtapositionof these two different styles of writing operates
ironically by "rubbingtogether" (Hutcheon 19). Not only
does this rubbing together emphasize"between," which disrupts
binary opposition (Michael 73), but alsothe meaning that emerges
"between" the items juxtaposed does notreplace their stability
but rather questions that such stability has everexisted (Hutcheon
14). Questioning the stability of conventional narrativeas the way
to view the world is particularlyimportant, and "civilized
irony, contemplating life," as Lessingargues, is key to defeating
the fanaticism (Linfield 65) that reifies oneterm in a binary opposition
and projects all threatening elements outsideits province into devalued
space.
Free
Women is ratherconventional, particularly at the end where ex-communist
Anna plans to jointhe Labour Party and ex-communist Molly intends
to get married. IfFree Women were the only part of TheGolden Notebook,
the "consensus" (Ermarth) seeminglyreestablished at the
end between unconventional characters and theirconventional society
would remain. However, because the notebooks revealmore character
complexity than Free Women, theymake the conventional ending seem
trite, improbable, and unsatisfying.Becoming more conservative members
of their society is not what we'dexpect or want for these characters,
nor does it answer the questionsraised by the plot's conflicts,
especially those related to violence.Further examination of this
jarring juxtaposition reveals that Free Women parodies the conventional
novel form. The weddingending as the pat conclusion to Lessing's
complex and influentialdramatization of "the sex wars"
represents the most significantsignal of parody. Other clues include
the irony of the title (that anyone,particularly women, is or could
be free in such a violent society); thedeflation of suspense by
revealing details of the plot in the Table ofContents and in "flashforward"
narrative elements (e.g. on p. 180);and the use of summary that
occurs increasingly toward the end ofFree Women. This summarizing
indicates the reducedimportance of those later sections because
of their conventionality.Readers need little detail here because
the story is familiar; they havebeen lulled into consensus with
the existing system through marriage plotsmany times. However, Lessing
refuses to participate in such lulling; thesummary and deflation
of suspense reduce narrative pleasure in thesesections in a Brechtian
way that makes readers aware of the readingexperience. Aware as
readers, they will think more criticallyabout their entertainment
and its affect on their view of reality.
Another
way The Golden Notebooksignals the use of parody is through three
explicit discussions of howdifficult parody can be for readers to
detect. The first is a story thatAnna comments could be read as
ironic, parodic, or serious about a Britishcommunist meeting Stalin
and telling him his ideas about how the CommunistParty should operate
in Britain (302). The second is "Blood on theBanana Leaves,"
a parody by Anna's colleague James, which is intendedto replace
his normal literary review in a magazine. The editor doesn'tunderstand
the intended parody and demands his review (440). The thirdinstance
is the newspaper photo of Richard's current wife Marion whobecomes
naively politically active. The photo bears the parodic caption:"'It's
absolutely sickening the way the poor Africans are beingtreated.'"
Reading the paper, Marion doesn't realize that the useof her words
in this context is parodic. She's genuinely pleased tothink she's
doing good (513). These explicit examples of parody callattention
to Lessing's own use of parody.
Theseexamples
also emphasize the purpose of Lessing's use of parody: thedifficulty
of such a rhetorical strategy is, of course, that it depends soheavily
on the knowledge and awareness of the audience. In doing so, parody"implies"
(Iser) a critical reader, a reader who brings wideknowledge, multiple
perspectives, and intellectual playfulness to the text.Such a reader
would understand the dualistic thinking underlyingconventional power
hierarchies and be able to apply that understanding notonly to texts
but to life. Lessing's novel cultivates such a reader andworries
over those times when "[. . .] something had happened in theworld
which made parody impossible" (440). Parody fails in these
times becausepeople like the editor and Marion know only one set
of values and can inferonly one meaning from a text. Readers with
more experience readingmulti-layered texts would expect such complexity
in the surrounding world.Thus, the novel models unconventional,
self-aware artwork as one means ofeliminating the dualistic thinking
that is the root cause of physical andstructural violence.
In
conclusion, through the juxtaposition ofphysical violence in the
backdrop and structural violence in the foregroundand the juxtaposition
of the notebooks and fictional elements of the novel,The Golden
Notebook demonstrates that eradicatingstructural and physical violence
requires recognizing their intimateconnection and developing a critical
stance that unsettles the self-otherdichotomy on which so much violence
is based.
NOTES
1. A number ofscholars identify Lessing's concerns as either pacifist
or feministwithout connecting these political stances to each other
or to Lessing'sconcerns about global human rights issues. In this
respect, previousscholarship fails to capture the scope of Lessing's
accomplishment. Forexample, Fand indicates that Lessing "gives
priority to 'thebomb'" but comments that so do feminists (104).
Fand does not developthis idea. While Gardiner identifies Lessing's
emphasis on the problemof "treat[ing] other people as objects"
(91), her discussion ofempathy lacks connection to Lessing's preoccupation
with larger globalissues. Barnouw observes that Lessing identifies
thought processes as theroot cause of violence (116) but, like Gardiner,
doesn't connect"othering" to global issues. Like other
scholars, Abel addresses therejection of dualistic thinking in The
GoldenNotebook (102), but her argument is undercut by aligningLessing's
ideas with those of the French feminists, which rely heavilyon the
male-female opposition. Furthermore, Abel, like other scholars,fails
to connect Lessing's feminism with her interest in peace and humanrights.
2. Here I amrelying on Burwell's discussion of utopia as having
"a circular andself-fulfilling relation to its fear of contamination:
it projects internalcontradiction onto a subsequently devalued place,
and when thiscontradiction confronts it as external contamination,
utopia reinforces theboundaries that sustain an image of itself
as separate andself-contained" (2).
3. Scholars who have observed the irony or parody in The GoldenNotebook
include Draine (72), Fand (100), Green (Changing 127), Schweickart
(274-75), and Sprague(10).
4. Arlett characterizes thedistancing effect of the notebooks as
similar to distancing in Brecht'sdrama (36).
5. As Fishburn observes about Lessing's science fiction, Lessingcreates
a "dialectical relationship between the text and her readers"(Unexpected
12). Greene comments that The Golden Notebook is "'writerly'"
in Barthes'ssense of the term; it requires reader participation
(Doris 23).
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