3 Review(s)

About the Book:There are few writers more steeped in the landscape of the epic than Doris Lessing. Her novels, memoirs, letters, and lectures detail the trackless landscapes of time and space where the conflicts and conundrums and struggles for meaning and love in the midst of societal norms and inequities that make any kind of freedom and liberation, especially for women, difficult if not impossible. The depth of her vision for emotional and psychological detail, the clarity and directness of her style, the beauty and poignancy of her characters? struggle for love and truth, her high intelligence, all explain both why during her lifetime she received so many literary awards and why so many of her novels are regarded as classics. She was not simply a feminist author, a label she repeatedly rejected despite the Nobel Committee calling her an ?epicist of the female experience?, but she was a documenter of human experience. Her writings most certainly encapsulated the subjugation of women in powerful detail. It also placed this glaring inequity in the context of an ongoing relational dynamic between the sexes both in communication and in conflict. In this volume, probably, the first to emerge since the death of Doris Lessing on November 17th 2013, a group of truly international academics and writers each analyze Lessing?s novels from such diverse perspectives as cold war politics, sexual violence, racism, the conflict between the sexes, sociological perspectives on colonialism, linguistic analysis in the feminist dialogue, the dynamics of child rearing, philosophy of gender, female sexuality, the experience of human ageing, among many others. The book features the research articles of Oran Ryan, Feruza Shermatova, Shahram Kiaei, Baliram N. Gaikwad, Ajit Kumar, Pamela Grieman, Chung Chin-Yi, Amy LeeWai Sum, Lili Wang, Ambalika Biswas, Florica Bodi?tean and Sushumna Kannan. Scholarly in intent, accessible in exposition, and a meditation on the timeless qualities of a great writer, the scholar and the intelligent reader will find a veritable treasure trove of probing analysis and thoughtful critique on the human experience and the struggle for freedom in all its forms.About the Editors:Ajit Kumar holds his Ph.D. on Doris Lessing from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India. He is a well published scholar of Doris Lessing. He has published many research papers in national and international refereed journals and anthologies of English studies. He has presented many research papers in national and international conferences and seminars. Presently, he is engaged in editing a book on British Female Authors. He was honoured with Best Research Paper Award in World Conference AIAER-2010. He has four years teaching experience both at University and College level. Oran Ryan is a writer. He has written novels: The Death of Finn (Seven Towers, 2006), Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger (Seven Towers 2007), and One Inch Punch (Seven Towers, 2012). He has written plays: Don Quixote has Been Promoted (2009, Ranelagh Arts Festival) for the stage and Radio: Preliminary Design For a Universe Circling Spacecraft (KRPN, San Francisco, California 2010) He has lectured on James Joyce, has written and published short stories, poetry and literary critical articles. He is currently working on his next novel titled Hardcastle Dies Laughing.