Editing Doris Lessing (section)

==Fiction==
[[File:Idries Shah.gif|thumb|right|[[Idries Shah]], who introduced Lessing to [[Sufism]]<ref name="Lessingon">{{cite web|last=Lessing|first=Doris|title=On the Death of Idries Shah (excerpt from Shah's obituary in the London ''The Daily Telegraph'')|publisher=dorislessing.org|url=http://www.dorislessing.org/on.html|access-date=3 October 2008}}</ref>]]
Lessing's fiction is commonly divided into three distinct phases.

During her Communist phase (1944–56) she wrote radically about social issues, a theme to which she returned in ''[[The Good Terrorist]]'' (1985). Doris Lessing's first novel, ''[[The Grass Is Singing]]'', as well as the short stories later collected in ''African Stories'', are set in [[Southern Rhodesia]] (today [[Zimbabwe]]) where she was then living.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pinckney |first=Darryl |title=Zimbabwe's Wounds of Empire {{!}} Darryl Pinckney |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/04/06/zimbabwes-wounds-of-empire-tsitsi-dangarembga/ |access-date=2023-04-23 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref>

This was followed by a [[Psychology|psychological]] phase from 1956 to 1969, including the ''Golden Notebook'' and the "Children of Violence" quintet.<ref>{{Cite news |last=French |first=Patrick |date=2018-03-03 |title=Free Woman: Life, Liberation and Doris Lessing by Lara Feigel – review |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/03/free-woman-life-liberation-doris-lessing-lara-feigel-review |access-date=2023-04-23 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Third came the [[Sufism|Sufi]] phase, explored in her 70s work, and in the ''[[Canopus in Argos]]'' sequence of science fiction (or as she preferred to put it "space fiction") novels and novellas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Doris Lessing: the Sufi connection |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/doris-lessing-sufi-connection/ |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=openDemocracy |language=en}}</ref>

Lessing's ''Canopus'' sequence received a mixed reception from mainstream [[literary critic]]s. John Leonard praised her 1980 novel ''[[The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five]]'' in ''The New York Times'',<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/03/27/archives/books-of-the-times-gentle-book.html |title=Books of the Times; Gentle Book |newspaper=The New York Times |date= 27 March 1980|access-date=24 December 2020|last1= Leonard|first1= John}}</ref> but in 1982 [[John Leonard (American critic)|John Leonard]] wrote in reference to ''[[The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (novel)|The Making of the Representative for Planet 8]]'' that "[o]ne of the many sins for which the 20th century will be held accountable is that it has discouraged Mrs. Lessing... She now propagandises on behalf of our insignificance in the cosmic razzmatazz",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/07/books/the-spacing-out-of-doris-lessing.html|title=The Spacing Out of Doris Lessing|first=John|last=Leonard|author-link=John Leonard (American critic)|work=The New York Times|access-date=16 October 2008|date=7 February 1982}}</ref> to which Lessing replied: "What they didn't realise was that in science fiction is some of the best [[social fiction]] of our time. I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like ''[[Blood Music (novel)|Blood Music]]'', by [[Greg Bear]]. He's a great writer."<ref>''[http://www.dorislessing.org/boston.html Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns]'', interview by Harvey Blume in ''Boston Book Review''</ref> She attended [[45th World Science Fiction Convention|the 1987]] [[World Science Fiction Convention]] as its Writer Guest of Honor. Here she made a speech in which she described her [[dystopian]] novel ''[[Memoirs of a Survivor]]'' as "an attempt at an autobiography".<ref>"Guest of Honor Speech", in ''Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches'', edited by Mike Resnick and Joe Siclari (Deerfield, IL: ISFIC Press, 2006), p. 192.</ref>

The ''Canopus in Argos'' novels present an advanced interstellar society's efforts to accelerate the evolution of other worlds, including Earth. Using [[Sufi]] concepts, to which Lessing had been introduced in the mid-1960s by her "good friend and teacher" [[Idries Shah]],<ref name="Lessingon"/> the series of novels also uses an approach similar to that employed by the early 20th-century mystic [[G. I. Gurdjieff]] in his work ''[[All and Everything]]''. Earlier works of "inner space" fiction like ''[[Briefing for a Descent into Hell]]'' (1971) and ''[[Memoirs of a Survivor]]'' (1974) also connect to this theme. Lessing's interest had turned to Sufism after coming to the realisation that Marxism ignored spiritual matters, leaving her disillusioned.<ref>"Postcolonial Nostalgias: Writing, Representation and Memory", Volume 31 of ''Routledge research in postcolonial literatures'', Dennis Walder, Taylor & Francis ltd, 2010, p92. {{ISBN|9780203840382}}.</ref>

Lessing's novel ''[[The Golden Notebook]]'' is considered a feminist classic by some scholars,<ref name=NPR>{{cite news|title=Fresh Air Remembers 'Golden Notebook' Author Doris Lessing|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=245955408|access-date=19 November 2013|publisher=NPR|date=18 November 2013}}</ref> but notably not by the author herself, who later wrote that its theme of mental breakdowns as a means of healing and freeing one's self from illusions had been overlooked by critics. She also regretted that critics failed to appreciate the exceptional structure of the novel. She explained in ''Walking in the Shade'' that she modelled Molly partly on her good friend [[Joan Rodker]], the daughter of the modernist poet and publisher [[John Rodker]].<ref>Scott, Lynda, [http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/0498/0498lynda.htm "Lessing's Early and Transitional Novels: The Beginnings of a Sense of Selfhood"], ''Deepsouth'', vol. 4, no. 1 (Autumn 1998). Retrieved 17 October 2007.</ref>

Lessing did not like being pigeonholed as a feminist author. When asked why, she explained: {{Blockquote|What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. What they would really like me to say is, 'Ha, sisters, I stand with you side by side in your struggle toward the golden dawn where all those beastly men are no more.' Do they really want people to make oversimplified statements about men and women? In fact, they do. I've come with great regret to this conclusion.|Doris Lessing|''[[The New York Times]]'', 25 July 1982<ref name="space fiction"/>}}