Book contents
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Chapter 13 The Psycho-political Novel of Ideas and the Second World War
- Chapter 14 Naomi Mitchison
- Chapter 15 George Orwell
- Chapter 16 Rebecca West
- Chapter 17 George Lamming
- Chapter 18 Doris Lessing
- Chapter 19 Iris Murdoch
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 18 - Doris Lessing
Espionage and Speculative Fiction
from Part III - 1945–1975
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2024
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Chapter 13 The Psycho-political Novel of Ideas and the Second World War
- Chapter 14 Naomi Mitchison
- Chapter 15 George Orwell
- Chapter 16 Rebecca West
- Chapter 17 George Lamming
- Chapter 18 Doris Lessing
- Chapter 19 Iris Murdoch
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Doris Lessing was one of the most restless novelists of her generation. She toggled between realist bildungsromane, autofiction, postmodernist experimentation, and speculative fiction. Despite her restlessness, she remained committed to the novel of ideas, using these different subgenres to entertain philosophical debates about autonomy, group membership, racism, and social progress. Surprisingly, as this chapter demonstrates, Lessing’s swerve into speculative fiction was conditioned by her status as a target of MI5 surveillance. Although Lessing knew she was being watched, she did not turn to the paranoid style of George Orwell. Instead, she used her fiction to suggest that an imperialist intelligence network could be outwitted by individuals who harness the powers of intelligent perception, or ESP: reading minds, forecasting future events, even communicating across species. The way to beat a repressive police network was to mimic its capabilities, bringing the arts of surveillance into the fold of human consciousness itself.
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- The British Novel of IdeasGeorge Eliot to Zadie Smith, pp. 308 - 321Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024