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African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”

In “The Small Personal Voice” (1957), Doris Lessing celebrates novels that are based on nineteenth-century realism and writerly committedness and laments its absence in literary production. She adheres to a theory of literature that emanates from an understanding of good and evil and has an instruct...

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Main Author: Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
PE English
PM Hyperborean, Indian, and Artificial languages
PN0080 Criticism
PR English literature
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/1/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20abstract.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/2/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20draft.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/
http://dorislessing100.org/documents/27001838/27003021/DL+100+THE+WRITER%27S+QUEST+FINAL+PROGRAMME.pdf/812f7891-5d8a-e5a5-7fb5-179129b7e406
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spelling my.iium.irep.750082023-05-08T04:57:44Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/ African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice” Hasan, Md. Mahmudul PE English PM Hyperborean, Indian, and Artificial languages PN0080 Criticism PR English literature In “The Small Personal Voice” (1957), Doris Lessing celebrates novels that are based on nineteenth-century realism and writerly committedness and laments its absence in literary production. She adheres to a theory of literature that emanates from an understanding of good and evil and has an instructive function. In this respect, she admires nineteenth-century realist novelists and commends their efforts to document the social abuses of the period and thus to right the wrongs committed by exploitative elements in society. Despite the debate whether or not later in her works Lessing held true to the position detailed so powerfully in “The Small Personal Voice”, the essay is often considered her manifesto and synonymous with her name. Paraphrasing Wordsworth that “the novelist talks, as an individual to individuals, in a small personal voice” (Lessing 25), and given the urgency of morally and socially edifying literary texts, she vaticinates that readers will “feel again a need for the small personal voice.” Based on this background, my paper will elaborate on Lessing’s theory of literature as a counter to the overarching philosophy of the “art for art’s sake” movement and will establish resonances of her theory with those of African and Islamic views of literature. 2019-09-12 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/1/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20abstract.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/2/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20draft.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2019) African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”. In: Doris Lessing at 100: The Writer’s Quest, 12th-14th September 2019, The Julian Study Centre (JSC), The University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, UK. (Unpublished) http://dorislessing100.org/documents/27001838/27003021/DL+100+THE+WRITER%27S+QUEST+FINAL+PROGRAMME.pdf/812f7891-5d8a-e5a5-7fb5-179129b7e406
institution Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building IIUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language English
English
topic PE English
PM Hyperborean, Indian, and Artificial languages
PN0080 Criticism
PR English literature
spellingShingle PE English
PM Hyperborean, Indian, and Artificial languages
PN0080 Criticism
PR English literature
Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
description In “The Small Personal Voice” (1957), Doris Lessing celebrates novels that are based on nineteenth-century realism and writerly committedness and laments its absence in literary production. She adheres to a theory of literature that emanates from an understanding of good and evil and has an instructive function. In this respect, she admires nineteenth-century realist novelists and commends their efforts to document the social abuses of the period and thus to right the wrongs committed by exploitative elements in society. Despite the debate whether or not later in her works Lessing held true to the position detailed so powerfully in “The Small Personal Voice”, the essay is often considered her manifesto and synonymous with her name. Paraphrasing Wordsworth that “the novelist talks, as an individual to individuals, in a small personal voice” (Lessing 25), and given the urgency of morally and socially edifying literary texts, she vaticinates that readers will “feel again a need for the small personal voice.” Based on this background, my paper will elaborate on Lessing’s theory of literature as a counter to the overarching philosophy of the “art for art’s sake” movement and will establish resonances of her theory with those of African and Islamic views of literature.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_facet Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
title_short African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
title_full African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
title_fullStr African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
title_full_unstemmed African and Islamic: Lessing’s theory of literature in “The Small Personal Voice”
title_sort african and islamic: lessing’s theory of literature in “the small personal voice”
publishDate 2019
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/1/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20abstract.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/2/75008_African%20and%20Islamic-%20draft.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/
http://dorislessing100.org/documents/27001838/27003021/DL+100+THE+WRITER%27S+QUEST+FINAL+PROGRAMME.pdf/812f7891-5d8a-e5a5-7fb5-179129b7e406
_version_ 1768006352167239680
score 13.211869

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