精神困惑与自我觉醒──《黑暗前的夏天》的女性主义解读

Spiritual Confusion Self-awakening──A Feminist Reading of The Summer Before the Dark

多丽丝·莱辛（1919～）以其对女性问题的广泛关注使其蜚声文学界,她的代表作有《暴力的孩子们》、《金色笔记本》等。《黑暗前的夏天》不是莱辛最受欢迎的作品。然而,作者首次把我们带进了普通中年家庭妇女的生活,主题从打破传统婚姻观念转为回归家庭,批评家对这一戏剧性的结局也褒贬不一,因此这部作品值得我们再次给予关注。本文想通过分析生活空虚的家庭主妇凯特,在饱受精神困惑的一个夏天,＂自我发现＂的心理过程,旨在把目光投向更现实、更普遍的女性问题──中年家庭妇女的命运。

Doris Lessing is one of the most prominent and energetic writer in contemporary English literature who is famous for her works on feminist issue： Children of Violence, The Golden Notebook, and so on. The Summer Before the Dark is not among the most popular works of Doris Lessing. Yet, for its concern with the problems of middle--aged housewives and its controversial coda of the protagonist＇s returning home, this novel is worthy to be reexamined. This paper is concerned with the protagonist＇s spiritual confusion and her self--quest journey in a summer.