FEMINISM

The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

(Novel)

Synopsis:

The Golden Notebook is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she keeps the record of her life, and her attempt to tie them all together in a fifth, gold-colored notebook. The book intersperses segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Molly and Anna, and their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled Free Women—with excerpts from Anna's four notebooks, coloured black (of Anna's experience inSouthern Rhodesia, before and during WWII, which inspired her own bestselling novel), red (of her experience as a member of the Communist Party), yellow (an ongoing novel that is being written based on the painful ending of Anna's own love affair), and blue (Anna's personal journal where she records her memories, dreams, and emotional life). Each notebook is returned to four times, interspersed with episodes from Free Women, creating non-chronological, overlapping sections that interact with one another. This post-modernistic styling, with its space and room for "play" engaging the characters and readers, is among the most famous features of the book, although Lessing insisted that readers and reviewers pay attention to the serious themes in the novel.

Analysis:

Feminism studies women’s unique ways of understanding and writing about the human condition. Its meaning is socially constructed and they look for systems of containment.

This novel falls under the Feminism Theory because it revolves around the protagonist, Anna Wulf, a writer who always keeps a record of her life. She had written four books already and she decided to tie all those four notebooks in the fifth one. Here, she narrates her life with her husband and children. She also share some of her experiences during the WWII, her membership to the Communist Party and the painful ending of her own love affair. This four books contains the most unforgettable and memorable experiences of her past. 

The character of Anna Wulf here, shows how a woman can surpass all the problems and challenges given to them in spite of being a woman.