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/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/ 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

id	iium-75008
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-750082019-11-04T06:32:24Z 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
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
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/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/75008/ 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
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:46:09Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:46:09Z
_version_	1777413463310598144

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

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