Abstract As Doris Lessing, the famous British female writer, won the Novel Prize in Literature in 2007, her debut The Grass is Singing also attracts considerable attention. This paper explores the way out of the lower white women in Africa from the perspectives of the feminist social gender theory and the female self-salvation. By analyzing the problems faced by the lower white women in Africa, it points out that the way out of the lower white women in Africa needs to get rid of the patriarchy and establish a society of gender equality. Besides, it needs women to get rid of the bondage of female subordination ideas and to strive for economic independence and spiritual independence. Until now, since very few people have studied The Grass is Singing from the perspectives of the feminist social gender theory and the female self-salvation, this paper opens a new world for the research of the novel. At the same time, it also gives women of nowadays some suggestions to overcome their shortcomings in order to achieve self-worth. In addition, this paper advocates the whole country and society to give women more care, which is benefit to the harmony of both sexes.61203

Keywords: The Grass is Singing; the social gender theory; patriarchy; feminism；self-salvation

摘要英国著名的女性作家多丽丝·莱辛于2007年获得诺贝尔文学奖，她的成名作《野草在歌唱》也引起人们广泛关注。本文从女性主义的社会性别理论和女性自我救赎视角，探讨《野草在歌唱》中非洲下层白人女性的出路。通过分析以玛丽为例的非洲下层白人女性所面临的问题，指出非洲下层白人女性的出路不仅需要摆脱父权体制，建立一个男女平等的社会，也需要女性自身摆脱男尊女卑思想的束缚，争取经济与精神独立。目前为止很少有人从女性主义的社会性别视角和女性自我救赎视角来研究该作品，因此本文不仅扩展了《野草在歌唱》的研究维度。同时它也给当今女性克服自身缺点追求自我价值的启示，并且倡导国家和社会能给予女性更多的关怀以便有利于两性和谐发展。

毕业论文关键词： 《野草在歌唱》 ；社会性别；父权体制；女性主义；自我救赎

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Doris Lessing and Her Works 1

1.2 The Social Gender Theory＆Female Salvation and the Study Significance 2

3. The Way Out of the Lower White Women in Africa 5

3.1 Condition of the Lower White Women in Africa in the Patriarchal Society Represented by Mary 5

3.2 The Way Out of the Lower White Women in Africa from the Perspectives of the Social Gender Theory and the Female Salvation 8

4．Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

1.1 Doris Lessing and Her Works

Doris Lessing is a creative writer. Her works mostly are created in the background of African continent. In 1924, when she was five years old, the whole family moved to southern Rhodesia in Africa. In her father’s family farm, she took little brother Harry’s hands in the vast boundless prairie, where the local conditions and customs play a subtle effect on her and cultivate her deep feelings to the land and the African people. Lessing was a very independent girl and was good at thinking when she was a little girl. When she was young, she studied in women’s public school, but at the age of 13 due to suffering from eye disease, she was forced to drop out of school and go home. From then on, she began to develop stubbornly self-study habit. Lessing’s father was not good at managing the farm and the whole family life was hard and poor. She went to the telephone company as an operator at 16 years old, and then became a typist and secretary. In her old age recollection, her life in Africa was called “the biggest luck in life”. Because the experience provided her with life experience that general English middle-class girls were unavailable to. This experience also accumulated the raw material for her creation in the future. In 1950, Lessing became popular with The Grass is Singing. After this, she published five books called Children of Violence Series. In 1962, The Golden Notebook Lessing’s most famous representative work was published. Over the next years, she published Particularly Cats in 1967, Memoirs of a Survivor in 1974, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five in 1980, The Fifth Child in1988 and so on. Her first work The Grass is Singing had a great influence, because the novel showed western readers openly that the poor white immigrants under apartheid society status were difficult to survive in South Africa for the first time. Before that, the African continent in the eyes of westerners was only a benighted black continent, rare visitors into the land. People’s understanding was limited to one-sided interpretation of racial prejudice by white writers.