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A Case of Chronic Anachronisms: Doris Lessing and the USSR

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Book cover In Pursuit of Doris Lessing

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Abstract

No other nation, with the exception of those countries in which she has lived — Persia, Southern Rhodesia, England — has been as prominent in the writings of Doris Lessing as has the Soviet Union. The first home of communism, the leader of the socialist world, the betrayer of leftist ideals, the invader of Afghanistan, these are some of the roles the USSR has played in Lessing’s life and work. If Lessing’s attitude toward the Soviet Union has changed dramatically over time so, too, has the official Soviet view of Lessing. In fact, the degree of change — hers and theirs — only confirms Lessing’s own conviction that ideology and dogma are short-lived. Her judgement of the Soviet Union and the Soviet judgement on Lessing tend always to be somewhat faulty, out of sync, anachronistic.

Why has the white man dreamed so fabulous a dream of freedom and human dignity and again and again tried to kill his own dream? (Lillian Smith, Foreword to Killers of the Dream)

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Authors
  1. Lorna M. Peterson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. New York University, USA

    Claire Sprague (Visiting Professor of English, Professor Emeritus of Brooklyn College) (Visiting Professor of English, Professor Emeritus of Brooklyn College)

  2. The City University of New York, USA

    Claire Sprague (Visiting Professor of English, Professor Emeritus of Brooklyn College) (Visiting Professor of English, Professor Emeritus of Brooklyn College)

Copyright information

© 1990 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Peterson, L.M. (1990). A Case of Chronic Anachronisms: Doris Lessing and the USSR. In: Sprague, C. (eds) In Pursuit of Doris Lessing. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20754-1_10

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