Lessing and MLA

 

Lessing's work covers a multitude of genres (bildungsroman, horror, space fiction, symbolic psychological fiction, autobiography, etc.) and lends itself to a rich variety of critical approaches (gender, postcolonial, psychological, science fiction, etc.). This richness of output and approach has been well covered in by the society's varied and stimulating programming for its two annual sessions at the MLA Convention. Comparative programs like "The Transgressive Impulse in Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood and Mary Shelley" (2000) have been balanced by those focusing on genre like "Breaking Down Boundaries: Doris Lessing and Autobiography" (1998). Specific critical approaches like "Doris Lessing and Cultural Studies"(1997) are represented as well as more thematic approaches like "Doris Lessing's Settlement Narratives" (1998).

The Doris Lessing sessions at MLA have provided a forum for scholars all over the world: Sweden, France, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, UK, Israel, as well as the United States and Canada. Graduate students, independent scholars, junior and senior academics, and professors are all welcome to submit proposals. See MLA: CFP. Sessions topics are decided at the annual business meeting at MLA. All are welcome to attend.

MLA San Francisco
 “Oh Christ!”: Reception of Doris Lessing, Nobel Laureate
Presiding: Judith Kegan Gardiner, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

1. “’Justice,’ ‘Loyalty,’ and Doris Lessing’s Nobel Acceptance Speech,” Alice Ridout, Leeds Metropolitan University

2. “Blogging and Blugging: A Cultural Interpretation of Lessing’s Nobel Speech,” Sandra Singer, Univ. of Guelph

3.  “Grumpy, Blunt, or Truculent? Lessing as Nobel Laureate,” Virginia Tiger, Rutgers Univ., Newark

 Doris Lessing and Human Rights
Presiding: Alice Rachel Ridout, Leeds Metropolitan Univ.; Robin E. Visel, Furman Univ.

1. “Prisons We Build for Ourselves: Doris Lessing’s Cultural Critique and Michel Foucault’s Theory of Power and Knowledge,” Yuan-Jung Cheng, National Sun Yat-sen Univ.

2. “‘They Treat Human Beings as If They Were Rats’: Constructing Intelligible Bodies in Lessing and Laing,” Kerry Myler, Univ. of Southampton

3. “The Vexed ‘Colour Problem’: Doris Lessing and ‘the African Renaissance,’” Pat Louw, Univ. of Zululand

4. “‘A Door Which I Propped Open with a Stone’: Doris Lessing’s Going Home,” Lynda Hall, Univ. of Calgary

MLA Chicago 2007

44. Doris Lessing’s Recent Work

3:30–4:45 p.m., New Orleans, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society

Presiding: Linda A. Seidel, Truman State Univ.

1. “Ben, in the Welfare State,” Lisa Jeanne Fluet, Boston Coll.

2. “The Speculative Lessing,” Lauren J. Lacey, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick

3. “The Birth and Death of Civilization,” Manjun Yu, Chongqing Univ.

The following audiovisual request(s) was/were made for your session: Projection Equipment for a Computer

Saturday, 29 December

526. Doris Lessing and Modernism

1:45–3:00 p.m., Horner, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society

Presiding: Tonya M. Krouse, Northern Kentucky Univ.

1. “The Synergy of Gender and Vision in Lessing’s Memoirs of a Survivor and The Fifth Child,” Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State Univ.

2. “The Golden Notebook and Modernist Exhaustion,” C. Brook Miller, Univ. of Minnesota, Morris

3. “‘Beyond the Personal’: Lessing’s Ethic of Impersonality in The Memoirs of a Survivor,” Cornelius Collins, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick

4. “Making Up in Rhys and Lessing: Modernist Aesthetics and Postcolonial Female Subjectivity,” Tonya M. Krouse, Northern Kentucky Univ.

MLA 2006 Philadelphia

36. Trauma and the Works of Doris Lessing

10:15-11:30 a.m., 302, Philadelphia Marriott

Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society

Presiding: Linda Weinhouse, Community Coll. of Baltimore County, MD

1. "Respectable Ladies and Sexual Trauma in The Grandmothers," Linda A. Seidel, Truman State Univ.

2. "Trauma of Motherhood: The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing," Damjana Mraovic, Univ. of Florida

3. "The Dissolution of Walls: Trauma, Healing, and the Sufi Way in Lessing's Memoirs of a Survivor," Lidan Lin, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ., Fort Wayne

Saturday, 30 December
744. Crossing Borders: Transnational and Postcolonial Lessing

1:45-3:00 p.m., 408, Philadelphia Marriott
Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society
Presiding: Paul Schlueter, Easton, PA; Anne M. Serafin, Newtonville, MA

1. "White Farm Children and the Borders of White Supremacy: Doris Lessing, Alexandra Fuller, and Ian Holding," Julie Cairnie, Univ. of Guelph

2. "Mimesis and the Formation of a New Social Identity in Doris Lessing The Memoirs of a Survivor, Emily Morgan, Univ. of Northern Colorado

3. "Mythic Quests for Postcolonial Identity in The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog and Other Texts," Sharon R. Wilson,
Univ. of Northern Colorado.

MLA 2004 Philadelphia
Reassessing Lessing: Prescience and Prejudice in the Golden Notebooks
Chair: Judith Kegan Gardiner

1. "The Challenges of Teaching Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook after 9/11/01," Suzette E. Henke, University of Louisville
2. "Freedom as Effacement in The Golden Notebook: Theorizing Pleasure, Subjectivity, and Authority," Tonya Krouse, Northern Kentucky University
3. "History as Emotion and Emotion as History in The Golden Notebook," Judith Kegan Gardiner, University of Illinois at Chicago

Doris Lessing: Prophet or Maverick? Do Lessing's works offer a vision for the future? How does Lessing shatter traditional modes of thinking?
Chair: Debrah Raschke

1. "Four Levels of Detachment in Shikasta," Phyllis Perrakis, University of Ottawa
2. "Extra-Planetary Perspectives in Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: Archives Series," Lauren Lacey, Rutgers University
3. "Trauma, Nature, and the Divine: An Environmentalist Perspective on the Works of Doris Lessing," Jeanie Warnock, University of Ottawa
   

MLA 2003 San Diego
“I Am Just Storyteller,” She Says: Studies in Lessing’s Narrative
Chair: Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State University

1. “Doris Lessing and the Sufi Tradition of Storytelling,” Paul Joseph Robichaud, Alberta Magnus Coll.
2. “Unlocking the Prison of Our Past: Childhood Trauma and Narrative in Doris Lessing’s Memoirs of a Survivor,” Jeanie E. Warnock, Univ. of Ottawa
3. “Narrative Strategies in the Shorter Fiction,” Virginia Tiger, Rutgers Univ., Newark
4. “Narrating She, We, and I: Narratological Inclusiveness in the Writings of Doris Lessing,” Linda E. Chown, Grand Valley State Univ.

Estimations of Value: Economic Perspectives on Doris Lessing’s Fiction
Chair: Cynthia R. Port, Curtis Inst. Of Music

1. “Race and Reification in The Grass is Singing,” Rita Barnard, Univ. of Pennsylvania
2. “Sacrificial Violence and Excess Expenditure in The Good Terrorist,” Pamela J. Grieman, Univ. of Southern California
3. “Doris Lessing’s Playing the Game,” Earl G. Ingersoll, State Univ. of New York, Brockport

MLA 2002 New York
Coming to Age: Doris Lessing and the Semiotics of Aging
Chair: Josna C. Rege, Dartmouth Coll.

1. “Patterns of Aging in the Ninth Stage of Life: Doris Lessing’s The Diary of a Good Neighbor,” Christine Wick Sizemore, Spelman Coll.
2. “ ‘None of It Adds Up’: Economics of Aging in The Diary of a Good Neighbor,” Cynthia R. Port, Univ. of Pennsylvania
3. “Spiritual Adventuring and the Older Woman in Doris Lessing’s Works,” Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Univ. of Ottawa
   

Lessing’s Men: (Re)Visionaries of Politics, Sexuality, and Empire
Chair: Michael Kramp, Univ. of Northern Colorado

1. “Valuable Men: The Mythic Journey of the Anti-hero,” Carmen Garciá Navarro, Albadia High and Further Education School, Almería
2. “Lessing’s African Men: The Early Short Fiction,” Robin E. Visel, Furman Univ.
3. “Hells and Paradises of Doris Lessing’s Women,” Radmila Nastic, Univ. of Srpsko Sarajevo

MLA 2001 New Orleans
Doris Lessing: Fairy Tales, Mythology, and Folklore
Chair: Sharon R. Wilson, Univ. of Northern Colorado

1. “Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child and Ben, in the World: From Fairy Tale to Monstrosity,” Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State University
2. “Ben’s Tale: Mythic Autobiography,” Christine DeVinne, Ursuline Coll.
3. “Lessing’s Evil Child: An Amalgam of the Myths of Trolls, Yeti, Freud, DNA, the Bad Seed, The Bell Curve, and Essentialism,” Martha G. Satz, Southern Methodist Univ.
4. “Confronting the Myth of Marxism: Lessing, Foucault, and the Postwar Pursuit of Radical Praxis,” Michael Kramp, Univ. of Northern Colorado

Doris Lessing and Kate Chopin: Affinities and Differences
Chair: Brenda L. Bryant, Delgado Community Coll., LA

1. “Dead Free: The Key to Being in Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ and The Awakening,” Sue B. Walker, Univ. of South Alabama
2. “Mad Women in the Garret: The Artist Empathy,” Nanda Alexis Hopenwasser, Univ. of Alabama; Signe O. Wegener, Univ. of Georgia
3. “Narrative Consistencies in the Production of Kate Chopin and Doris Lessing,” Sandra Patrice Singer, Univ. Of Guelph

MLA 2000 Washington, DC
Approaches to Teaching Doris Lessing
Chair: Linda Weinhouse, Community Coll. of Baltimore County, Essex, MD

1. “Teaching Modern Gothic: Discourses in Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen,’” Janina Nordius, Göteborg Univ., Sweden
2. “Teaching Lessing’s The Golden Notebook as a Meta-fictional Text,” Flora P. H. Ni, Providence Univ., Taiwan
3. “Doris Lessing and General Education,” Ruth O. Saxton, Mills Coll.
4. “Anthologization and the Place of Lessing in the Liberal Arts Curriculum,” Terry Reilly, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks

The Transgressive Impulse in Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Mary Shelley
Chair: Sandra Patrice Singer, Univ. of Guelph; Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Univ. of Ottawa

1. “Mary Shelley and Literary Women’s History,” Lucy Jane Morrison, Penn State Univ., Hazleton Campus
2. “Stuck in the Ice: Apocalypse and Transgression in Shelley, Atwood, and Lessing,” Patricia Merivale, Univ. of British Columbia
3. “Transgressive Spaces: Postcolonial Scenes in Lessing’s ‘Old Chief Mshlanga’ and Atwood’s ‘Death by Landscape,’” Shuli Barzilai, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

MLA 1999 Chicago
Modern, Postmodern: D.H. Lawrence and Doris Lessing
Chair: Earl G. Ingersoll, State University of New York, Coll. at Brockport

1. “Working-Class Appeal and Blurred Boundaries between Serious and Popular Novels: Doris Lessing’s Diary of a Good Neighbor, Her Autobiography, and Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers,” Sally Ann Jacobsen, Northern Kentucky University
2. “Lessing and Lawrence’s Sexualized Metaphysical Spaces,” Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State University
3. “Mothers and Lovers in Intersubjective Space: Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and Lessing’s Under My Skin,” Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Univ. of Ottawa

Retreat from Catastrophe: Lessing’s Mara and Dann
Chair: Anthony Chennells, Univ. of Zimbabwe, Harare

1. “Warrior Woman, Vulnerable Man: Lessing’s New Male-Female Paradigm?” Ruth O. Saxton, Mills Coll.
2. “Mara and Dann: Postcolonialism and the Incest Taboo,” Linda Weinhouse, Essex Community Coll., MD
3. “Mar(th)a Still Questing: Reading Mara and Dann through Children of Violence,” Roberta Rubenstein, American Univ.