AMNESIA AND INNER JOURNEY IN BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL
AMNESIA AND INNER JOURNEY IN BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL
Author(s): Alina-Dana VișanSubject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Fiction, Studies of Literature, Novel, Philology, Theory of Literature, British Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: inner; self; journey; dream; psychic
Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on one of Doris Lessing’s inner space novels, Briefing for a Descent into Hell, a novel which has for the first and the last time in her fiction, a male character, Charles Watkins, a professor of classics at Cambridge. The protagonist of this novel is self-divided because the stresses of middle age and personal problems have propelled him into a mental breakdown accompanied by a temporary loss of identity medically described as amnesia. Doris Lessing depicts multiple consciousness or realities: the external reality being juxtaposed with the inner or dream world. The gap between the inner and outer state of mind is craftily highlighted in this novel. In Briefing for a Descent into Hell alternating sections correspond to both ways of perceiving the psychic crisis of the central character: from within and without his own consciousness.
Journal: Journal of Romanian Literary Studies
- Issue Year: 2025
- Issue No: 43
- Page Range: 158-166
- Page Count: 9
- Language: English
