Memoirs of a Survivor
Encyclopedia
The Memoirs of a Survivor is a dystopian novel
by Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing
. It was first published in 1974
by Octagon Press. It was made into a film
in 1981, starring Julie Christie
and Nigel Hawthorne
, and directed by David Gladwell
.
where society has broken down due to an unspecified disaster. Family units themselves have broken down and survivors band together into loose units for basic survival.
The unnamed narrator ends up with 'custody' of a teenage girl named Emily Cartwright. Emily herself has unspecified trauma in her past that the main character does not probe at. Hugo, an odd mix of cat and dog, comes with Emily. Due to the growing scarcity of resources, the animal is in constant danger of being eaten.
Periodically, the narrator is able, through meditating on a certain wall in her flat, to traverse space and time. Many of these visions are about Emily's sad childhood under the care of her harsh father and distant mother. At the end of the novel, the main character's strange new family breaks through dimensional barriers via the wall, and walks into a much better world.
in dreams.
science fiction novels such as Memoirs of a Survivor provide an alternate viewpoint that "dissolve walls that imprison women within a sexist reality." However, the warping of space and time presented in this novel led scholar Betsy Draine to label it a "failure", saying the shifts between realistic and mystical frames are impossible to follow. The New York Review of Books felt the ending, in which Emily leads the other main characters through the walls into another reality, was "reminiscent of a Technicolor fade-out into the sunset."
's 'We must love one another or die
'." Although we will inevitably be defeated and disillusioned, we still need to care about other people.
Consciousness becomes a physical boundary represented by the wall of the narrator's home: "the rooms and garden beyond it are areas of the unconscious
which she explores." The mystical dimension is given the author's tacit approval when she allows the principal characters to escape the dystopian reality by passing through the wall.
Another theme is that of breakdown, both of mechanized Western culture and of adult, mechanical personality.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
. It was first published in 1974
1974 in literature
The year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.-New books:*Richard Adams - Shardik*Kingsley Amis - Ending Up...
by Octagon Press. It was made into a film
Memoirs of a Survivor (film)
Memoirs of a Survivor is a 1981 British science fiction film directed by David Gladwell. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival...
in 1981, starring Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
and Nigel Hawthorne
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the...
, and directed by David Gladwell
David Gladwell
David Gladwell is a British film editor and director. His most notable films as editor include If.... and O Lucky Man! both by director Lindsay Anderson. In 1984, Gladwell directed the adaptation of the Doris Lessing novel Memoirs of a Survivor starring Julie Christie.- External links :* *...
.
Plot
The story takes place in a near-future BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
where society has broken down due to an unspecified disaster. Family units themselves have broken down and survivors band together into loose units for basic survival.
The unnamed narrator ends up with 'custody' of a teenage girl named Emily Cartwright. Emily herself has unspecified trauma in her past that the main character does not probe at. Hugo, an odd mix of cat and dog, comes with Emily. Due to the growing scarcity of resources, the animal is in constant danger of being eaten.
Periodically, the narrator is able, through meditating on a certain wall in her flat, to traverse space and time. Many of these visions are about Emily's sad childhood under the care of her harsh father and distant mother. At the end of the novel, the main character's strange new family breaks through dimensional barriers via the wall, and walks into a much better world.
Concept and creation
Author Doris Lessing says this novel grew out of a "very hubristic" ambition to write an autobiographyAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
in dreams.
Reception
"Doris Lessing is not afraid to break through the barrier separating the mainstream from the fantastic, to let go of man's world," writes Marleen S. Barr in her essay in A Companion to Science Fiction. She argues that feministFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
science fiction novels such as Memoirs of a Survivor provide an alternate viewpoint that "dissolve walls that imprison women within a sexist reality." However, the warping of space and time presented in this novel led scholar Betsy Draine to label it a "failure", saying the shifts between realistic and mystical frames are impossible to follow. The New York Review of Books felt the ending, in which Emily leads the other main characters through the walls into another reality, was "reminiscent of a Technicolor fade-out into the sunset."
Themes
The New York Times wrote, "Lessing's message, recognizable from her previous work, is close to W. H. AudenW. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
's 'We must love one another or die
September 1, 1939
"September 1, 1939" is a poem by W. H. Auden written on the occasion of the outbreak of World War II. It was first published in The New Republic issue of October 18, 1939, and was first published in book form in Auden's collection Another Time ....
'." Although we will inevitably be defeated and disillusioned, we still need to care about other people.
Consciousness becomes a physical boundary represented by the wall of the narrator's home: "the rooms and garden beyond it are areas of the unconscious
Unconscious mind
The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
which she explores." The mystical dimension is given the author's tacit approval when she allows the principal characters to escape the dystopian reality by passing through the wall.
Another theme is that of breakdown, both of mechanized Western culture and of adult, mechanical personality.