KINSHIP REIMAGINED: FAMILY IN DORIS LESSING’S FICTION

This book focuses on Doris Lessing’s social and political reappraisal of the family. It looks at how her fiction both critiques traditional patriarchal family structures and explores alternative and non-normative configurations of family. The continuation of traditional ideas about family suggests that Lessing’s fiction remains meaningful and relevant today. Kinship Reimagined: Family in Doris Lessing’s Fiction is a thoroughly researched, original and interesting contribution to both the study of Doris Lessing’s work and the study of the family, as it is represented in twentieth-century fiction. Senturk’s argument – that Lessing’s work develops from a critique of the family towards a resignification of it – is clearly argued, well structured, and engaging to read. Susan Watkins, Professor in Cultural Studies and Humanities, Leeds Beckett University, UK Selcuk Senturk’s monograph is a valuable contribution to the study of one of the twentieth century’s most important authors. Senturk analyzes with great insight the ways that Doris Lessing first resisted, then reconsidered, and finally reimagined family roles and kinship structures, as well as gender norms, during her prolific career. In Senturk’s work, the family emerges as not just a theme in Lessing’s writings but a key critical concept for understanding their import. Drawing expertly on such current critical discourses as feminism and eco-criticism, Senturk makes clear the enduring relevance of Lessing’s novels, showing how they continue to speak to the urgent problems of our time. Dr Cornelius Collins, Co-editor in Chief in Doris Lessing Studies, Fordham University, USA. Selcuk Senturk provides informed, systematic interpretation of the Western family across the corpus of Lessing’s novels. This insightful, sustained analysis reaches original and revealing conclusions, especially concerning lesser studied works, such as Mara and Dann and The Sweetest Dream. Sandra Singer, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, CA