December 2, 2013: The Many Faces of Doris Lessing

Professor Gayle Greene, author of The Poetics of Change: The Fiction of Doris Lessing, talks about the iconic writer's complex relationship with feminism, Communism and the earth itself.  Though Lessing has been gleefully portrayed in the media as antifeminist, Greene says "There are many Doris Lessings," and that while Lessing chafed against the constraints of feminists who wanted her to stay in the Golden Notebook moment when she had moved on to "larger" concerns, her ability to create real women characters who were as intelligent as she was speaks for itself.

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Listen to the full show, including a conversation between two of the most unique voices in contemporary women's literature, Dorothy Allison and Gail Tsukiyama.