Doris Lessing

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Dorris Lessing Wins Nobel Prize in Literature." The article begins, "Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, on Thursday won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature." It states, "Ms. Lessing’s strongest legacy may be that she inspired a generation of feminists with her breakthrough novel, “The Golden Notebook.” In its citation, the Swedish Academy said: 'The burgeoning feminist movement saw it as a pioneering work and it belongs to the handful of books that informed the 20th century view of the male-female relationship.'”

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Young Children

• Ask students to name their favorite stories. What do they like about these stories?
  
• Consider asking students to draw a picture of an image taken from a story.
  
• If students could meet one author, who would they like to meet? Why would they like to meet this individual? (Remember that with today's technology it might even be possible to set up a virtual class visit with an author. In such a visit, the author could visit with the class through an Internet tool, such as Skype.)
  
• Students could prepare a series of questions that they would ask this author.
  
• Invite students to make up a story about a topic of their choosing. What is the topic? Who is/are the main character/s? What is the setting of the story?
  
• Students could develop skits in which they tell a story.
  
• If students had to select a piece of their own work to win a prize, what piece of work would they select? Why would they select this piece of work?
  
• Consider inviting students to design awards that they would give to themselves for these pieces of work.
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Feminist; Epicist; Voracious; and, Nonliterary.
• Ask students to identify the most significant social and political issues of our day. Encourage them to explain why they believe that these issues are so significant. What does it even mean for a social or a political issue to be significant?
  
• Students might identify issues in small groups and then report back to the class.
  
• Do students think that it's important for society to have prizes such as the Nobel Prize? Why/why not? In what ways might such a prize benefit society? In what ways might such a prize hurt society?
  
• Consider asking students to write reflective essays in response to these questions.
  
• Doris Lessing included many themes from her own life in her novels. Ask students to select one theme from their own life that might make for a provocative story. Why might this theme make for such a provocative story?
  
• Ask students to write stories related to their chosen theme.