Discourse of critique of the Disability in Doris Lessing's Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

Abstract

This thesis analyzes Charles Watkin’s stigmatization in Brieing for a Desent into Hell as a social construct. My argument here is that stigma is not an inborn trait rather a socio-cultural construct of the disability experience as such. People with disability and stigma experience existential crisis which can be countered by creating the proper environment in the process of nurturing as stigma is constructed but is not inborn. Watkins’s isolation is the consequence of his stigmatization resulting from the misbehaviors and misunderstanding of his colleague and doctors regarding his so called disability in the form of abnormality. The brutality of the concept of normalcy and its psychological effect has been analyzed in this research with reference to Lessing’s novel Briefing for a Descent Into Hell. Disability is not a lack of ability but an ability to do things differently.It is not inherent but is constructed as a discourse in social context.