Reinterpretation of Myth in Doris Lessing’s The Cleft

Abstract

This research work attempts to explore reinterpretation of origin myth through new histsoricist lens. Doris Lessing’s The Cleft(2007) presents women as the source and end of humanity.She gives a new perception to the old myth by reinterpreting the myth of origin of human being through new vantage point. Interpretation of myth provides a different type of a critical perspective in understanding the relationship of gender. Since the novel takes post structural stand to reread the Christian origin myth, it gives a new insight by deconstructing the existing male/female as metaphysical pair. Earlier society was influenced by Christianity where women was taken as inferior and definition of the existence of female in the earth was only to serve man, they came from Adam’s rib to serve him but Lessing attempts to change Myth where she presents as the first human being and the creator. She puts women as the source and centre of the creative domain. This study uses concepts of myth criticism from Roland Barthes and Northrop Frye by relating to the concept of gender that Simone de Beauvoir has theorized in The Second Sex (1949). By looking at the issues from the alternative perspectives of reading history from gender perspectives, the study may use gender theories as and when relevant. Keywords:Myth, Gender, Rewriting History, Margin, Women, Sexuality