Landscape and the Anti-pastoral critique in Doris Lessing's African Stories

Abstract

Critics have described Doris Lessing's representation of the African landscape as negative and hostile, especially in The Grass is Singing (1950. London: Michael Joseph), which is seen as an example of the anti-pastoral critique. These views are examined in relation to her African Stories (1992. London: Paladin), which are set in colonial Rhodesia in the 1930s. The article argues that Lessing uses a complex combination of pastoral and antipastoral elements in her stories, as well as the ecocritically-oriented post-pastoral. The construction of landscape in these stories reveals divisions between groups in settler society, such as between adults and children, English and Afrikaans-speaking groups, men and women and black and white. Although anti-pastoral elements such as racism and sexism are evident in the stories, they are counter-balanced by instances where the African landscape supports and provides a space of resistance for marginalized groups. A study of landscape and the pastoral in these stories reveals the complexity of Lessing's vision of the African farm and colonial society.