DL/A-Z//RUBE - [Correspondence with Roberta Rubenstein]

DL/A-Z//RUBE

File

[Correspondence with Roberta Rubenstein]

1972, 1977

4 Letters (typescript)

Rubenstein, Roberta
Lessing, Doris May, 1919-2013

4 items, some highlighted. Personal correspondence between Roberta Rubenstein and Doris Lessing, regarding Rubenstein's "book-length study" of Lessing's work entitled 'Breaking the Forms of Consciousness: The Novels of Doris Lessing'. Includes copies of two letters written in 1972 from Lessing to Rubenstein regarding R.D. Laing and The Politics of Experience (items 001, 002).

DL/A-Z//RUBE/003 [from Roberta Rubenstein to Doris Lessing, 03/01/1977]

Letter, 3 leaves, typed.
Writes that she has written a book-length study on Lessing's published novels entitled 'Breaking the Forms of Consciousness: The Novels of Doris Lessing'. Discusses consciousness, fragmentation and the "splitting of the self" in Lessing's work. Writes that a publisher is interested in the manuscript but requires more background knowledge on Lessing. Asks whether Lessing will answer questions and look over the draft of her study. Includes a copy of the table of contents and asks Lessing for her approval.

DL/A-Z//RUBE/004 [from Roberta Rubenstein to Doris Lessing, 03/04/1977]

Letter, 2 leaves, typed.
Discusses the "shared belief" by readers and literary scholars that "the words said by a writer about her experience or ideas are somehow more "real" or authentic in the direct form of letters, interviews, statements", rather than when they are "given fictional shape and imaginative extension" in the form of fiction novels. Refers to teaching literature and literary criticism as a "parasitic activity". References Idries Shah's The Sufis.