The Intertextual Traces of Sufism in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook

Abstract

Human fragmentation has been remained a dominant theme in both literary and academic worlds. Different theories and notions have been presented to highlight its characteristics and cure. Lessing throughout her literary career also explored this theme in her writings. This paper argues that Lessing at the end of her career started to move towards Sufism and Idries Shah’s seminal book The Sufis played a pivotal role in this regard. One of the tenets of Sufism believes that truth cannot be represented and communicated through words or any sign system. Mere information is not sufficient to find the truth, for that one has to transform oneself. By employing and utilizing the conceptual framework of intertextuality this paper highlights intertextual connections between Sufism and The Golden Notebook.