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Space and Power—An Interpretation of “The Grass is Singing” from the Perspective of Spatial Criticism Theory



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LIU Xue-ru

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2025.05.007

Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing is a renowned writer in the contemporary British literary scene. Her debut novel The Grass is Singing is based on a case in which a black manservant kills a white mistress who is poor and mentally unbalanced. Doris Lessing arranges a tangible form of perception for the expression of the colonial discourse in the work by seeking the relationship between spatial structure and the writer’s value. This paper focuses on the spatial writing in The Grass is Singing and analyses it in depth with reference to the spatial critical theories of Henri Lefebvre and Michel Foucault. The oppressed and enslaved characters in the novel are analysed from three perspectives: physical space, social space and mental space respectively to explore how power oppression is made visible through space and the writer’s critique of colonial relations and racial discrimination as well as unequal gender relations. 

The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing, space, power, spatial criticism, colonial discourse

Journal of Literature and Art Studies, May 2025, Vol. 15, No. 5, 404-407