Virtue Revisited in the Novels of Doris Lessing

The ethical approaches to literature have come into prominence in the twentieth century, calling for a ’turn to ethics’ in the studies of humanities, in general, and literary studies, in particular. By leading the ethical turn in literature, many theorists proposed a moral-oriented approach to literature, which is still a significant part of literary criticism. The ethical turn in literature has changed the spirit of literary criticism in the direction of virtue and value-based approaches. In this respect, this study scrutinises Doris Lessing’s novels in light of virtue ethics in general and ’virtue politics, ’ ’care ethics, ’ and ’Sufi virtue ethics’ in particular. Lessing’s connection to virtue ethics, which is implicitly or explicitly reflected in her novels, is examined by giving the panorama of ethical movements whose common point is virtues. This study asserts that Lessing implements an ethical concern in her novels, which is based on her own understanding of virtue ethics.

Seda ARIKAN (she/her) is a Professor of English at the Department of English Language and Literature, Fırat University/Turkey. She studied as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies at Kingston University/London in 2012. She completed her postdoctoral study at Fordham University/New York in 2019. She has studies on comparative literature, philosophy & literature, ecology & literature, gender studies, and three monographs published in Turkish titled Iris Murdoch’s Novels in the Light of Lacanian Psychoanalytic Method (2014); Cefer Cabbarlı (Non)Reflections in the Mirror (2019), which was honoured with Cefer Cabbarlı Award of 2019 in Azerbaijan, and Doris Lessing: A Philosophy of Life from Marxism to Sufism (2018), which was awarded the best monograph of the year on English Literature in 2020 by IDEA (English Language and Literature Research Association of Turkey, the member of The European Society for the Study of English). She is currently serving as the vice president of the Doris Lessing Society.