Ｎｏｂｅｌ ｔｏ Ｌｅｓｓｉｎｇ，Ｉｎｃｉｓｉｖｅ Ｖｏｉｃｅ ｏｆ Ｗｏｍｅｎ’ｓ Ｆａｔｅ 諾貝爾、女性主義與萊辛

Doris Lessing， the Persian-born， Rhodesian-raised andLondon-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographicalwriting has swept across continents and reflects herengagement with the social and political issues of her time， won the 2007Nobel Prize in Literature.

Announcing the award in Stockholm， the Swedish Academydescribed her as \"that epicist of the female experience， who withskepticism， fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilizationto scrutiny.\" The award comes with a 10 million Swedish crownhonorarium， about $1.6 million.

Ms. Lessing never finished high school and largely educated herselfthrough voracious reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction，as well as plays， nonfiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ms. Lessing learned of the news from a group of reporters campedon her doorstep as she returned from a visit to the hospital with herson. \"I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about it actually，\"she said. \"My name has been on the short lisfor such a long time.\"

As the persistent sound of her ringing phonecame from inside the house， Ms. Lessing said thaton second thought， she was not as surprised\"because this has been going on for something like40 years，\" referring to the number of times she hasbeen mentioned as a likely honoree. \"Either theywere going to give it to me sometime before Ipopped off or not at all.\"

After a few moments， Ms. Lessing， who is sharp and a bit hard of hearing，excused herself to go inside. \"Now I'm going to go in to answer my telephone，\" shesaid. \"I swear Im going upstairs to find some suitable sentences， which I will be usingfrom now on.\"

Although Ms. Lessing is passionate about social and political issues， she is unlikelyto be as controveersial as the previous two winners， Orhan Pamuk of Turkey or HaroldPinter of Britain， whose views on current political situations led commentators tosuspect that the Swedish Academy was choosing its winners in part for nonliteraryreasons .

Ms. Lessing's strongest legacy may be that she inspired a generation of feministswith her breakthrough novel， The Golden Notebook. In its citation， the SwedishAcademy said: \"The burgeoning feminist movement saw it as a pioneering work，and it belongs to the handful of books that informed the 20th-century view of themale-female relationship.\"

Ms. Lessing wrote candidly about the inner lives of women and rejected thenotion that they should limit their lives to marriage and children. The Golden Notebook，published in 1962， tracked the story of Anna Wulf， a woman who wanted to live freelyand was， in some ways， Ms. Lessing's alter ego.

Because she frankly described anger and aggression in women， she was attacked as\"unfeminine.\" In response Ms. Lessing wrote， \"Apparently what many women werethinking， feeling， experiencing came as a great surprise.\"

Although she has been held up as an early heroine of feminism， Ms. Lessing laterdenied that she herself was a feminist， for which she received the ire of some Britishcritics and academics.

Ms. Lessing was born Doris May Tayler in 1919 in what is now Iran. Her father wasa bank clerk， and her mother was trained as a nurse. Lured by the promise of farmingriches， the family moved to what is now Zimbabwe， where Ms. Lessing had whatshe has called a painful childhood.

She left home when she was 15， and in 1937 she moved to Salisbury (now Harare)in Southern Rhodesia， where she took jobs as a telephone operator and nursemaid.She married at 19 and had two children. A few years later， feeling imprisoned， sheabandoned her family. She later married Gottfried Lessing， a central member of theleft-wing Left Book Club， and they had a son.

When she divorced Mr. Lessing， she and her young son， Peter， moved to London，where she began her literary career. Her debut novel， published in 1950， was TheGrass Is Singing， which chronicled the relationship between a white farmer's wife andher black servant. In her earliest work Ms. Lessing drew upon her childhoodexperiences in colonial Rhodesia to write about the collision of white and blackcultures and racial injustice.

When The Golden Notebook was first published in the United States， Ms. Lessingwas still unknown. Robert Gottlieb， then her editor at Simon Schuster and later atAlfred A. Knopf， said it sold only 6，000 copies. \"But they were the right 6，000 copies，\"Mr. Gottlieb said by telephone from his home in New York. \"The people who read itwere galvanized by it， and it made her a famous writer in America.\"

Speaking from Frankfurt during its annual international book fair， Jane Friedman，president and chief executive of HarperCollins， which has published Ms， Lessing inthe United States and Britain for the last 20 years， said that \"for women and forliterature， Doris Lessing is a mother to us all.\"

Ms. Lessing's other novels include The Good Terrorist and Martha Quest. Her latestnovel is The Cleft， published by HarperCollins in July， 2007. Much of her work in thelatter half of her career has not received the critical response of her warmly receivedearly material.

She has dabbled in science fiction， and some of her later works bear the imprint ofher interest in Sufi mysticism， which she has interpreted as stressing a link betweenthe fates of individuals and society.

Lynn Bryan， a friend of Ms. Lessing， spent some time at theauthor's home as flowers arrived， Champagne was served andthe phone rang off the hook. Ms. Bryan said she asked Ms.Lessing why she thinks she won the prize this year.

'\"I don't know，\"' Ms. Bryan said the author replied. '\"I amgenuinely surprised because they rejected me all those years ago.\"'

The phone rang again， Ms. Bryan said. It was another friend，whom Ms. Lessing was to meet that evening at a Chineserestaurant. She apologized and told him she couldn't. She had just won the Nobel Prize.