Imagery system in the novel ‘The summer before the dark’ by Doris Lessing

The article deals with the imagery system in the novel The Summer before the Dark (1976) written by the famous English writer and the Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Doris Lessing. Firstly, the emphasis is laid on the opposition of spatial images (topoi of the conventional patriarchal house vs heterotopic spaces), which form a circular composition. Secondly, the article traces leitmotifs of the novel - metaphors of the protagonist’s self-discovery (image of the seal, image of the mirror). On the whole, the imagery system of the novel points to the major plotline of a selfhood quest, typical of the works written by Lessing, who is widely known for her unconventional interpretations of ‘the women’s question’. Lessing intentionally depicts idyllic surroundings (Bakhtin’s chronotope) where lives a medium-class conventional family in order to subvert that very idyll and socially accepted patterns and to prove their historical and factual insolvency. The dynamic shift of the topoi from domestic to heterotopic (a room in a hotel, a room in a rented flat) in the course of the novel correlates with the symbolic stages of self-discovery and self-acceptance by the protagonist, who refuses to fulfill social expectations. The psychological line of the novel is built upon the gradual extension of the meaning of the oneiric seal image, a recurring dream about a seal, which acquires symbolic significance: the seal is wounded and almost dying at the beginning of the novel vs full of life in the end. The sequential alterations of the image of the seal reflect the protagonist’s identity transformations and imply her growing ability to regain control over her life. The image of the mirror capturing external changes in the protagonist’s appearance also conveys the meaning of accepting her aged body, thus sharpening facets of existential female experience, including the experience of aging.