Narrative Authority and Temporal Structures in Doris Lessing’s The Cleft: A Narratological Approach

Authors : Nimetullah Aldemir

Pages : 406-416

Doi:10.47777/cankujhss.1846304

View : 48 | Download : 355

Publication Date : 2025-12-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Doris Lessing’s The Cleft is not only a speculative narrative exploring time and trauma, but also a case narrative that problematizes narrative authority and overwriting. In fact, Lessing’s novel is a narrative of ideological struggle, shifting perspectives, and narrative disruptions. The study aims to show how narrative discourses represent the ideological tension between linear male historiography and cyclical female memory. Drawing on narrative strategies with references to ecofeminist and narratological lenses, this paper examines how narrative authority is gained, how temporal structures affect history and myth, and how characters become narrative devices. The analysis of functional agents, such as narrators, mediators, or manipulators, explains the emergence of gaps between myth and history. The study contends that narrative authority is also a selective authority that governs linear or cyclical temporality and regulates the character voices to keep gendered power embedded in male authorship. The work thus resonates beyond its mythic frame, offering readers a critical allegory for the intersections of narrative, gender, and ecology.
Keywords : Doris Lessing, The Cleft, narratology, narrative authority, temporality, character functions, historiography

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