Second World Life Writing: Doris Lessing's Under My Skin

Abstract

The first volume of Doris Lessing?s official autobiography, Under My Skin (1994) returns her to memories of her African childhood, but also necessitates that she reassess the status of official and ?fictionalised? accounts of the past, especially her own story of the impact of colonisation and Empire on her family, herself and the African population in Southern Rhodesia. At the time Under My Skin appeared in the 1990s, feminist critics were working out the distinctive features of women?s autobiographical writing, and much more recently those of postcolonial life writing have been identified by critics such as Bart Moore-Gilbert (2009). This article will consider whether categories such as feminist autobiography, autobiography of empire or postcolonial autobiography are helpful in reading Under My Skin, and will investigate whether or not it is more appropriate to consider the text as an example of ?second world? life writing. As a second world writer, to use Stephen Slemon?s 1990...