• Samira al-Khawaldeh

  Author

Diversity of perspectives is one essential practice that has characterised feminism from its
inception. Intra-waves critiques abound, drawing in even reluctant feminists, those who reject the limitations
of pigeonholing, like Doris Lessing. This article examines Lessing’s short story “To Room Nineteen” (1978)
in the context of another short story, Virginia Woolf’s “The Legacy” (1940), as a case of parody.
Conducting a textual analysis, the study aims to reveal a parallel thematic structure in the two texts,
deliberately managed by Lessing for the purpose of parodying Woolf. A comparative examination reveals an
aspect of the paradoxical relationship Lessing has established between herself as woman and writer and her
precursor Woolf; a relationship simultaneously connoting influence, similarity, difference, and subversion.
With suicide featuring in both texts, the study also addresses Lessing’s handling of the question and how
such a drastic choice serves or subverts the cause of women at large; for it has to be interpreted, as
presented in both short stories, in a way to fit in the framework of the familiar feminist discourse of
victimization and empowerment.

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