Beyond Humanism: A Postmodernist Reading of Skepticism in The Golden Notebook

Abstract

This paper examines the predominant research approaches to The Golden Notebook and argues that these approaches fail to reveal the novel’s core essence. Lessing was not merely a humanist preoccupied with marginalized or vulnerable groups. Rather, she consistently adopted a holistic mindset to question phenomena that people take for granted—nostalgia, the reliability of writing, and the status of science. She sought to inspire independent thinking rather than passive conformity.