Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

TRAUMA, MEMORY, AND THE CRISIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN DORIS LESSING’S BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL

Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi April 28, 2026 Cahit Bakır

This article explores Doris Lessing’s Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) through the lens of trauma and memory studies. Lessing’s “inner space novel” narrates the story of a Cambridge professor of Classics called Charles Watkins, who is found in a state of amnesia and taken to a psychiatric hospital to restore his former self and identity through rational and scientific methods. While in...