Vol. 60 No. 1 (2012)
Research Article

The Uncanny Unnamable in Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child and Ben, in the World

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  • Christine De Vinne
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027-773811Z.0000000004

Published 2012-03-01

Copyright (c) 2012 American Name Society 2012

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

In The Fifth Child and Ben, in the World, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing creates a character whose naming attempts to socialize the unsocializable. In the first novel, Harriet and David Lovatt raise four edenic children, until the birth of Ben, their atavistic son. Exiled, Ben reappears as the sequel’s title character, a monstrous throwback searching the globe for home. Among a multitude of biblical and traditional given names, a surname that requires the family to ‘love it,’ and a world of modern and ancient place names, Lessing’s onomastic choices underscore her themes of identity and belonging.

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