（英语语言文学专业论文）美国黑人对自我地位的追寻——评托尼·莫里森的《所罗门之歌》.pdf

iv 摘 要 所罗门之歌是美国黑人女作家托尼莫里森1 9 9 3年度诺 贝尔文学奖得主的一系列作品中唯一一部以男性为主人公的小说 小说描写了一位黑人青年在寻觅物质财富的过程中 逐渐发现了物质 财富的空虚而接受了文化传统遗产的熏陶找到了自我实现了自 我转变并继而完善了自我本文从识字起名意识转变和恢复继承 文化遗产四个方面分析了男主人公及其他人物形象 揭示了莫里森所 表述的美国黑人从黑暗走向黎明从绝望走向希望的艰难的心路历 程 莫里森的小说以其独特的视角对黑人问题的揭露与反思和对黑 人文化的探索而引起轰动与争论并最终得到了读者与评论界的肯 定托尼莫尼森的崛起并非偶然它标志着美国黑人知识分子对历 史对文化遗产对现实的重新认识也象征着黑人民族从沉沦中觉 醒开拓自我反思努力重塑民族信念和形象 iii abstract song of solomon is the only novel written by american black woman writer toni morrison in which the protagonist is male, a black young man, milkman dead. during his course of pursuing material wealth, milkman explores his family history and grows up with his reception of traditional cultural legacy. he comes to see the vanity of material wealth, finds his own place as an individual within a race which has suffered from slavery and violence, and achieves perfection of his self-identity through merging with its heritage. by discussing the relationship between the oral and literate, the transformation of male consciousness, the quest of naming and renaming and redeeming the legacy of the past, the thesis analyzes the protagonist and other characters and reveals the theme of the novel as morrison portrays it: man will not better understand his self until he has finally understood, accepted and inherited his traditional cultural legacy. the thesis demonstrates that morrison clearly aims to encourage the black people to act for themselves, to recognize their own world, to understand their own history, to know their own reality, and to find their own self-identity. i acknowledgements the finish of the thesis owes much to all the teachers and professors of the foreign languages college, shanghai teachers university, who have helped me greatly in my academic research. special thanks first go to professor ye huanian, my supervisor, for all his invaluable advice in helping me outline my thesis, and his great patience to direct my thoughts and writing during the course of my writing the thesis. thanks also go to ms. lu, the assistant in the library of the foreign languages college. she is of great help and with boundless patience when i read and borrow books there. appreciation is extended to some of my colleagues, who have helped me a lot by sharing my teaching tasks in my own college. without their support, i couldnt have had the needed time to do my research work. im also indebted to all the authors whose books i have consulted in the preparation of the thesis. last but not least, i feel grateful to my husband, liu xudong, for his assistance and encouragement. american blacks pursuit of self-identity 1 american blacks pursuit of self-identity on toni morrisons song of solomon introduction song of solomon (1977) was enthusiastically received and widely reviewed as soon as it appeared in print. its publication put morrison into the rank of the most respected contemporary writers. in addition to the national book critics circle award, she also received for it an american academy and institute of arts and letters award. in 1980 president jimmy carter appointed her to the national council on the arts, and in 1981 she was elected to the american academy and institute of arts and letters. throughout the early to mid 1980s, song of solomon was the subject of much critical attention and was ranked among the most frequently taught of morrisons novels. although it may not be as popular now as it was a few years ago, it remains a key text in the collection of morrisons work and in the literary traditions of which it is a part. it is a work that powerfully explores the nature of family, identity, and culture within a society still burdened by the legacy of slavery and its aftermath of racial violence. the novel is deeply rooted in the traditions that have shaped and influenced african american culture. many critics have been making comments on the novel from the point of view of either a feminist or a marxist, a deconstructor, a new historicist, a american blacks pursuit of self-identity 2 semiotician, etc. i seem to be none of them specifically. what i have learned most from reading the novel is about the afro-americans hardship and dilemma in searching for self-consciousness, self-identity, knowledge, wholeness and spiritual resuscitation in america. morrison says that she (and other black women) is writing to “repossess, rename, renown”. she (and they) “looks at things in an unforgiving/loving way”.1 in the novel morrison writes about the ways men dominate, sometimes ruthlessly, the ways some pursue freedom from responsibility to women and children, the ways others nurture family. hers are certain kinds of men who trample convention as they walk outside of societal norms. these, the author asserts, are “the kind of lawless characters who interest her because they resist controls. they make up their lives, or they find out who they are.” 2 morrison calls this spirit of adventure a masculine trait, but it is not found in men only; some women have it as well. pilate, according to morrison, is “a masculine character in that sense . she really behaves like a man . shes adventuresome and will leave and try anything.” 3 in morrisons novel men and women speculate; they take risks, and they seek. her characters are often in motion. sometimes the movement follows the historical migration of blacks out of slavery, out of the postwar south to the industrial north, or the movement may be in reverse from the north to the south. they walk, drive, take buses, fly, always in search of something- money, happiness, love, themselves. yet, the object of their quest is seldom realized. more often than not the journey ends in isolation and alienation. they may find material success but rarely happiness. only when the physical journey mirrors a psychological passage is the course ever worthwhile. morrison aims her characters “toward knowledge at the expense of happiness perhaps”.4 in song of solomon, milkman dead leaves his home in michigan american blacks pursuit of self-identity 3 and flies to pennsylvania in search of a cave with hidden gold. before milkman leaves his home in michigan, he perceives the world in materialistic terms that recall his fathers behavior. indeed, the search for gold that sends him to pennsylvania and then to virginia reveals his perception that escaping from his past and his responsibilities and finding material treasure will guarantee him a sense of his own identity. milkmans assumption that his trip south holds the key to his liberation or freedom is correct, although it is not gold that saves him. he does not find gold, but he gains much more than wealth or financial independence. in pennsylvania and later in virginia, he hears stories about his ancestors, stories about sacrifice and rebellion. this knowledge of the suffering and courage of those who came before empowers milkman and propels him toward spiritual ascendance. in his ancestors world, communal and mythical values prevail over individualism and materialism; when he adopts their assumptions in place of his own, he arrives at a more complete understanding of what his experience means. milkmans growth and development rest partly on his comprehension that his life is bound up with the experiences of others and partly on his establishing an intimate connection with the land for which his grandfather died. these accomplishments result in his greater achievement: learning to complete, to understand, and to sing the song that contains the history of his family. milkman comes to know fully who he is when he can supply the words to the song pilate has only partially known. the song, which draws on african and african american stories of blacks who escaped slavery by flying back to africa, explains milkmans lifelong fascination with flight. when milkman learns the whole song and can sing it to pilate as she has sung it to others, he assumes his destiny. he understands his yearning toward flight american blacks pursuit of self-identity 4 as a way in which his ancestral past makes itself known and felt to him, so milkmans sense of identity emerges when he allows himself to accept his personal and familial past. in identifying specific elements in morrisons connection to black culture, i would like to point in this paper to the writers use of oral memory tradition, her acknowledgment of the importance of naming, her view of the role of the male consciousness in black culture, and her respect for the past legacy, among other elements. the novel, as i see it, documents the legacy of survival and the power of collective memory kept alive through names, stories, words, songs, and the rituals of life and death. i intend to show how the oral tradition functions in the novel as a mode of resistance against a literacy-based tradition that often renders black life invisible in the first chapter of my paper “the relationship between oral and literate”. my analysis will demonstrate how morrison uses tensions between orality and literacy to create new possibilities for the representation of african american character. in my second chapter “the transformation of male consciousness”, i would like to show the transformation of milkmans male consciousness from eagerness for domination to that for accountability through his journey toward the south. morrisons heroic characters must resist; they must be transformed internally by their own humanity, and like milkman they must take responsibility for their own lives. milkmans journey shapes his metamorphosis and so by the novels conclusion he has achieved freedom and accountability. intuitive, compassionate, forgiving, generous, he knows that “if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it”. my third chapter tells that in the course of his finding out the familys true name, milkman realizes that names have a concrete history. with the discovery of the history comes a sense of his own humanity and the establishment of his own identity. american black s pursuit of self-identity 6 chapter 1 the relationship between oral and literate in a frequently cited passage in platos phaedo, socrates tells his young student an egyptian tale to support his strong argument against writing. in the story a king argues with the egyptian god who invented writing, declaiming its harmful effects on the human memory and the art of memory: the fact is that this invention will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it. they will not need to exercise their memories, being able to rely on what is written, calling things to mind no longer from within themselves by their own unaided powers, but under the stimulus of external marks that are alien to themselves. so its not a recipe for memory, but for reminding, that you have discovered. and as for wisdom, you are equipping your pupils with only a semblance of it, not with truth. thanks to you and your invention, your pupils will be widely read without benefit of a teachers instruction; in consequence, they will entertain the delusion that they have wide knowledge, while they are, in fact, for the most part incapable of real judgment. they will also be difficult to get on with since they will have become wise merely in their own conceit, not genuinely so.5 in addition to these socratic arguments, many fourth- and fifth-century records mirror the stage when greeks heatedly debated the use and influence of writing and alphabetic literacy in their culture. the subsequent result is quite clear: writing wins a dominant position in the western history of discourse, and speechmaking gradually loses its prominence in language education. but the story of literacy, despite this evolutionary victory, offers no resolution to these early concerns about the loss of the art of memory. and american black s pursuit of self-identity 7 these oral language issues, now over 2,000 years old, have reasserted their significance to language and literary studies. eric havelock points out in his “preface to plato” that the spread of literacy did not replace the greek oral consciousness all at once. the art of memory, in particular, was part of the tradition of western letters and rhetoric well into the seventeenth century, as frances yatess well-known work the art of memory documents. speech continues to be a language of privilege in relation to writing. the existence within a culture of an enormous range of systems used to train the human memory reveals that cultures expansive sense of language and its powers. mental-picturing memory, spatial or architectural memory, memory from sight, memory from sound, the effect of emotions on the memory, and the arrangement of impressions - these and other mnemonic techniques contributed to classical rhetorical theories and the teaching of memory and recollection.6 oral memory, in contrast to textual memory, depends upon formulas, rituals, and other oral art forms to strengthen recalling and retelling stories. both singer and interpreter of song, the bard draws on oral memory to perform and appeals to the oral memory of the hearer in order to aid the hearers remembrance. but whether linked to the tradition of classical rhetoric or to that of the inspired poet, the central role of memory, as havelock tells us, was to preserve cultural knowledge.7 the characteristic continuity of the art of memory in the literacy works of black writers makes us recall how the african americans originally learned to read and write. slaves knew that they had to steal their literacy - since it was illegal to learn to read - and many did. in an account of slaves who learned to read, janet cornelius tells us, “despite the dangers and difficulties, thousands of slaves learned to read and write in the antebellum south.”8 american black s pursuit of self-identity 8 verbal testimonies and other documentation illustrate the secret and deceptive methods that formed the slaves social context for achieving literacy. learning to read demands an intensive use of memory. in one example, cornelius tells about a slave named belle caruthers, whose duties were “to fan her mistress and to nurse the baby”. the slave said, “the baby had alphabet blocks to play with and i learned my letters while she learned hers.”9 cornelius cites another slave womans deceptive method for learning to read: moses slaughters mother, the housekeeper, would say to the owners daughter, “come here, emily, mamma will keep your place for you,” and while little emily read, “mamma emalina” followed each line until she too was a fluent reader and could teach her own children.10 frederick douglasss narrative gives another example of using deceptive means to attain literacy skills. he tells us that when i met with any boy who i knew could write, i would tell him that i could write as well as he. the next word would be, “i dont believe you. let me see you try it.” i would then write the letters which i had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. in this way i got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible i should never have gotten in any other way.11 of course, douglasss primary desire was for freedom, power, and a better quality of life, and for the black people literacy was then and continues to be an essential means. these african american experiences in obtaining literacy help illustrate the inherent tensions between orality and literacy and the cultural conflicts in toni morrisons song of solomon. reviewing the story of platos phaedo we see that as literacy advances, the art of memory wanes. but in contrast, we also see that the tight holding to the oral tradition in african american culture reveals, as any oral culture american black s pursuit of self-identity 9 would, characteristic features of the art of memory in its literary tradition. a brief introductory example will illustrate oral poetic features in a literary text and show morrisons literary efforts. chapter 11 of song of solomon ends at an important moment of growth in milkmans life. but instead of delivering a lengthy narration, morrison presents this significant episode in only three brief paragraphs. away from his home, milkman is offered a place to rest and is invited to take a bath at the home of a young woman named sweet, whose name is indeed allegorical. the bath, in the tradition of oral and bardic storytelling, is a ritual, and accordingly, morrison uses ritual language - “a fixed pattern of utterances”12 - to frame the occasion of this ritual that celebrates the beauty of life and love. here the bathing ritual communicates rebirth: milkman discovers giving and sharing, the new meaning in a loving relationship with a woman. milkman offers to give sweet a cool bath: he soaped and rubbed her until her skin squeaked and glistened like onyx. she put salve on his face. he washed her hair. she sprinkled talcum on his feet. he straddled her behind and massaged her back. she put witch hazel on his swollen neck. he made up the bed. she gave him gumbo to eat. he washed the dishes. she washed his clothes and hung them out to dry. he scoured her tub. she ironed his shirt and pants. he gave her fifty dollars. she kissed his mouth. he touched her face. she said please come back. he said ill see you tonight. (288) this bath scene signifies milkmans cultural immersion in a black, traditional oral culture. the verbal economy and rhythm in this passage are immediately noticeable, but the skillful presentation by morrison powerfully helps the reader to remember the meaning