（英语语言文学专业论文）对《紫色》中家庭的分析性研究.pdf

vi 摘 要 摘 要 本文主旨在于对紫色这篇小说中的家庭进行分析。一方面，作为一名 非裔美籍作家，爱丽丝沃克通过这篇小说中触及了在黑人社区中曾有的和现存 的问题，如奴隶制残余，家庭暴力，和性别歧视等；另一方面， 作为一名妇女主 义运动家，爱丽丝沃克对这些存在于黑人社区的问题根据其妇女主义的理念和 美国黑人的传统提出了她的解决方法，如姐妹关系，互助，互敬，互爱等，从而 使得不论任何种族的两性都能与世界作为一个整体而共荣。在这篇小说中，如同 美国黑人的抗争史一样，黑人男女的命运一直和他们的家庭紧紧联系在一起 在结构上， 家庭是这篇小说的男女主角的旅程开始和结束的地方； 在精神层面上， 家庭是将他们联系在一起的重要纽带；同时，家庭也是美国黑人文化和传统发生 的重要土壤。因此，本文致力于分析爱丽丝沃克在紫色中所体现的家庭理 念及其与美国黑人传统和妇女主义的关系。 本论文分为三部分。第一章分析了美国黑人如何为他们盲目地从奴隶制继承 来的白人式的家庭理念和家庭结构所困扰。如小说所示，黑人男子和女子双方都 在为奴隶制所困扰的家庭中受到伤害。因为在白人模式且为父系威权所主宰的家 庭中，黑人女性仍被他们的男性亲属当成奴隶对待。对于黑人女性来说，家庭是 一个缺失的概念；并且黑人男性也不可能找到他们所向往的幸福，因为他们的所 作所为恰恰间接加强了压迫和剥削黑人的邪恶势力。 第二部分探讨了黑人男性和女性如何在炼狱般的家庭中得到净化。在他们扭 曲的家庭中，女性角色学会了如何承认自己，如何从姐妹之谊和集体互助中汲取 力量，将愤怒转化为创造性的活动而非暴力。一些妇女主义和美国黑人传统文化 中概念，如妇女的独立，姐妹之谊和黑人模式大家庭都在本章中有所提及。本章 还讨论了男性角色从他们破裂的家庭中，从女人身上学到了如何摆脱控制他人的 欲望从而能与周围的人建立起更具人性，更为平等的关系。 第三章通过分析celie和nettie两姐妹富有象征意义的回家过程,指出美国黑 人的根之所在和大家庭的重要性。 本章的前半部分探讨了celie收回本应属于她的 房子并随后在其上建起了在其中男女和解并和谐相处的美国黑人传统式的大家 庭。后半部分通过分析nettie从非洲还乡，揭示了作者关于“根”之思索美国 黑人应该而且只能在美国解决他们的问题。 如历史所示，种族主义，性别歧视和暴力并不能通过黑奴解放宣言和民 权运动而得以根除；两性之间的问题，个人和社会之间的问题并不仅仅存在于黑 人社区；所以爱丽丝沃克对于家庭力量的强调是非常有建设性的，不仅是对黑 人社区，对于社会和两性的和谐、个人的成功来说，幸福和谐的家庭也是奋斗的 目标更是必不可少条件之一。 关键词关键词：黑人社区 家庭 父权制 姐妹关系 妇女主义 iv abstract this study is focused on the analysis of the family in the novel the color purple. as an african american writer, alice walker addressed in this novel the problems existed and existing within the black community and families, such as slavery legacy, domestic violence, sexism, etc; as a womanist, she also presented to those problems solutions according to her womanism ideology and african american traditional culture such as sisterhood, mutual help and respect, love, etc, so as to enable both gender to flourish, colored or not, in the world as a whole. in this novel, as well as in the history of african american peoples rebellion and survival, the family is closely interwoven with the fate of black men and womenstructurally, family is the scene where main characters metaphysics take place, where their journey started and ended; spiritually, the vital nexus joins men and women together; culturally, the soil where african american culture and tradition take root. so the ambition of this study is to find out what is alice walkers ideal concept of family and to what extent it relates to african american tradition and “womanism” within the context of the color purple. this study is primarily divided into three parts. the first chapter of this study focused discussion on how african americans are tormented by the legacy they blindly inherited from the slavery-the white family ideology and structure. as the novel shows, both black men and black women are hurt and maimed in the families haunted by slavery, because in the white pattern of nuclear, isolated families where patriarchal concept dominates, black women are still treated as slaves by their own men, their fathers and brothers. consequently, family is absent from black women; and black men cant see the happiness they are longing for because they are reinforcing the evil power used to oppress and to exploit black people, black men and women alike. in the second chapter, what will be discussed is how men and women purified in their purgatorial family. in their distorted families, female characters learn how to appreciate themselves(such as celie and mary agnes), how to draw strength from sisterhood and communal help(such as shug and celie, sofia and mary agnes), to channel their anger into creative activity instead of violence(celie making folkpants). v some main concepts of womanism and african american tradition such as the independence of woman, sisterhood, extended family structure are discussed in this chapter. what also is discussed in this chapter is what men learn from their broken families and their womenthey learn to relinquish their desire to dominate in order to engage in more human and egalitarian relationships with everyone around them(such as albert and his son, harpo). the third chapter is centered on the analysis of how alice walker emphasized the importance of the black peoples extended family and problem of the root of the african american through the two symbolic home-returns of the two sisters, celie and nettie. the first part of this chapter is focused on discussing how celie reclaimed her long-lost house and afterward reconstituted on it a traditional african american family where men and women reconciled and fare harmoniously. the second part of this chapter analyses how netties symbolic return from africa conveyed alice walkers thought on the problem about her peoples rootafrican american people should and only can resolve their problems and strive in where they belonged toamerica. as history told us, racism, sexism and violence are not completely exocised by the emancipation proclamation and civil rights movement; the problems between men and women, between individuals and society do not just exist within black community; so alice walkers emphasis on the power of family is definitely constructivenot only to the black communitybecause a happy，harmonious family is the prerequisite and goal of the harmony of society, prosperity of the individual, concord between men and women. keywords: black community family patriarchy sisterhood womanism, iii 学位论文原创性声明 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文 an analytic study of family in the color purple，是在 导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的原创性成果。除文中已经注明引用的 内容外， 本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果,对本文 的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中标明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送 交学位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权河北师范大学可 以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印 或其它复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 i introduction a. black family the color purple written by alice walker won her the pulitzer prize in 1983 and the american book award. latterly, it was taken on screen by the famous director s. spielberg. the story is presented to us in the form of letters and diary entries in a non- chronological order. most of the letters were written to god by an uneducated african-american woman celie in a colloquial southern style. the story took place in 1920s1960s, georgia, where has been a difficult place for black people to live due to widely-held prejudices amongst the white population and the black peoples slavery living condition. as the work of a second generation feminist, this novel contains some of alice walkers concepts of feminism and sexism and racism which bear some core differences from her predecessors one of them is she sets up a line between feminism and the concept of her creation“womanism”; meanwhile, like works of other african-american female writers, this novel also has many things in common with others. as barbara christian points out，some post-civil rights african american female writers earliest novels are characteristically confined to their isolated community in that the main characters body contact are highlighted. 1 clearly, theres a trend of turning attention inward shown by female african-american writers as the african-american external conditions relatively getting better after emancipation and civil rights movement, theres still a lot to be done, especially by the black themselves, like it or not. from 1960s onward, black writers and thinkers began to stress more and more on evaluation and revaluation of african-american culture; as bonnie tusmith observed , from 1970s onward, one of the two interesting phenomena of black literature is that more and more african american writers started to examine themselves and seek power within their own culture; the other is a new finding, that from the beginning phase of the slavery, black peoples struggle and rebellion created an ethnic culture and community in the 2 new homeland, as well as keep the unique culture of their natal land. 2 this alice walkers third novel addressed deeply the course of her peoples misfortune, especially for black women, within black community; meanwhile, she tried to give her solution to them. no wonder, this novel and the film based on it has incurred so many criticisms and accusations, literarily or personally, within and outside black community. but alice walker made it clear that some recurring criticisms are either groundless or based on misreading of her novel, such as blaming her for defaming african american family and men. 3 so this study is limited to analysis of african american family occurred in this novel thus left some subject such as the white mayors family, religion or maternity of black female untouched. this study is divided into three parts, following the celies circular journey from her natal home to her marital family and back again. the first part of this study is focused discussion on how african americans are still leading miserable lives due to the patriarchal slavery legacy: the miserable lives of celie, shug and sofia caused by their men we see in the early part of this novel are the epitome of african american womens miseries before and after the emancipation proclamation; therefore, masterful black men are doomed to lead miserable lives as they can not behave humanly. what is discussed in the second part is that how through describing mutual help between sofia, shug, celie and mary agnes, it is indicated that black womens sisterhood and communal helping tradition help black women to accept themselves and stand up; and black womens self-respect and independence benefit black men. in the third part of this study alice walkers emphases on traditional black family and black peoples root in america are discussed through the analyses of celie and her sister netties symbolic home-returns and the reunion of their big family. family has been a dominant concern emphasized repeatedly by african american writers and thinkers, especially by womanists, because the traditional african american family is the core of african aemrican tradition, the nexus holding african american people together, the solution for many problems of black community. 3 b. literature review since the novel published, there have been sharply contrasted reviews about it. on one hand, it is hailed as an excellent book by the majority of african american feminists. for example, feminist gloria steinem, walkers former colleague and close friend, praises walker for this ability to know her readers and help them transform their lives through her books. steinems revieworiginally published in ms. magazine and reprinted in a collection of her essayscites the claims of an “angry young male novelist” as evidence: “ive been a much better person . . . since ive been under the care and feeding of alice walkers writing” . 4 then steinem elaborates on how she has witnessed this effect on many readers over the years. the color purple, she notes, is particularly transformative because the “pleasure in it is watching people redeem themselves and grow . . . its an organic morality of dignity, autonomy, nurturing, and balance”. 5 but on the other hand, not all feminists and critics agree with steinems praise, however. for in allowing her characters to experience transformation, alice walker has been criticized for creating a form and a vision that is utopian and disingenuous because, though the novel ends “happily ever after,” for celie, she has done nothing to make her world a better place for african americans. the novel made a significant impact on the feminist movement, sparking scathing criticism from trudier harris, camille paglia, and bell hooks sic. trudier harris, a most vocal critic of steinems endorsement, charges that the novel “silences criticism by its dominance,” “gives validity to all the white racists notions of pathology in the black community,” and that the novels “fairy-tale structure” affirms only passivity. 6 camille paglia categorizes the novel as a “sociological soap opera” that became a “token text for liberal literature textures aiming for quick and easy racial diversification of their class reading lists” and snidely suggests that the novels success could in part be attributed to walkers association with steinem. 7 bell hooks is perhaps the most stringent critic of walkers vision: “walker creates a fiction wherein an oppressed black woman can experience self-recovery without a dialectical process; without collective political 4 effort; without radical change in society. it is a brand of false consciousness that keeps everyone in place and oppressive structures intact.” 8 but one thing worth to note here is that there have been very few works focused directly to analyze the importance of black family and community emphasized in this novel except, fortunately, some works on some facts and concepts closely related it on which i can rely, such as the problems of black peoples, especially black womans self-definition and identity in america written by brenda r. smith, charles l. proudfit and daniel w. ross the former two focused on the psychological development of the heroines in the novel whereas the latter focused on the problem of gender/labor definition within black community; the admirable tradition of communal and sororal aiding written by catherine e. lewis and bonnie tusmiththe helpful and healing power of sisterhood to both black men and women is emphasized respectively by the two authors; the positive role the lesbian relation exercised among wounded black females written by uplabdhi sangwan in which the sisterly and pure relation between black females and the instructive effects of it(the lesbian relation) are convincingly argued; and the importance of sympathy and love within black family and community written by tracy l. bealer in which constructive power of the forgiveness and love in the extended black family and community is excellently analyzed. furthermore, i also draw on some worksthough not directly related to this novelfocused on analyzing the traditions and problems of the african-american and the black community such as, the damage to black men and their family done by slavery legacy written by joseph l. white,james h. cones in which the destructive after-effects of slavery on the structures of american society and black family and community and thus on the psyche of black man are meticulously analyzed and convincingly concluded; the importance of keeping the root of african-american culture and tradition written by bonnie tusmith and manning marable, leith mullingsthe former one emphasized the tradition of extended black family and communal care whereas the latter two focused to emphasize the importance of keeping the uniqueness of african-american tradition and culture, of taking root in america; the social and personal factors to domestic violence written by lee n. june, robert l. hampton, thomas p. gullotta, 5 jessica m. ramos and manning marable in which factors such as the black mens mental problems caused by the social injustice, racial discrimination, economic inequality, labor division between black male and female, and black mens powerless states and their problematic self-definition are objectively observed and completely analyzed; and the importance of the interdependent relation between the whole u.s.a. society and black family paula giddings and daniel patrick moynihan in which the change of black family and the causes of it are thoroughly studied historically, socially, and economically. after all, the works on and of black feminism and womanism written by alice walker and her colleagues such as christian, barbara, pratibha parmar and deborah l. madsen in which the emphases are made on the tri-dimensional oppression of black women, their spiritual journey towards self-development, their life within the black community, on the active struggle of black women that makes them who they are, on the survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female, and on the important role the family can exercise on the development of its members and society. responses to the color purpleacross genders, across ethnicities, across genresaffirm the success of walkers myth-making quest. through her synthesis of realism and fabulation, the reification of her archetypal womanist doctrine and her privileging of unconventional social conventions and narrative strategies, walker successfully crafts a mythic narrative that transcends the accepted and plausible endings of quest for black women who, like her protagonist celie, are struggling under untenable circumstances from which there appears to be no relief or escape. the result is a relevant, relatable, life-changing myth of empowerment that liberates african american women and other individuals from their respective histories of oppression, subordination, silence and passivity and actualizes the achievement of agency in all areas of their livesa modern myth for modern times. the significance of this thesis is that alice walkers womanist emphases on the importance of family, the union of the extended family members and the harmonious wholeness of the human beings as a big family are beneficial not only to the african american community but also to the whole world as a community. walkers proposals 6 can help people build a harmonious society, in which all human beings, men and women alike, live more happily, flourish prosperously. 7 chapter one family as a hell “for years in this country there was no one for black men to vent their rage on except black women. and for years black women accepted that rage-even regarded that acceptance as their unpleasant duty.- toni morri