（英语语言文学专业论文）从《秀拉》和《天堂》看黑人女性思想的发展.pdf

ii 内容摘要内容摘要 作为第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的美国黑人女作家，托尼莫里森毫无疑问的成为 了黑人女性主义的代言者。她同时也是当代美国文坛中最具有影响力，最杰出的作家 之一。作为一名黑人同时也是一名妇女的她往往写出来的小说是最能贴近事实，也最 能打动读者的心。这位高产作家近九部的作品不仅屡次登上畅销书榜首，深受读者喜 爱，而且以其无与伦比的前卫思想和强烈的艺术感受成为文学评论界备受关注的焦 点。由于她不断的努力，黑人文学，尤其是黑人女性主义文学逐渐成为美国文学迅速 发展的劲旅。 莫里森大部分的小说都密切关注黑人妇女的自我意识， 黑人女性往往都会面对性 别、种族双重压迫下对独立和自我身份认同的追寻等问题。国内对其研究主要是在作 品的创作手法和文学特色方面，有时也会从黑人女性主义的角度去研究。但是大部分 研究却都只是局限在其单部的作品中。所以本文试图通过研究秀拉和天堂这 两部小说来探讨作者黑人女性主义思想的嬗变。 论文共分四个章节。 第一部分为引文。主要介绍莫里森的生平，黑人女性主义的思想及选择这两部小 说的原因和意义。 第二部分详细论述女主人公秀拉及其所代表的莫里森初期阶段黑人女性主义思 想。 而这种女性主义思想则是通过打破所有的传统思想和反对及仇视男权主义社会来 达到其自身的价值。 第三部分则主要探讨了天堂中的黑人女性主义思想。小说中的女性都正在受 思想压迫或曾经受过心理的创伤。 最后在她们在思想和身体结合的疗法中获得了新生 的勇气和力量。而在这部小说中，莫里森的黑人女性主义已由从前的激进而慢慢的转 化成为坚定地思想。 在最后一章中， 本文通过对比不同的黑人女性在追求自我意识过程中的表现而得 出莫里森的女性主义思想改变的结论。当然，在天堂中所表现的黑人女性主义思 想却是更成熟，更贴近于女性的心理。所以在天堂中的女性们表现出的那种勇气 和独立性也远远胜过了采取超验主义行为的秀拉。 关键字：关键字：托尼莫里森 黑人女性主义思想 超验主义 痛苦 自我认同 iii abstract toni morrison（1931）, the first black american woman writer to be awarded the nobel prize for literature, has undoubtedly become a major voice among black writers. she is now one of the most outstanding novelists in contemporary american literature. her double identities as both a black and a female provide her with great advantages to penetrate deeply into the hearts of black women. nine novels of her works have attracted critical acclaim as well as commercial success at the same time. it is because of her persistent endeavor in black literature, especially black women literature, black feminist criticism has become the increasing tremendous branch of american literature. her novels have always been mainly focusing on such problems as black womens self-consciousness, their search for independence or self-identities under the double oppressions of sexism and racism. at home, most studies mainly focus on the artistic techniques and literary features of her works about the black feminism, but they are limited within one single work of morrison. there are few people who study her black feminist thinking by comparing her different novels. this thesis, in another way, attempts to study the changing of her black feminist thinking by comparing the novel sula and paradise, which are representative works of her different periods. this thesis is composed of four chapters. chapter one tells as an introduction of toni morrisons life experiences, black feminist criticism and the main reasons of choosing sula and paradise. chapter two is a detailed discussion of the protagonist sula in the novel. she was a symbol of toni morrisons black feminist criticism in her early period. she wanted to prove her self-identity by breaking all the traditional values and fight against the whole male-dominated society. she was the “evil” in peoples eyes. chapter three analyses the black feminism in the novel of paradise. the women in ruby town as well as the convent were all painful and miserable. they acquired the courage and strength of regeneration through the therapy by combination of spirit and body. they achieve the success by loving oneself and the others. we could see that toni morrisons black feminist thinking changes a lot through comparing with those two novels. in chapter four, the thesis concludes that toni morrisons black feminist thinking changes a lot through the main protagonists who pursuit of their self-identities differently iv in the novel of sula and paradise. those in the latter work are more mature in thinking and have more concretely female orientation. black women in the novel paradise are stronger, more courageous and more independent than sula. key words: toni morrison; black feminist thinking; experimental; painful; self-identity i 三峡大学学位论文原创性声明 三峡大学学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，独立进行研究 工作所取得的成果，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体均 已在文中以明确方式标明，本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 日 期： 三峡大学硕士学位论文 1 1. introduction 1.1 a brief introduction of toni morrison toni morrison is one of the most important contemporary writers in american literature during the 21st century. she is also the first african-american writer to win the nobel prize for literature. nobel literature committee comments that she has enriched imagination of black people and has used poetic style in the novel to review one of the most important aspects of american real life. her novels mainly focus on the issues of african-american females to realize their own values and find their own identities in white american society. she was born in lorain in 1931 and was raised by her parents who were all working class. her mother, her grandmother and she lived in the same small room, and her grandmother always told her some entertaining stories about black people. her grandmothers funny and interesting stories impressed her deeply and made her know more about black people. morrison began to read at an early age, and she read very widely from jane austen to the literature of the supernatural. almost at the same time she began to take part-time jobs to support the whole family, and persisted in studying and reading. she knew very well about the miserable life that a black american lived and the hardship of being a black american, especially a black female. the painful and miserable black females experiences in america impressed her deeply and became the source of her continuous writing. morrison graduated from high school in 1949. later she attended howard university, she majored in english and regarded literature as her favorite subject. however, she wasnt interested in writing novels or any fictions. she once said: “i never wanted to grow up to be a writer, i just wanted to grow up to be an adult” (taylor, 1994：97). she finished the final papers on virginia woolf and william faulkners suicide in cornell university and became a teacher at texas southern university in houston. she married, but divorced later unfortunately. the unsuccessful marriage compelled her to reflect deeply how black females should support themselves in the modern american society under the oppressions of racism and sexism. from that time on, she made up her minds to write something about black womens stories or experiences to show their 三峡大学硕士学位论文 2 feelings and living conditions in society. later, she was promoted and became a senior editor at random house. until now, she had published nine novels: the bluest eye (1970), sula (1974), and song of solomon (1977) which won a pulitzer. tar baby (1981), which remained on the new york times bestseller for months. and jazz (1992), the novel also became the bestseller. the last three novels: paradise(1997), love(2003) and a mercy （2009） ，were also giving a profound influence on people. being a black writer, she regarded herself as an eyewitness for the history, and used her pen to describe all aspects of black peoples real life and living conditions in america. in her novel, she also wanted to give a way on how to find black females own identities under the oppressions of both racism and sexism. 1.2 the definition of black feminist criticism black people belonged to an old tribe in africa, and they were hard-working and brave. they had once lived a long calm and quiet life, and they had contributed a lot to the humans civilization. however, their histories in last two hundred years had become a history of blood tragedy. they were invaded, suppressed, and exploited by other races. finally, thousands of them were even compelled to leave their hometown and were trafficked to america like domestic animals. when they were trafficked to north america, the race oppression and persecution never left them. their history also became a history against both race oppression and persecution. to bring the freedom to their own beautiful motherland was what they wanted most. black womens living conditions were even worse than mens. so the afro-american never gave up the chance to resist racialism as well as pursue their rights for politics, economy, and literature. afro-american literature had a long history as long as they first set foot on this new land by forcing. but as an afro-american writer, toni morrison emphasized the importance of writing black americans life and values, especially womens life. she wanted to find a way out for black females when they lived under the oppressions both sexism and racism. black men in the society were oppressed by white guys, and black women should bear the oppressions not only by white people but also by black men. morrison once said in an interview: “i believe that all the arts are for politics. not a good single works are not because of politics but others” (wisker, 2000: 56). “i dont believe any real artist is not a politician, maybe they are not sensitive in those special surroundings, and they still are politicians because the responsibility of being an artist is to 三峡大学硕士学位论文 3 be a politician” (taylor, 1994: 3). so she pointed out that she should do something in her novels for blacks, the literature should have relationship with politics. being a writer, she couldnt just ignore the painful or miserable life of black females in society. novel should be a lighthouse to enlighten the world for them. toni morrison stood in black females positions during the writing, so she wrote how they struggled for their living, how they faced difficulties in their life, and depicted their deep feelings about the society. though they were blacks, and black females were oppressed by both the society and white people, they still had thoughts and feelings. they should have the same rights and they should have the deserved dignities as white guys. after all, they were not animals. as we all know, ralph ellisons invisible man and richard wrights native son opened up a new era for black people. these protagonists in invisible man and native son were perfect heroes in black literature. the books not only attracted the whites attentions, but also served a good chance for blacks to express their inner voices to the whole society. no matter how successful they were, they were still the mouthpiece for black males. in their minds, black american only referred to black males. the black females, of course, were ignored unconsciously. in ralph ellisons invisible man and richard wrights native son, they did not mention how black females fight for their rights, what was more, they did not even leave a little space to describe black females. so the novels were only for black males instead of black females. in their novels, black males seemed the only people to suffer from the racism in the american society. however, toni morrison had different ideas on literature about black males and black females. she insisted that black males were not the only people to fight for their rights, black females effort should not be ignored at the same time. in her novels, she strained every nerve to describe them from her deep heart to reveal the black females, including what kind of life they really lived, how they overcame difficulties both at home and in society, what bothered them so much, how they tried their best to forget such miserable memories and so on. different from the traditionally black men in literature, toni morrison intended to be more interesting in listening to the voices of black females, especially the sounds from their deep hearts, and the relationship among females. she was the most active female writer in black feminist criticism. black feminist criticism, a small ground of the western feminist criticism, was arising with the black women feminist movement in the 1970s. focusing on women and 三峡大学硕士学位论文 4 womens issues, the literary trend represented a political and cultural ideology. black feminist criticism examined the distinct cultural values of black women writers in order not to be dominated by males and white writers. black womens history was a history of suffering and their continuous life-and-death was struggled for survival and liberation. they had to face not only the racism oppression from the white including both men and women but also sexual discrimination from men including black men. by and large, black feminist criticism mainly focused on the problems of self-consciousness and self-identity, and they queried especially about black womens doubled consciousness of being caught in a dilemma. so, it was very hard for a black woman to keep her self-consciousness and self-identity under such varied situations. some black females tended to accept the destiny for themselves, some had tried but no avail, some had never ceased their pursuits for their own identities. they needed some reforms to let them out of the male-dominated society and live like the normal human beings. the liberation movement of blacks, as a matter of fact, was only for black males rights and policy regardless of black females. from their points of view, they believed that the race problems should put on the utmost. in black communities, there was an underlying rule that black women should support black men unconditionally. the feminists preferred to use the racial way to make their identities be approved during the first and second movement. however, most of feministic leaders in the movements were white women, so black womens wishes and desires were not in their daily plan lists. the middle-aged white females also looked down upon them and considered their sufferings as it deserved. what was even worse, they even regarded black females interests as a term to bargain when they discussed the policy provisions with white males. during the 1970s, many articles were written for white females on traditional literature. so in other words, no matter whether the movement leaders were black males or middle-aged white women, black females intentions were out of their considerations. as a black female writer, toni morrison took the responsibility for forming and developing the theory which hadnt been admitting by traditional literature. just as other cotemporary black female writers, she paid more attention to black females. she was surely deserved to be called a brave person for finding out and showing us that the society was filled with the ideas which all the females were white and all blacks were males. when referred to her novel the bluest eye, she once said, “were to describe a little black girl who was never being treated seriously or carefully before. she just likes an abandoned dog 三峡大学硕士学位论文 5 or not even important than a dog in peoples minds” (taylor, 1994: 58). morrison saw black females situations clearly and accumulated a lot of real materials in her mind. she once said: “being a black person and female, so i can enter into their emotional life and touch their feelings where white females unwilling to do and black male cant do neither” (taylor, 1994: 242). she had already published nine novels, and every single protagonist in the novel was black female including song of solomon by which essayist changed the old view to believe that the real protagonist was also a female named plato. she enriched the subjects for the black literature. her novels were not only reflecting black peoples bad situations in usa, but also disclosing the existence in discrimination widely. also her novels were used as a window to find out the whole black females identities in us and the destiny for them in black colony. before morrisons novels had published, the society divided black females into three kinds of images: peremptoriness, funny mommy and mixture race females and their life must be ended in tragedy. however, morrisons novels contributed a lot to overthrowing the unfair image of black female in society. sula and consolate, the two images in her novels were so alive, so vivid that made readers to believe that they were real ones in real life. different characters enlarged females images and enriched the features in the whole black literature as well as american literature. 1.3 the main reasons of choosing sula and paradise sula was a wild and rebellious black female in toni morrisons novel, which had never been presented in the literature before. however, in the novel of sula, the heroines character changed the idea that black women could only depend on men in black literature. she was rebellious and aggressive by refusing to live in the miserable and painful life like the other black females in the community. the image that is characterized with bravery, independence is what american people value most. however, sula was an image that most of the writers at that time couldnt accept according to the traditional ideas. she watched her mother being burned to death in front of her in silence, unwilling to give her a hand. she sent her grandmother to rest house only because of some contradictions in life. she could stay overnight with her best friends husband, she could even go to church without underclothes. she held the views that every black females life in this country was nothing but waiting for death, so she tried as much as possible to sleep with different kinds of men. as a matter of fact, she just wanted to seek 三峡大学硕士学位论文 6 for self-identify and rebel against male-dominated society in this peculiar and abnormal way. surely she couldnt be accepted by the mainstream of black society and was even hated by black people in community. however, even in such a bad situation in the community, she refused to live a conventional life like her best friend nel. laier sacrificed her own life to protect her husband who once slept with sula. sula believed that it was not worthwhile for laier to depend so deep on a man. so when her grandmother persuaded her to marry as other traditional females in the community did, she