（英语语言文学专业论文）《紫色》：黑人女性的身份寻求.pdf

ii 摘 要 摘 要 二十世纪七十年代以来，美国黑人文学呈现崭新局面，一批黑人女作家异军 突起。 艾丽丝 沃克是美国最有影响力的黑人女作家之一。 她以长篇小说 紫色 引起了文学评论界的注目。这部反映黑人妇女生活的长篇小说曾荣获 1983 年美 国文学界两个大奖-普里策奖、全国图书奖，1982 年又获全国书评家协会奖提 名，并于 1986 年改编拍摄成电影，引起强烈反响。此作在黑人文学和美国文学 史上都占有一席之地。 艾丽丝沃克的创作有其独到深刻之处。她的作品与传统黑人男性作家和美 国白人女性作家的作品相比具有不同之处。 黑人男作家只关注到黑人所受的种族 压迫和歧视；白人女作家只披露了女性所遭受的性别歧视；艾丽丝沃克描写了 黑人女性在种族歧视和性别歧视双重压迫下的悲惨生活。小说紫色成功塑造 了男权社会下崭新的黑人女性形象，她们过去被强奸、鞭打、隔离，但是她们勇 敢保护自己，反抗压迫，坚强幸存下来。本文将从艾丽丝沃克的妇女主义理论 视角系统分析黑人女性如何在动态的美国社会中丧失自我身份， 寻求自我身份和 成功实现自我身份的过程。 论文第一部分是导论，简单介绍作者的生平、创作和紫色的背景信息以 及小说研究现状。 第二部分主要描述并分析小说中黑人女性如何成为家庭暴力、 家庭和社会歧 视压迫的牺牲品，即丧失自我身份的过程和性质。 第三部分探讨黑人女性自我保护的各种方式，她们坚持梦想、互相帮助以及 最后回归到非洲历史文化传统中去寻求心灵家园和自我意识。 第四部分从女性主义视角阐述黑人妇女通过抗争获得了自我身份， 实现了家 庭和社会上的独立，以及身心解放后重新做女人。 第五部分是结论，概括艾丽丝沃克所提出的妇女主义与小说紫色的独 特魅力。作者没有选择“黑色”或“白色”而是紫色，有其特定历史意义。艾丽 丝沃克为黑人妇女提出了解决性别和种族双重问题的合理方式，虽然具有作者 理想化成分，但为全世界妇女解放指出了一条光明的道路。 关键词:关键词: 紫色，女性主义，黑人女性，身份寻求 iii abstract since the 1970s, african -american literature has taken on a new look, and a group of african-american women writers have claimed nationwide reputation. alice walker is one of the most influential african-american women writers. she attracted attention from american literary critical world with her novel: the color purple, which portrays the oppressed black womens miserable life. it won her the 1983 pulitzer prize and the american book award, and it was nominated for the 1982 national book critics circle award. the novel was adapted for the screen in 1986 by the director steven spielberg and ignited some controversy. this masterpiece occupies a vital place in the histories of both black literature and american literature. alice walkers writing abounds with originality and profundity. her works are quite different from those of the traditional black male writers and the white female writers. the black male writers mainly focus their attention on the racial oppression and discrimination that black americans have suffered in white america; the white women writers only reveal the humiliating and suffocating sexual discrimination. but alice walker describes the miserable life of black women under the double oppressions of racialism and sexism. the color purple portrays new images of black women who were raped, beaten, and separated, but who fought, struggled and survived. this thesis tries to systematically analyze how black women loose, struggle for and achieve female identity in the dynamic american society from the perspective of womanism. the first chapter is an introductive part, including some information about alice walkers life and works, the background of the color purple and accomplished research on the novel. the second part describes and analyzes how black women fell victim to family violence, sexual and racial discrimination. chapter three discusses the various means by which black women protected themselves, maintained their dreams, helped each other and turned to african culture iv for both refuge and home. chapter four delineates how black women retrieved their rights over their bodies, marriage and beliefs. trough strenuous struggles and efforts, black women finally could live well without men, choose the right men and adopt their own view of men, society and religion. chapter five, as a conclusive part, makes a summary of the thesis and relates the specific meaning of the color purple to the historical significance of the novel. by contemplating on the third color purple rather than black and white, alice walker recommends for the black woman a unique sensible solution to their double problems: racial and sexual prejudice and persecution. that makes the color purple perpetually invigorating and fascinating. key words: the color purple, womanism, black women, quest for identity 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文原创性声明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 论文不包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结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名：张玉红 日期：2008 年 1 月 17 日 上海交通大学上海交通大学 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学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定， 同意学校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版， 允许论文被查阅和借阅。 本人授权上海交通大学可以将本学位论文的 全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫 描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密保密，在 年解密后适用本授权书。 本学位论文属于 不保密 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名：张玉红 指导教师签名：索宇环 日期： 2008 年 1 月 17 日 日期： 2008 年 1 月 17 日 i acknowledgments i would like to thank many people who have provided me with constructive advice and inspiring criticism in the preparation for this thesis. first of all, i am extremely grateful to my tutor, professor suo yuhuan, for his continual encouragement, invaluable commentary, and generous support throughout the process of writing this thesis. without his insightful and warm guidance, this thesis would not have been in its present shape. im particularly indebted to professor suo for his generous time in reading and red-penciling my manuscript so patiently and his scrupulous examination of both words and ideas of this paper. thanks also go to other professors and teachers of english department, among them are professor hu quansheng, professor shen yan, professor he weiwen, professor zuo xiaolan, and professor hu kaibao. my critical expertise owes much to their provoking lectures and inspiring comments in their respective classes. a special note of thanks goes to my boy friend for his generosity of buying me several books on alice walker and copying some important material in japan. finally, i want to express my deepest love for every member of my family. i could achieve nothing without their lasting support. 1 0. introduction 0.1 alice walker and the color purple alice walker is a contemporary outstanding afro-american woman writer and also a steadfast womanist, whose great contribution to black and even american literature is that she successfully portrays a series of new images of black womanhood. alice walker was born in eatonton, georgia on february 9, 1944, the eighth and youngest child of minnie tallulah grant walker and willie lee walker, the sharecroppers in the deep south. at the age of 9, alice was blinded in her right eye by her brothers bb gun pellet which left scar tissue. when she was 14 years old, her brother bill paid for eye surgery in boston, but her vision never returned. upon graduating from high school in 1961, alice walker won a scholarship for the disabled to spelman college (for women). before leaving, her mother gave her three special gifts: a sewing machine for self-sufficiency, a suitcase for independence and a typewriter for creativity. she attended spelman college in atlanta, ga., for two years and was thoroughly involved in the civil rights movement. walker actively worked on voter registration in georgia and for the head start program in mississippi, as well as for the department of welfare in new york city. she taught at jackson state college in the sixties and at tougaloo college, wellesley college, the university of massachusetts at amherst, the university of california at berkeley, and brandeis university for varied intervals in the 1970s. it was not until she began teaching that her writing career began to take off. she has won several awards for her works, most notably the national book critics circle award nomination, the american book award and the pulitzer prize for the color purple in 1983, which was preceded by the third life of grange copeland and meridian. her other best-selling novels include by the light of my fathers smile, possessing the secret of joy and the temple of my family. she is also the author of three collections of short stories, three collections of essays, six vellums of poetry and several childrens books. her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. she is not only a productive african american female writer 2 but also the first african american woman writer to win the pulitzer prize for a novel. no matter what genre alice walkers work is, the special identifying mark of her writing is her concern for lives and the souls of black women. as an epistolary novel, the color purple is walkers breakthrough, winning a wide public through its formally ingenious and dramatically gripping account of celies trials and eventual triumph over black mens oppression. in fact, while the theme of oppression has been one of the great concerns of black literature, the black womens oppression by black men does not have a long history as a subject for representation. while bigger thomass senseless and brutal murder of his girlfriend, bessie, might suggest itself as an exception, richard rights native son is not concerned with telling bessies storyeven in relation to biggerin any particular detail. celies tale charts the triumph over oppressive forces, forces that would seem initially to be omnipotent, irresistible. white racism, with a notable exception, does not take center stage. male over female, black male over black female, these are the axes of domination that structure the color purple. celies resistance to and eventual triumph over this oppression is connected to a growing consciousness embodied in the letters she is writing. each sentence of celies successive letters registers her growth in self-awareness and strength. walkers protagonist celie writes to god, nettie to her sister celie, and celie to nettie. the letters reveal the injustices women incur from men in the united states and in africa. this novel chronicles celies growth from a dependent, defeated personality to an independent, liberated woman with self-respect and self-confidence. the color purple traces about thirty years in the life of celie, a southern black woman born at the turn of the twentieth century. in her teens, she was raped by her stepfather, who sold the two children she bore him. celie got married to albert, whom she called mr and he expected celie as his wife and took her to his house to be his cook, field hand and the stepmother of his four uncontrollable offspring. not long after celie entered a loveless marriage, her sister nettie ran away because the amorous desire of her stepfather and later was adopted by a black missionary couple who took her to africa. at first, the only relief celie had in her marriage was her relationship with sofia, the wife of alberts son, harpo and the letters 3 she wrote to nettie. sofia was beaten and sent to jail because she refused to be the maid for the white mayors children. then shug avery, a blues singer and alberts lover, was ill and taken care of by celie. strengthened by her friendship with shug, celie left her marriage and moved to tennessee with shug. meanwhile her husband, albert, became a kind, understanding figure. celies livelihood was sewing tailored pants, which she turned into a successful business. at the end of the novel, celie reunited with her sisters and her children. 0.2 historical and cultural background of the novel 0.2.1 socio-historical context taking place mostly in rural georgia, the color purple addresses many issues relevant to african-american life during the early to mid 20th century in the american south, especially focusing on womens low status in black social culture. after the reconstruction, southern afro-americans lives encompassed enormous hardships. work in the cotton fields, which is what most southern black men and women depended upon for survival, was full of long hours, hard work, as well as economic instability, which was mainly due to the fact that many sharecroppers cheated afro-americans out of their due reward for their labor. afro-americans also had very limited access to medical treatment, electricity, running water, nutritious food and quality education. they were persecuted and effectively placed on the lowest rungs of the societal ladder. confronted with so many challenges, african americans took great efforts to keep economic stability after reconstruction. the change from slavery to freedom required that they determine to proceed full speed ahead and not falter. most african americans continued to live in the south during the last part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, until this pattern was changed by the great migration. however for those who stayed, both men and women, life remained hard. some began to operate dry goods store, some operated small businesses such as confectionaries, and others had no choice but to farm. they worked as sharecroppers, tenant farmers, farm laborers and casuals to eke out a 4 mere subsistence. at that time, some african americans purchased their own land and farm tools. others inherited small farms or ample acreage from the previous owners as settlement after the war. however, by the 1920s, after almost half a centurys post-war period of reconstruction, african americans in the south as well as elsewhere won little improvement of their civil rights. aided by a reactionary supreme court, the southern backlash against reconstruction had solidified into the “jim crow” regime of enforced segregation between blacks and whites and white domination. based on the principle of white supremacy, jim crow laws created separate societies for blacks and whites. from theaters to drinking fountains, and from schools to theaters to cemeteries, blacks were faced with signs that turned them away (“white only”) or equated them with animals (“no colored or dogs”). such restrictions constantly reminded blacks of their inferior status in white eyes. aside from creating separate societies for whites and blacks, jim crow laws ensured that when blacks and whites did mix, they would do so on terms that guaranteed white dominance. like jim crow laws, which flourished in the south from the 1880s to the 1930s, lynching arose as a white reaction against black freedom, a way for southern whites to control the blacks. lynching had sexual and economic aspects in the south, for a common excuse was the alleged rape of a white woman by a black man. as black anti-lynching crusader ida b. wells pointed out, a rape charge could be provoked by consensual relations between a black man and a white woman, or by nothing more than eye contact that a white perceived as a threat. it could furthermore serve as a manufactured excuse for getting rid of a black man who was prospering financially, or one whose attitude was not submissive enough to please local whites. (joyce moss and george wilson, 1997:83) alice walker grew up in the rural georgia in an area where most blacks still worked at sharecropping. women also were mandatory contributors to the family farms, indicating 5 their physical and mental stamina for survival. walkers parents experiences with the oppressive sharecropping system and the racism of the american south deeply influenced walkers writing and life. she uses the poor independent farmer and his community to frame her narrative in the color purple which reflects the history of the southern african americans hard life during that period. 0. 2. 2 black feminism the novelists william wells brown (who wrote the first published afro-american novel), zora neale hurston, richard wright, ralph ellison (whose invisible man was called “ the greatest work” after the world war ii), alice walker ( whose the color purple won her the pulitzer prize for literature in 1983 ), and toni morrison who won the nobel prize for literature ten years later; and also playwrights lorraine hansberry, leroi jones, angust wilson, etc. however, afro-american literature has undergone a long process of evolution and has taken a zigzag road. oral tradition came first in the form of songs, ballads, and spirituals and gradually into black poetry. the black novel developed from nothing significant to the publication of the widely acclaimed novel, cane, by jean toomer who was essentially a poet. from the 1930s onward, the black novel assumed an increasing importance with eminent authors such as richard wright, ralph ellison, toni morrison and alice walker and so on. the writers of this period used their art form to protest against the inequalities and depravations of an insensitive american system. wrights native son (1940) features the 9 character bigger thomas who commits a desperate act out of fear in reaction to his racial identity. wright used this novel to protest against racism even though his protagonist takes the extreme act. ellisons invisible man (1952) is a contemporary slave narrative. the central character is on a personal quest for self-identity. ellison protests against the disappointments experienced by african american males in their quest for liberation because they find their final identity is invisible. morrisons masterpiece beloved (1987) explores the theme that sethe, as a black mother, struggles for freedom and maternal identity highlighted in the infanticide. alice walker adheres to similar themes in her writings. in her personal life, she is an activist, and her protest activities spill over into her creative works. her main concerns are black women issues. in her the color purple, the dominant theme is the heroine celies quest for freedom, wholeness and self-identity. when we review the development of afro-american literature, we can find that there has been a distinct theme in its literary history, which is the blacks quest for identity. african americans consistently ask this question “who am i?” in all ages just as ralph ellison once said “when i discover who i am, ill be free” (allen, 2001: 44). the concept of “identity” is a very complicated term. but the complexity can be resolved by a basic distinction between the definition of identity as a philosophical concept and as a psychological one. in the philosophical sense, identity refers to a special