Racial Perspective of “Recitatif”.docx

Racial Perspective of “Recitatif”肖Abstract: Toni Morrison, the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award winner, is a major voice in Black writing. All of her novels are, in a sense, “historical novels”, in which characters, as Barbara Rigney(1991) has put it, are “both subjects of and subject to history, events in real time, that succession of antagonistic movements that includes slavery, reconstruction, depression, and war.” Recitatif is the only short story she has written, it has mainly been studied in terms of unreliable narrator, racial relations, and narratology, and related perspectives. In her short story “Recitatif”, Toni Morrison reveals the dilemma and struggle of the black people as she always did in her fictions, because her works, to a large extent, are accounts of official history, hidden from which she gives voice to voiceless people. As Wiser writes, “Morrison values the influence and power of her heritage, recuperating historical, lived moments in African American history to fill in the blanks.” In this short story, she never points out which character is black, which is white, between who there are some rather poignant conflicts, creating many indeterminate and absent elements, as well as individual anxieties, altogether compose a big myth of the short story for the readers, which is one of Morrisons central themes in her works. Myth, together with blackness, compose “Recitatif”. In general, all of Morrisons protagonists exist “in a world defined by its blackness and by the surrounding white society that both violates and denies it.” There is violence in “Recitatif”, but there is no direct description of violence which could only be felt and really hurts. It is more about psychic violence, “The destructive effect of the white society can take the form of outright physical violence, but oppression in Morrisons characters, for the brutality here is less a single act than the systematic denial of the reality of black lives.” With a purpose of “Blacken” her fiction, Jennings(2008) has said that “Morrisons writerly vision offers more than the presence of a particular African cosmological or religious artifact; it focuses on the philosophical linkages between Africans and African Americans.” It is such “cosmologies” which embed in what Wade W. Nobles calls African Americans “experiential community”, the kind of particular experiences that are shared by a particular group of people through time and space. This short story is entitled “Recitatif”, or recitative (also known by its Italian name recitativo) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition. In this sense, “Recitatif” aims to tell something to the readers in a narrative way. Through analyzing indeterminacy, anxiety and absence in “Recitatif”, this essay argues that Morrison shows her concerns about the condition of black people, especially black women who are under double pressures, and advocates equal treatment and respect for them. Key words: Recitatif; black; indeterminacy; anxiety; absence I. Indeterminacy1. Indeterminate Identity Twylas and Roberbas respective races have never been clearly stated in the short story which only gives readers a clue that they are of different races, one is white, the other black. But which belongs to which is never directly revealed or expressed explicitly. This was revealed in the middle of the short story, “Once, twelve years ago, we passed like strangers. A black girl and white girl meeting in a Howard Johnsons on the road and having nothing to say. One in a blue and white triangle waitress hat - the other on her way to see Hendrix.” Here Morrison wants to wipe out the difference between races in real life, so what really matters is the problems caused due to racial inequalities. 2. Indeterminate Memory As the narration of the short story develops, Twyla have encountered with Roberta four times, but Roberta poignantly and emphatically stated the “Maggie thing” which in some sense confused Twyla a lot because Robertas indictment is different from what really happened in her memory and this thing kept troubling her during these encounters and periods in between. The story is told from Twylas perspective, which contradicted with Robertas words about the past. This memorial difference results in indeterminacy so that what the facts about the past are is indeterminate. Is Maggie black or white? Did they kick her? Back in the orchard, did Maggie fall down and those gar girls laughed at her or was she knocked down were her clothes torn up by them? As Twyla said, “Roberta had messed up my past somehow with that business about Maggie.” The truth about the past could not be traced back and explained away, even Twyla was unsure of it by Robertas eloquent assertion, “I wouldnt forget a thing like that. Would I?” Robertas presumptuous attitude made Twyla shook her belief about the truth of the past Maggie thing. 3. Indeterminate Friendship Twyla and Roberta have met five times unintentionally, so altogether five encounters. When they two first parted with each other, Twyla expected Roberta to keep contact with her about which Roberta had promised to write her every day but no, because Roberta even “couldnt read a lick so how could she write anybody”(p2082) and she never gave Twyla her address. They encountered each other every time merely by chance, and each time their meeting seemed quite cold and most of the time their conversation stayed on the surface, i.e., phatic function except with the sudden irritating and confusing “Maggie thing”. Besides, each encounter was rather short, every time leaving a series of puzzles without being solved. II. Anxiety1. Anxiety about CommunityTwyla went to the parade, which played the role of a sort of community, since it is about a group of people with the same purposes and interests, but she was never really into it, because she only came there to find her friend Roberta with whom she had some huge misunderstandings and wanted to wipe them out in a kind of aggressive way by changing words on the signs. Strangely enough, Roberta also was not really into the parade as she seemed to play hide and seek with Twyla, protesting for womens rights on the surface, while protesting against Twyla in actuality for their different memories and thoughts about the past and current black and white relations. The parade was only a cover of the problems in their friendship. Twyla has changed her signs for the parade with an aim to inquire Roberta, whom she did not find out in the crowds and who finally disappear in the demonstration altogether, indicating that Roberta did not have any strong relations to the parading people as a group, she was only an individual in the community. Her single function was to add the total number of the demonstrating crowd, because for several times that Twyla mentioned about the parade, Roberta did not have any communication with any of the group of people, but merely standing and walking along street in it.2.Anxiety about Double Consciousness No clear clues have been given in the short story to confirm the characters identities, still, readers are informed from the text that the two friends are of different races, one is black, the other is white. Even the core issue about the “Maggie thing” is ambiguous according their different memories about the past. The “Maggie thing” is a core issue not only in the short story, but also significant outside the text in that it relates to socially racial problems. First Twyla and Robertas relationship centered around this “Maggie thing”, changing and developing with it; second, it concerns with back-then racial problems. There are several possible explanations for their problems if the characters are men. One feature in the short story is that the protagonists are all women, and the other feature is that “Recitatif” reveals racial problems, so all together women in the short story suffer from double pressures; there is double consciousness in black women figures. Double consciousness is a term describing the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society. It was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois with reference to African American “double consciousness”, including his own, and published in the autoethnographic work, The Souls of Black Folk. The term originally referred to the psychological challenge of always looking at ones self through the eyes of a racist white society, as well as reconciling an African heritage with an upbringing in a European-dominated society. The term has since been applied to numerous situations of social inequality, notably women living in patriarchal societies. Therefore, “Recitatif” is not only about blacks and whites conflicts, but womens oppression as well. Being black is the first kind of oppression, but if the blacks are women, then women is another oppression, so all in all, double consciousness cause double oppression for black women. III. Absence1.Absence of Mothers LoveTwylas and Robertas mothers have been mentioned sometimes in the story, but they only showed up once. Twylas mother never stops dancing and Robertas is always sick. Therefore, Twyla and Roberta were sent to St. Bonnys for lack of parental care. They were the only children who were not orphans in the real sense. Their relations with their mothers are also rather weak. Twyla longed for mothers love but she did not spend enough time with her. What is lack here in the short story is not mother figures, but the intimate mother-daughter relationships. Both Twyla and Roberta did not seem to have any intimate relationships with their mothers. Twylas mother came to visit Twyla when she was at the age of twelve, she did not show any strong emotions that normal children who have not seen their mother for quite a long time would behave. She was extremely calm, which was almost incompatible with her young age. She merely stated some facts about her mother and expressed her wish to stay with her mother in her ideological activities. When she saw her mother Mary in the St. Bonnys for the first time, she hated it very much that her mother did not wear proper clothes for going to chapel. The strange thing is that Twyla did not show any excitement but blame for her mother. “But her face was pretty - like always, and she smiled and waved like she was the little girl looking for her mother - not me” and “A pretty mother on earth is better than a beautiful dead one in the sky even if she did leave you all alone to go dancing” show that Twyla hungers for mothers constant love and care. What she cares about is her mothers accompany, because in her mind, a pretty live one is better than nothing, or simply an honorary one in the paradise. This is the only time when Twylas and Robertas mothers showed up in person in the short story. More often than not, they were merely mentioned, and were always mentioned in the same way: Twylas mother is always dancing while Robertas mother is rather sick. “Alone” also proves that mothers love is in absence.2. Absence of Father Throughout the whole story, male characters do not have any real presence. When they were eight years old, Twyla and Roberta were sent to St. Bonnoys because their mothers could not take after them except for some visits. But their fathers were never mentioned. Even by the time they got married, their husbands were mentioned in a few words without any real existence or speech. Male figures are given no importance in the short story in any sense. Their nearly non-existence implies that Morrison wants to pinpoint women figures and intentionally ignores them in her work. When Roberta got to know that Twyla was married to James Benson, she was concerned about whether Twyla was happy or not by repeatedly inquiring “Is he nice”(p2085). It was only when she confirmed that Twyla was happy with her family that she got relieved. 3. Absence of Community Most of the time, as the narration goes on, the story is about Twyla and Robertas encounters and their friendship, almost without any other relatively close relations with other members of the society, even including their mothers and husbands. They did not form any group of communities with intimate relationship. Roberta is a very independent girl. Even in the protesting parade, she just seemed to be one of them, but did not integrate with them, and finally left without messages. 4. Absence of Maggies Speech The “Maggie thing” is the core issue in the relationship between Twyla and Roberta. This topic runs through their encounters. The puzzle is that Maggie could not speak. She was devoid of the right to voice herself in the story. She was dumb, and probably deaf, “She cant scream? Nope. Nothing. Can she hear? I guess.” Roberta took advantage of this Maggie thing, poking up conflicts in their friendship, but it was also her final confession of her memory about this thing that solved the crisis in their relationship.Conclusion The indeterminacy blurs racial identities of the cha