A Study Of Gender And Heterotopic Space In Song Of Solomon And Beloved

Toni Morrison is an African-American Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist,whose works are known for such epic themes as race,culture and identity.Song of Solomon as her masterwork and Beloved,her most influential novel,give a concrete expression to the interrelated relationship between gender and heterotopic space.This thesis strives to examine how the marginalized male and female characters are produced by racialized and patriarchal spaces,and how gendered meanings attached to space can be deconstructed by the gender performances of individuals.This thesis is organized into five parts,including introduction,three chapters and conclusion.The introductory part illustrates research aim,theoretical framework,state of scholarship and research value.Chapter one probes into how heterotopic space constructs gender.It presents an analysis of the Dead family marginalized by white-dominated cultural space in Song of Solomon,and the three generations of marginalized black women amid traumatic memories of slavery in Beloved.Chapter two delves into how gender produces heterotopic space.It deals with the male character Sixo's struggle against the racial space through his masculine performance in Beloved,and the awakening of feminist consciousness in Lena,Corinthians and Hagar amidst the patriarchal sphere in Song of Solomon.Chapter three endeavors to analyze how male and female characters strive for spatial diversity and gender identity.It centers upon the male character,Paul D in Beloved,and the female character,Pilate in Song of Solomon;regarding Paul D's pursuit of masculine identity and Pilate's embracing spiritual homeland.The last part of this thesis turns to a conclusive demonstration of the relationship between gender and space,with the incompatibility of heterotopia in the unitary racialized and gendered spaces reexamined,and spatial and gender issues highlighted.Toni Morrison undoubtedly resorts to spatial diversity and gender equality.