Analysis Of The Black Masculinity In Toni Morrison's Novels

Being the first African-American woman awarded with the Nobel Prize for literature,Toni Morrison was considered to be one of the most influential contemporary American novelists.Based upon her literary background and her consistent devotion to voice for black females,many of her works centered on female character and among them,the Bluest Eye,Sula and Beloved are classical ones.Morrison's depictions about black people were characterized by its objectivity and profundity,revealing the miserable sufferings of the black group under the oppression of racism.Meanwhile,she boldly uncovered the truth of the inner erosion existing but ignored by the black community,trying to provoke introspection among the black rather than solely blaming the white supremacy.Most of the studies on the three were about female images,the unique writing features and narrative styles,with very few of them concentrating on male analysis.It is true that depictions about males in those novels are far more less than those of females,but a well-round understanding would inform us that all those male characters reflect problems of the society and hence are of great significance in understanding the gender role in black community.Their being apparent marginalized is clearly presented in the three novels but theirs are more complex than being characterized as the marginalized.They are indeed collectively evicted out of the hegemonic circle.This thesis,based on Connell's important concepts of masculinity and other important ideas,tries to analyze and present different manifestations of the revealed masculinities in the three novels and factors which cause these manifestations as well as different black gender relationship as a result of all those impeditive elements.There are all together five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,including a brief review of studies on Morrison and her works,as well as some of the important concepts and ideas in Connell's masculine theory and that of other theorists such as Robert staple.The next three chapters constitute the main body of the thesis,respectively presenting different manifestations of non-hegemonic black masculinity and its being marginalized situation;different influences both domestic and outside upon the formation of their masculinity and different gender relationships based on those manifestations of masculinities which embody the influence of black masculinity in constructing black families and black communities.The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis.Through the analysis of the whole thesis,black males in Morrison's three novels are in a suffering dilemma which is caused not only by exterior erosion of the society but also by their inner weakness.It should be clear to the black community including both males and females that a healthy family relationship is the basis of an improving society,and it requires the co-efforts of all of them.During this improving process,black males are in an equally guiding position.