Black Identity Exploration In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom From The Perspective Of Affect Theory

In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,the outstanding African American playwright August Wilson expresses African Americans’ attempt to construct their identities in the context of racial segregation and racial discrimination by affective writing.From the perspective of Silvan Tomkins’ affect theory,this thesis examines three kinds of identity construction strategies of African American characters and explores the significance of anger and the playwright’s thinking on identity issues,through the analysis of affective scenes and the affective scripts of the characters.This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter One introduces the playwright and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.Meanwhile,it also methodically evaluates previous literary studies on this play,illustrates the theoretical framework,and states the key points of this thesis.Chapter Two mainly focuses on the identity crises that the characters encounter in off-stage affective scenes.In these scenes,intense interracial conflicts cause African Americans to question their original cultural values and identification,which further results in their identity crises.They are irritated by the insurmountable hierarchy,the inconsolable trauma,and ubiquitous racial discrimination.Amplified by their anger,these experiences profoundly influence their value judgments.Chapter Three delves into the characters’ exploration of black identities in on-stage affective scenes.These scenes connect with the off-stage scenes by analogs and guide African Americans to handle anger in diverse ways.Motivated by their anger,the black characters choose to overtly counterattack whiteness,reject African heritage,and avoid interracial conflicts,which respectively reflect their pursuit of blackness,compliance with dominating stratum,and their ambiguous attitude to racial issues.Chapter Four elucidates the process of psychological magnification of the affective scripts of African Americans.By analyzing the anger-seeking script,the anger-escape script,and the anger-avoidance script of the characters,this chapter interprets the three types of identity construction strategies in this play.Chapter Five concludes the consequences of the three kinds of identity construction strategies,summarizes the three catalyses of anger for African Americans’ explorations of black identity and reveals the political opinions of the playwright.