Toni Morrison’s Narrative Techniques And The Manifestation Of The Freedom-quest Motif

Toni Morrison (1931—) is absolutely one of the most significant female writers in theliterary world, who, for her selected works, was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in1993. She is so far the only black female writer to have won such an award, whosemasterpieces include The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise andso on.Considerable thorough achievements at home and aboard have been focused on ToniMorrison. However, researches abroad are mostly restrained in some fields such as socialresearch, linguistic techniques, and myth archetype research. Studies at home are relativelyweaker. In most cases, researchers confine themselves to close reading of one single fictioninstead of a stylistic study of many works, with the focus on the research of a certainfeature in narration, such as symbolism, and metaphor. However, Morrison’s fictions aredepicting not only a reflection of reality in the general sense, but a concern at the depth ofthe development of American black society and culture. She is particular about the polishof the holistic organization and the figures of speech in details. Hence, the study ofMorrison’s novels is of significance in literature, esp. the study of the problems in racialdiscrimination, consciousness of black identity, and living state from different narrativeperspectives through nonlinear narration, which will provide us a reference to provokethoughts on individual value in the field of literature. Meanwhile, a tentative exploration inthe relation between Morrison’s narrative techniques and the manifestation of thefreedom-quest motif is possibly supplementary to the current research, with a potentialvalue. This thesis aims to probe into Morrison’s holistic narrative style based on theachievements and experience at home and abroad, and with the guideline of systematicnarrative theory.The motif consistent in all Morrison’s novels is the unceasing pursuit of freedom bythe black. From the perspectives of the application of death as a narrative element,narrative sequence, and metaphor mode, the dissertation will analyze the relation betweenthe diverse narrating aspects in Morrison’s fictions and the manifestation of thefreedom-quest motif as well as a wrapping up of the features of her narration. And thedissertation is aimed to explore Morrison’s narrative techniques’ contribution to the freedom-quest motif in four chapters.The introduction reviews researches of Morrison’s works both at home and abroad. Itstarts with a brief introduction of the prevalence of her works. Then it goes on to presentthe researches from many aspects such as social research, linguistic research and mytharchetype research, introducing the current research situation of her novels.Chapter one discusses the concept of freedom, including the division of positivefreedom and negative freedom, and the quest for it embodied in world literature and inMorrison’s fictions. Furthermore, based on Isaiah Berlin’s theory of freedom, it is heldthat freedom manifest in Morrison’s works is mainly negative freedom, which is wellexemplified in The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Sula, Tar Baby, and Song of Solomon, though thequest for positive freedom can also be felt in Sula.Chapter two deals with the narrative element of death and the way how this element isharnessed by Morrison to reveal the harshness the black had to undergo to attain theirfreedom. Dealing with different phenomena of death in Morrison’s novels, and with regardto Freud’s theory of thanatos—death instinct and Freud’s mechanism of retrodirection, aswell as émile Durkheim’s theory on suicide, it will put forward that the diversephenomena of death in Morrison’s works exert a positive and constructive function inmaking the freedom-quest motif prominent, such as the suicide of Mr. Smith and Milkmanin Song of Solomon, Seth’s killing her baby in Beloved, and Eva’s killing her son in Sula.Chapter three explores the narrative time in Morrison’s novels and its assistance tomanifest the motif of quest for freedom. Nonlinear narration is a narrative techniquefrequently used by Morrison, who has a deep understanding of the profound influence ofnarrative time on narration, which is well exemplified in narrative sequence and narrativefrequency in her works. Based on Gérard Genette’s narrative theory, this chapter mainlyanalyzes Morrison’s proper management of story time and narrative time, the consequentdiversified narrating sequences, and narrative frequencies. Furthermore, the function of thediversified narrating sequences and narrative frequencies to bring forth the freedom-questmotif is also to be explored. It is claimed that the employment of prolepsis, analepsis andsyllepsis, esp. that of multiple analepsis, contributes much to the freedom-quest motif,while the choice of narrative frequencies breaks the stories into pieces, making Morrison’snovels labyrinths, and consequently deepening the motif of freedom. Chapter four focuses on the multitudinous kinds of metaphor in Morrison’s fictionsand its contribution to reveal the freedom-quest motif. Morrison is especially expert inemploying different metaphors such as proper name, mythology, folk story, and even body,music and symbols. These elements are so expressive in her novels as to be indicative ofthe motif of her works. On the basis of perusing Morrison’s fictions, the thesis putsforward that the different metaphors employed in her fictions are also a contribution to thefreedom-quest motif, and are indicative of the injustice by the white world on the black andthe eagerness and quest of the black for freedom.The conclusion is to deal with the role Morrison has played in American literature.The diversified techniques and styles of Morrison’s novels have exerted a far-reachinginfluence on American literature. Her skillfulness in narration has made her a name inAmerican post-modern literature. Hence her influence on black literature, Americanliterature as well as literature in the world is too important to be ignored.