Toni Morrison: Re-canonizing African American femininity in her own image

This dissertation traverses Toni Morrison's canon, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to Love (2003), to examine the ways in which she has systematically recast the image and reconstructed the identity of African American women. Drawing upon womanist and postmodern theories of identity construction, liminality, and incommensurability, this dissertation argues that African American femininity is relationally constructed. In essence, black women's relationships with their children (especially their daughters), their men, and their sister-friends define who they are, determine how they perceive themselves, and, largely, dictate their capacity for success and survival.;Each chapter, then, focuses on these three central relationships and expounds on how Morrison's novels: centralize the roles of the African American mother as ancestor and guide and establishes daughterhood as a site of self-creation and cultural regeneration; examine the relationships between black men and black women to expose the extent to which sexism ruins their esteem for one another; offer alternative models of relating to one another to eliminate patriarchy and rekindle love within the African American family and community; and discuss the significance of sisterhood as a site for individual and communal healing and restoration.;This dissertation also investigates the ways in which these re-negotiated relationships form new models of African American femininity. From these models, an ideal of African American womanhood emerges. Throughout her canon, Morrison reinforces the notion of an ideal African American woman as embodying the ancestor, possessing ancient properties, serving as witness-bearers, and functioning as both ship and harbor. By examining her countless interviews and her critical commentary, I connect Morrison's views of her role as artist, intellectual, and culture-bearer to the very traits with which she endows her heroines. In doing so, Morrison positions herself at the center of this constructed ideal thereby re-canonizing African American femininity in her own image.