| Morrison's representations of mothers and daughters are influenced by her belief that reality is not limited to historical fact or empirical experience, but also involves the presence of Mystery--the play, in reality, of that which is numinous, supernatural, and sometimes even surreal. To reconstitute a lived, as opposed to recorded, cultural past, she creates mothers and daughters whose archetypal associations evoke a mythic tone that sounds the ancient, ancestral, or unconscious currents beneath a more commonly accessible reality. Her African-American cultural heritage contributes to richly intersecting mythologies and traditions--not only African-American, but classical, African, and European as well. This dissertation looks at the ways Morrison contextualizes, enriches, and historicizes a number of wide-ranging archetypal and mythic images of mothers and daughters in Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved.;Morrison's combination of history and myth guides her journey to unearth and reconstruct the archeological remains of interior lives that have long been hidden or silenced. By placing such images as the Great Mother, the Terrible Mother, the Trickster, and the Lost Daughter in the context of institutions and experiences that demoralize the self, enslave the body, and encourage an erasure of ancestral links, Morrison infuses historical and cultural specificity into images and patterns that might otherwise render the special conditions of African-American experience invisible.;Morrison's Great Mother figures--Eva, Pilate, and Sethe--combine fundamental elements of human vulnerability with mythic stature, mystery, and power. The nexus between archetypal power and human vulnerability lies in their relationships with their daughters (or granddaughters). Although their maternal actions are motivated by fierce love, their daughters--or, in the cases of Eva and Pilate, granddaughters--are lost, unable to establish rooted personal or cultural identities. |
