Study On Black Feminism In Jazz

Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent American black women writers. In 1993, she won the Nobel Prize for literature. In these works, Morrison makes a vivid description of characters, languages and stories with her unique perspective and rich imagination, which also realistically reproduced miserable life of black people and show the inner world of different blacks to her readers.Jazz, which was published in 1992, the author placed the story in the background of Harlem period, which means economic prosperity, cultural innovation and the wider spread of pleasure-seeking to white Americans. But in this period, the living condition of African Americans had little improvement. Morrison using graceful words reproduced the blacks' migration from South to North, from rural areas to the cities, and the love and murder which occurred between men and women in urban blacks, so as to reveal their real living conditions and inner world. Due to the race and gender, black feminism has its own characteristics. Black women have suffered the oppression which are from the male society are totally different from the oppressions of white women. Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. As an African-American black writer who is always emphasizing her black identity and female identity, she has been paying attention to American black women's lives in her works. Through describing these oppressed black in her novels, Toni Morrison expounded her viewpoint of black feminism. She thinks that white women won't help black women to fight for their deserved rights and treatments. Depending on one or a few black women's struggle can not be successful. Only when black women unite closely through communication and help each other to struggle with the whole society, then they will get happiness.This article deeply analyses Jazz from the perspective black feminism in order to reveal the author's viewpoint on black feminism and find out the real reasons of oppression of black women, which brings blacks suffering. After analyzing the novel, find it out the approach of getting out of the oppression and eventually live a happy life.The article is divided into four parts:The first part mainly introduces the author Toni Morrison's biography, the main plot and background of the novel Jazz. By analyzing the two typical black women, this thesis will reveal Toni Morrison's black feminism viewpoint based on her other works. And it introduces the literature and innovation of this paper.The second part is a theoretical part. This part mainly introduces feminism, feminism literary criticism, the development of black feminism and the oppression of black women in American society. The third part mainly is black feminism in Jazz. In this part the thesis will mainly discuss the characteristics of black feminism, and emphasize Morrison's viewpoint of black feminism in Jazz. From the perspective of black feminism, this thesis will analyze the traits of black women in Jazz and their oppression. At last, this thesis will point out the approach of getting rid of their dilemma and live a happy life.The fourth part summarizes the whole paper.