On Deformed Motherhood In Beloved

Toni Morrison's genius has been recognized all over the world. She has won many honors, including a National Book Critics'Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. As the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, the world's most prestigious literary award, Morrison has made immensurable contributions to contemporary literature.Morrison's best novel to date and one of the most significant literary achivements of the postwar period is Beloved, which, following its publication in 1987, has been widely reviewed and praised. Because of its richness in texture, this novel has inspired various interpretations. It is mainly concerned with the awful, lingering effects of slavery on black mothers. And motherhood, which is distorted by inhuman slavery, is its dominant theme.Many feminists regard motherhood as the locus of women's oppression, which is sharply different from African Americans'views on motherhood. Building upon black women's experiences of and perspectives on motherhood, Morrison has developed her own theory of motherhood. She defines motherhood as a site of power for black women and motherwork as the empowerment of children, which is radically different from the motherhood practised and defined in the dominant culture. She positions motherwork as a practice committed to meeting four specific tasks: preservation, nurturance, cultural bearing, and healing. However, Morrison confirms the importance of motherwork not through describing its realization but through its absence which results in deformed motherhood in her works.The deformed motherhood manifests itself in two aspects. One is abnormal maternal love and the other is unhealthy daughter-mother relationship. The deformed motherhood can be attributed to three factors: slavery, disruption of the motherline and community's exclusion. According to Morrison, a kind of healthy and normal motherhood can be established in four ways. The first is the development of sisterhood; the second is the empowerment of othermothers and community mothers. The third is strong ties between individuals and the community. The fourth is role of male counterpart.