The Construction Of The Black Woman's Subjectivity And Nationality In Toni Morrision's Novels

Since the late 1970's, the literary critical filed has paid a great deal of attention to Toni Morrison and her works. Various books and essays with kinds of critical theories and ways are constantly emerging. According to Chen Fachun, until now the western studies of Toni Morrison, especially in the U. K. and the U. S. A., focus on six questions. The Morrison's studies in our country began in early 1990's, even after she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. There are some essays that analyze her novels with kinds of critical theories. However, the studies are not as systematical and deep as the western studies of Toni Morrison. Moreover, the thoughts of the black feminism shown in her texts don't catch the critic's attention. The thesis mainly concerns the black women in Morrison's works, further analyzes the losing and constructing process of the black woman's subjectivity, and the subjectivity construction of women as a group, and expounds the consistent theme in Morrison's works that is to probe the interactive function of constructing the black woman's subjectivity and awakening the black's nationality, using the black feminist and post-colonial literary criticism. The thesis not only promotes the studies of African-American black feminist literature and also offers references to the struggles against colonialism and hegemony for the Third World and our country from the de-marginalization process of the black people, especially the black women.