In Search Of Black Women's Self: Toni Morrison And Her Sula

Toni Morrison being awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature makes her the first African American to be so honored and marks not only a personal triumph but also the recognition of the artistry of African American fiction and the validity of Black woman's voice. With her magic imagination and poetic language, Morrison not only delineates the cruelty of historical slavery and white American's continual denial of Black people, but also examines Black people with the pursuit of individual advancement in a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) nation and culture, and whether this is at the expense of their "blackness". In such way, she explores the future of modern Blacks.As a female Black writer, Morrison is preoccupied with love and sorrow, laughter and dreams, triumphs and failures, and inner conflicts of Black women faced with contradictions between two cultures. Much more, she probes the hardships and confusions when Black women pursue their selfhood within the confines of a sexist and racist society. In her novel Sula, Toni Morrison asserts an unprecedented black woman who resists traditional sociomoral constructs, and keeps her selfhood intact all along in life. However, Morrison also probes the causes of Sula's tragedy and suggests a new black womanhood with both Sula's freedom and Nel's rootedness in the community.The thesis consists of four parts. Part one is an introduction to Morrison's family and community background, her early experiences and its influence. The second part briefly analyzes Morrison's seven major novels and the theme, characterization, and style of her novels. The third part, the core part of the paper, comments on Morrison's controversial work Sula and displays how hard but crucial for a black woman to maintain her complete selfhood under the pressure of racism and sexism through the discussion about the relationships between Sula and Community, Sula and her maternal ancestors, Sula and her female friend Nel, Sula and men. The last part tries to suggest some more solutions for Black women's further search for selfhood, which, I hope, can provide some inspiration to Chinese women.