The Dialogical Construction Of Subjectivity

Toni Morrison is one of the most celebrated contemporary novelists in America. Her works, due to its authentic and vivid description of African American experiences and poetic and powerful diction, have exerted great impact on American and world literature. Her novel Beloved has kept winning the critical acclaim and scholarly attention. Critics have employed different approaches of modern literary theory, such as feminism and psychoanalysis, to interpret the novel and have come out with a variety of enlightening understandings.This thesis is intended to explore the major characters' construction of subjectivity in the novel and Morrison's perspectives on how African Americans construct their subjectivity in contemporary American society. I will employ Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, especially the dialogical construction of subjectivity and the dialogical nature of language and culture, to approach these two aspects. Major characters in the novel such as Sethe, Paul D and Denver are trying to find their selfhood. Their selfhood is discovered and developed by the dialogues with the white, with each other and with the uncanny figure, Beloved. By writing Beloved Morrison presents her view that dialogue is probably a strategy for African Americans to construct their subjectivity in the white-dominated society. She encourages the black to have dialogues with the white so that they can understand their marginalized "other" position, repudiate their notion of being inferior, create a friendly atmosphere to the black, and demonstrate their black traditions and values. Dialogues should also be conducted within the black community. The black subjectivity cannot be constructed until they have a full understanding of their history and culture which members of their community share.