Black Women's Self-Definition In Beloved

Morrison, an Afro-American woman writer, is a representative of black feminists. 1993, Morrison was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the first black women writer winning the prize. This thesis tries to explore Morrison's writerly self-definition and her black women characters'self-definition in Morrison's fifth novel, Beloved by analyzing the novel with black feminism.In white-dominant patriarchal society, the White create and define black women as different images, ranging from black mammy, breeder, matriarch, welfare mother to jezebel in order to control black women in a designated and subordinate position, and justify their oppressions on black women. Self-definition is a process of black women's resisting against the controlling images and a process or power to promote black women's self-consciousness, self-evaluation. Black women intellectuals are central in black feminism and shoulder the task to enhance black women's self-consciousness and self-definition and thereby to empower black women.In the novel, Beloved, by description of the plight of black people, the disclose of inconsolable psychological trauma in black women's heart caused by slavery and her black style in the novel -- restoring the power of the language of black people, black music, folklore, African religious tradition, oral tradition, etc. Morrison accomplishes her self-definition as a black woman writer, and fulfills her task by creating different black women in the novel. The black women characters fulfill their self-definition too. Suggs self-defines as human, insisting on that she has a husband, they mate physically and spiritually instead of the mating in the White's eyes. She insists on her right of renaming, which is helpful to wake a person's subjectivity. Sethe self-defines freedom and her human characteristics by escaping from slavery. And she self-defines motherhood and maternal love. Because of the love, she survives all the pain on the journey to freedom; because of the love, she killed her two-year-old daughter. Beloved, on one hand, self-defines as a little girl with strong desire for the right to love and to be loved, therefore refuting the White's assumption of black people's natal isolation. On the other hand, Beloved self-defines as a survivor or dead person in slave ship, she comes to reveal the veiled truth, speaks out the unspeakable and unspoken things. Denver's self-definition can be figured out in comparison with her grandmother, mother and her sister as well. She is not as passive as her grandmother, nor as radical as her mother in the struggle against whites; she is not as selfish and self-centered as her sister. Denver is self-loved, self-respected and accountable to others. Denver rebuilds the connection between the house 124 and the black community. In the context of community, Denver's self-definition becomes more meaningful.Black woman's self-definition is essential to black women's situation. Self-definition is black people's self-change, it is helpful to empower black people. In Beloved, through the process of her own and her black women characters'self-definitions, Morrison encourages and inspires all black women and similar suppressed groups to fight for true equality and freedom.