The Reconstruction Of Black Female Images: A Black Feminist Approach To Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

As the first African-American female Nobel Prize winner, ToniMorrison has been yelling and fighting for the miserable position of theblack people, especially the black women. In the works of the white, theimages of black women are stereotypically obedient and faithful blackmammies, breeder women, lazy welfare recipients and lustful prostitutes.These negative images place black women in a disadvantageous positionboth in social and political life. This thesis, in a tentative way, aims toreconstruct those black female images in Morrison’s A Mercy from theperspective of Black Feminist Criticism through textual analysis of them.The analysis intends to focus on the reconstruction of the images ofblack women under different oppressions, namely, racism, sexism andclass oppression. The purpose of this study is to reveal the positive andsubversive side of black female images. Their images are considerablydifferent from those stereotyped ones portrayed by the white writers andthey audaciously search for physical and spiritual freedom, self-identity, love and independence. This study signifies Morrison’s constantthematic concern and provides readers with another angle to interprether ninth novel, A Mercy.