Gothic Interpretation Of Toni Morrison’s Novels

Toni Morrison, as the first and the only Nobel Prize winner among African Americannovelists until now, has a significant influence upon the literary world. An AfricanAmerican female writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in1993, she was considered as oneof the most outstanding novelists all over the world. Her novels mainly deal with theculture of the blacks. They are always concerned with African-American’s survivaland the way out for them. Toni Morrison has published nine novels since her firstnovel The Bluest Eye published in1970. All her novels deal with the themes of theblacks’ survival and struggle, mainly concerning political, ethical, social and genderprejudice problems.The themes and the characters of Morrison’s novels have drawn great attention frommany scholars home and abroad. However, they seldom attach importance to theGothic elements of her novels. It is true that Toni Morrison applied Gothic elementsto her novels. This paper mainly deals with the Gothic interpretation of ToniMorrison’s novels, so as to provide a new perspective of understanding for thereaders and researchers. The research starts with the introduction of Toni Morrison,her works involved, the problems to be solved and the significance of the research.Then the paper focuses on domestic studies and researches abroad, followed by thetheoretical framework and methodology. And then it concentrates on the application and effects of Gothic elements in the following aspects of her novels: setting,characterization and plot. Many examples are given and analyzed in details. Finally,the author concludes the whole paper and points out the limitations of the research.The study interprets Toni Morrison’s novels in a relatively new perspective–Gothicanalysis. Through the analysis of these Gothic elements, the author hopes that it canprovide a new field of vision on the understanding of the spirit of black people, theirculture and tradition, their struggle and effort, their survival situation, and thedestructive effects and the essence of slavery.