| Toni Morrison (1931-) is the first black woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in1993. She wins the highest literature praise in her novels, such as The Bluest Eyes (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Soloman (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1991), Paradise (1998), Love (2003) and A Mercy (2008).Beloved, Jazz and Paradise form a historical trilogy as a unity because three novels are linear in time, consistent in content and coherent in ultimate intention. Besides, as a vivid summary of last century’s black history, Morrison’s trilogy is unconventional because it not only deals with the issues of memory and trauma but also stresses the significance of love and communication. Based on a close reading of texts and the related criticisms, this thesis takes the concept of "identity-reconstruction" deriving from the notion of identity as a framework to study how African Americans reconstruct their historical, cultural and gendered identity. Besides, it aims to reveal the practical significance of black women’s quest for identity.This thesis consists of three chapters besides Introduction and Conclusion.The first part provides a brief introduction to Morrison and her historical trilogy, and then reviews some of the relevant studies about her novels. Besides, this part also makes an overview of the concept of "identity" and introduces the notion of "identity-reconstruction" adopted in this study and points out the necessity of African Americans’ identity-reconstruction by reviewing her nine novels in which the issue of identity is one of the important concerns.Chapter One deals with reconstruction of African Americans’ historical identity. This chapter firstly analyzes the basis of three novels and argues that Morrison is inspired by the history of slavery, racism, and sexism to create her trilogy. Then, by tracing back the blacks’ life experiences in three phases, it points out that Morrison’s trilogy is a century’s historical pictures of the blacks and reveals that they can reconstruct their historical identity by bravely facing up to their traumatic history. Chapter Two is devoted to explore reconstruction of African Americans’ cultural identity. It is the blacks’ double-consciousness that leads to their cultural identity crisis in which they lose themselves in bicultural conflicts. This chapter then discusses major exterior and interior causes for the crisis and points out that African Americans can reconstruct their cultural identity by identifying dual culture.Chapter Three focuses on reconstruction of African American females’ gendered identity. This chapter firstly interprets the essence of sisterhood as love’s salvation among sisters, and reveals the significance of sisterhood to black women. Then it explores the respective representation of sisterhood in Morrison’s trilogy and points out though black females are vulnerable under a threefold oppression, they can help and respect each other to reconstruct their self-identity in sisterhood.Based on the above analysis, this thesis attempts to draw the following conclusions. Firstly, Morrison’s trilogy puts the identity of African Americans into historical shadows of slavery and racial discrimination, revealing their historical traumas, intense self-respect and quest for identity. Secondly, her trilogy concerns about their spiritual dilemma and encourages them to make efforts for being both American citizens and native Africans. Last but not least, her trilogy represents black women’s traumatic life experience and encourages them to strive for self-development bravely although in such a white-dominant and male-dominant society, because their quest for self-identity brings freshness and vitality to all African Americans’ identity-reconstruction. |
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