A Study Of Sula From The Perspective Of Space

In her second novel Sula, Toni Morrison, the acclaimed black woman novelist presents Sula, her protagonist, as a "rebel" who is not in line with any dominant traditions of Afro-American literature. Since Sula pursues nothing but the making of herself, the novel becomes such a beloved text for feminist reading which in fact, often leads to simplified even wrong interpretation. In fact, Sula’s struggling to define herself is not the final point of the book. Instead, it is portrayed as being epiphenomenal to the whole community’s struggle for survival, and it is the strength and continuity of the black neighborhood as a whole that is at stake and being tested. In order to find a way out of the mire of feminist readings and conduct a criticism "from the inside"(McKay152), this thesis focuses on Bottom which is admitted by the author as being "as strong as a character"(Stepo11).From the angle of "space", the body of my thesis is divided into three chapters, each focusing on one spatial subdivision of the community. In view of the fact that the novel begins with the demolishment of the Bottom as a physical space, Chapter One mainly deals with the implied message of the topographical space like the enclosed community and dwellings. It also addresses some related geographical issue like North and South, and mobility. As a piece of "village literature", what Morrison tries to explore in her codification of black experience in the Bottom is a writing of systematizing "village values". Chapter Two targets at the social space of the Bottom, in other words, the communal values including the nurturing ability, ancestral resonance, the bond with community, and typical black recognition of evilness. The neighborhood, according to Morrison, is in essence her "fabrication". By fictionizing its establishment, existence until extinguishment during a span of over40years, the author merges physical space into the living of the black people and demonstrates the variations and changes of that earthy realism. Chapter Three centers upon the textual space of the novel through analyzing the meanings and effects of the spatial narratives through which Morrison creates the community.