The Study Of Toni Morrison’s Novels In The Dimension Of Western Body Theories

Toni Morrison, the first black woman who wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her novels have always been favored by literary critics. With a close reading of her novels, you will find a wide variety of body images in her own way. In recent years, the word "body" has become a popular word in cultural critics, so Michel Foucault’s theory of body and Helene Cixous’s theory of female body will be my theory basis. Her seven novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz and Heaven will be the main research objects. Body narrative in Morrison’s novels will be the clue to this paper. My paper will explore the racial and gender problems, examine the "body" as a cultural symbol of the racial oppression and gender discrimination and disclose the profound metaphor meanings of body in Morrison’s novel.The paper includes four chapters.Chapter1constructs the physical theories. Firstly, My paper will analyse the flux of body in Western culture.Then it will elaberate body therory in the dimentions of racism and feminism.Chapter2combines Toni Morrison’s novels and explores bodies’ tangible trauma under the power of racism and sexism. The types of tangible harmness to the bodies include the Black people’s bodies whipped by White slaveholders, the female bodies destroied by Black men, the children’s bodies devastated by women in the shadow of racial oppression and gender discrimination.Chapter3further uncovers the mystery of the "body" in Morrison’s novels, explores the invisible discipline and stare on the "body" under the power of racial and gender oppression, including the poisonous body standards created by the whites; The Blacks’ accept of the body standards and the imprisonment mechanism of Black male culture on female bodies.Chapter4attempts to explore the characters in the novel who try to revolt race and gender hierarchies with their bodies, and try to transcend race, gender oppression.The conclusion part tell us that no matter how strongly Morrison opposes racial oppression and gender discrimination, she, in fact, does not want to see the final split between race and gender, and eagerly looks forward to fulfilling the dream in which the Blacks and Whites can be fused together on the basis of mutual equality, so do male and female.