An Interpretation Of Song Of Solomon From Post-colonial Persective

Toni Morrison, a prominent African-American female writer, a leading character ofAfrican literature in the20thcentury. Her representative work Song of Solomon lays asolid foundation for her significant position in American literature and also marks hermaturity in literature writing. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for her unique perspective,artful narrative strategies and humanistic thinking, concerning the issues ofAfrican--Americans’ self-identity and cultural identity construction in a white dominantsociety.Song of Solomon is Morrison’s representative novel which focuses on the issue ofcultural identity construction. The thesis takes the strenuous search for cultural identityof the Dead family in Song of Solomon as the main clue, connects the pursuit of identitywith their history in American society, reveals the marginalized Afro-Americans’confused and painful life in a white dominant society. Though the description ofMilkman’s self-identity and cultural identity construction, Morrison points out that thebasis for Afro-Americans’ survival in American society is preserving and passing downtheir own identity and cultural heritage. The source of Afro-American’s painful life notonly results from the white’s racial discrimination and segregation but also results fromthe black’s identity and cultural loss. However, in the process of advocating andcelebrating national culture, the Afro-Americans should not ignorant about the Americanreality in a multi-cultural background. The development of history has proved that theAfro-Americans are indispensable part of the American society, and the blacks shouldface the reality and combine the traditional African culture with modern American reality,to find an ideal way out for the black community.The thesis analyzes the issue of cultural identity construction in Song of Solomon byapplying the post-colonial theory, such as Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybrid culture, HallStuart’s theory of cultural identity, Said’s concept of “the other” and Fanon’s concept ofracism and identity to analyze one of the most important problems in post-colonialcriticism--the issue of cultural identity in Song of Solomon. The thesis demonstrates theprotagonist’s strenuous journey to seek for the lost family name and history andreconstruct cultural identity under the post-colonial background, emphasizing theimportance of original African culture to the Afro-Americans in present day. The thesis is made up of three parts. First, it is the introduction part, then thefollowing part is the main body and the conclusion of the thesis, the main concents are:The introduction part is an overview of the achievements of the author Morrison andher works, as well as the writing background. It states the foreign and domestic researchof the novel, and also presents the writing purpose and value of the thesis.The main body is composed of four chapters, which are presented as follows:Chapter I consists of two major parts: the first part deals mainly with literaturereview of Song of Solomon in domestic and foreign research, trying to show thesignificance and value of writing this thesis from the post-colonial perspective. Thesecond part is the framework of post-colonial theory, which illustrates respectively theorigin and development of the theory, the definition of post-colonial theory, majortheorists and their main perspectives such as Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybrid culture,Hall Stuart’s theory of cultural identity, Fanon’s concepts of racism and identity and alsoSaid’s concept of “the other”, in supporting the points stated in this thesis.Chapter II mainly discusses post-colonialism reflected in Song of Solomon. On theone hand, it illustrates the cultural conflicts between the white and black culture. Takinguse of its economic and political advantages, the white’s culture gradually takes thedominant position in American society, in contrast, the black’s traditional culture isassimilated by the white’s values, and the Afro-Americans become the community wholive between the narrow space of the two cultures. On the other hand, it illustrates theAfro-Americans’ identity crisis in the circumstance of white cultural hegemony. Underthe background of cultural colonialism, the white’s culture unconsciously controls andassimilates the black culture and disparages the black culture as foolish and backwardculture which results in the black’s cultural loss and identity crisis. Therefore, the blackcommunity represented by Milkman and Pilate set off their journey of preserving theAfrican culture and constructing cultural identity.Chapter III demonstrates Milkman’s strenuous journey of returning to the blackcommunity and constructing his communal identity. Milkman’s journey transforms fromsearching for gold to searching for roots. Under the guidance of Circe, he finds the lostfamily name and knows about his family history by decoding the song of solomon sungby the local children. In his hunting experiences with the local blacks, he undergoes a trial of death and totally melts himself into the black community and achievestranscendence.Chapter IV mainly discusses the black’s cultural identity construction and an idealway out for the Afro-Americans. Firstly, it illustrates the definition of culture and culturalidentity, which lays a solid foundation for further explore the issue of cultural identityconstruction in the novel. Secondly, it demonstrates the black’s loss of culture includesthe song of solomon sung by the local children and loss of culture reflected in names, andalso analyzes the intrinsic reason for black’s loss of culture. Finally, it emphasizes that itis of great significance to preserve and pass down the traditional African culture as wellas construct black’s cultural identity. The ideal way out for the Afro-Americans is culturehybridity--to combine the black’s culture with American reality, thus achievingimprovement and transcendence on the basis of regression.The conclusion summarizes the previous analysis, and presents the significance ofthe thesis, which explores the black’s process of cultural identity construction under thepost-colonial background. Though the analysis all above, it emphasizes the importance ofpreserving and passing down the traditional cultural heritage and points an ideal way outfor the Afro-Americans--Cultural Hybridity.