The Vicissitude Process Of Black American Cultural Identity In Roots

Situated in the worlds in-between, African Americans have suffered from thecultural conflicts and the racial discrimination that marginalized them as the other.Confused by this context, African Americans are eager to seek and construct a newidentity. Therefore, in such a multicultural society as in America, to construct andrelocate the cultural identity of a nation is a very important proposition that all theAfrican Americans have been exploring.To Alex Haley, the outstanding African American writer, identity is not fixedbut it is characterized by fluidity and hybridity. Roots demonstrates his effort at thecreative explorations on the issue of identity construction. It provides anenlightenment for contemporary American black people to find their national identity,and for all the African American to find an effective way to locate their culture. Basedon the post-colonial writer Homi Bhabha’s theory of cultural identity, hibridity and theThird Space, from the perspective of the difference and conflict, fusion and harmonyof black culture and white mainstream culture, the thesis here intends to explore theloss, alienation, alteration and fusion of cultural elements and Alex Haley’s culturalview reflected from the novel. This cultural view is to propose and pursue a culturalthird space. The culture existing in this space belongs neither to black’s nor toAmerican, but a new culture. It is the result of negotiation and infiltration of twocultures, which makes all African-Americans find effectice ways to reconstruct theircultural identity.The first part of the thesis is preface, and the second part is the body part. Firstly,in chapter one, the author introduces Homi Bhabha’s theories of cultural identity,hybridity and Third Space. In the second chapter, combining with Roots, the authorprobes into the hero of Roots, Kunta’s happy life in Africa and the process of theformation of his cultural identity. The third chapter probes into how Kunta graduallylost his cultural identity under slavery in America, the African traditional culture herepresents was oppressed and assimilated by white mainstream culture. In the fourthchapter, the author discusses the process of Kunta’s descendants alienated from theAfrican traditional culture, returning to it, and finally inheriting it, revealing theimportance of the disadvantaged cultural community transferring their own culture. The fifth chapter probes into the process of the seventh generation of Kunta’s family,Haley, converting from culture conflict to cultural fusion and harmony, thusreconstructing the third space, witnessing American black people relocating theircultural identity and realizing their dreams in America.