A Lacanian Reading Of The Black Women’s Fate In Sula

Toni Morrison, as the first black woman who won the Nobel Prize for literature, isone of the greatest novelists in America in the20thcentury. Her novels usually concernwith the struggle and fate of African Americans, especially the difficult situation and fateof the black women. The novel Sula describes vividly the fate and rebellion of blackwomen against the triple oppression of racism, sexism and classism. In this novel,Morrison subverts the literary stereotypes of black women and creates her femalecharacters as the women who are full of intelligence, energy and rebellious spirit ready tosearch and explore their own world.Lacan believes that the mirror stage is more than a moment of the infant; instead itexists in the whole process of one’s growth. And the “mirror” not only refers to the realthings, but also the way how the others think about you and your self-recognition. Basedon this point, this thesis analyzes the difficult situation of the blacks under “the whitemirror” and the imprisonment of the black women under the “mirror of the patriarchalsystem”. Then, this thesis based on closed reading and qualitative analysis mainly displaysthe self-construction process of the main female characters in this novel. Eva, what shehas constructed is a distorted selfhood under the suppression of the man-dominated society.Nel loses her selfhood gradually in marriage. Different from them, Sula insists on findingout a new self independently, discarding all of the conventions of the community.However, No matter the distorted self of Eva constructed in imaginary, or the repressedself of Nel imprisoned by the patriarchal society, as well as the independent self of Sulaconstructed by discarding all of the black traditions, all of these are a kind ofmisidentification under different “mirrors”, thus leading to their tragic fates. At the end ofthe thesis, it points out that in spite of the failure of the black characters’ self-searching,their strong will and unyielding spirit would encourage the black women who are stillrebelling and fighting, inspiring their persevering self-searching in the harsh situation.Therefore, this thesis starting from Lacan’s basic theory of self-formation, on thebasis of the display of the sufferings and oppression existed in black women’s self-searching, analyzes the difficult self-construction of black characters and their fates inSula under the triple oppression of racism, classism and sexism. In a word, this thesisexpects to provide a new approach for the black women’s self-searching through aLacanian reading of the plight and fate of the black women. Only by choosing a way ofcombining the reservation of black traditions and the absorption of American culture, theblack women can realize their dream of self-recognition.