On The Features Of Neo-slave Narrative In Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

As an outstanding representative of African American literature, Toni Morrison consistently concerns herself with the history and the present of African Americans and fully presents this concern in her novels. A Mercy, her ninth novel, wins a great many popular acclaims after publication. In this novel Morrison takes readers back to the North American Continent in late 17th century. By telling a moving story that a black mother sells her own daughter in order to change her daughter’s fate, she reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery in early America.With a close reading of the text and exploration of the literary form-neo-slave narrative, the thesis attempts to analyze the features of neo-slave narrative manifested in A Mercy. Neo-slave narrative, a term based on the slave narrative before the Civil War, refers to the fictional works created by contemporary writers about slavery. Deriving from slave narrative, it has many features of its own, both in thematic concerns and form of expressions. In A Mercy, through reconsiderations in recurrent themes of this literary category and innovations in the forms of slave narrative, Morrison has aroused people’s attention to the destiny of African Americans and enforced readers to think about the connotation of freedom and bondage in contemporary America.The thesis is composed of four parts. Chapter One includes a general introduction to Toni Morrison and A Mercy, literature review of A Mercy at home and abroad, a brief introduction to neo-slave narrative and the framework of the thesis. Chapter Two gives an analysis to the thematic reconsiderations of slave narrative in A Mercy, including representation of the history of slavery, re-envisioning of male characteristics and reinterpretation of bondage. About the history of slavery, Morrison alters conventional perception of the identity of slaves and the relation between white people and black people. From her portrayals of several male characters, especially the depictions of a white slaveholder and a free black man, a totally new perception of male characteristics can be developed. The kind-hearted and merciful Jacob subverts stereotyped image of white slaveholders in slave narrative who are brutal and ruthless. And the independent and strong blacksmith changes the impression that black people leave on readers who are miserable and pitiful in slave narrative. What’s more, Morrison broadens and widens readers’ understanding of bondage by pointing out it can be a living condition for all human beings regardless of their race or sex. Chapter Three discusses the form innovations of slave narrative in the novel. The novel employs the writing techniques typical of neo-slave narrative like intertextuality, misleading narration and anachrony. Intertextuality can occur between a text and another and can also occur between a text and a social setting. A Mercy is intertextual with the historical background of late 17th century on North America as well as the political condition in contemporary America. Furthermore, it is intertextual in plot, theme and writing technique with Beloved. The use of misleading narration in A Mercy is exemplified in the three versions of the central plot "daughter-selling" given by three narrators. Anachrony means the instances when the chronological order of narration is reversed or broken. It can be divided into two types-analepsis and prolepsis. Analepsis refers to the order of narration in which something that happens in the past is reviewed while prolepsis, on the contrary, means the order of narration in which something that happens in the future is previewed. Many examples of these two can be found in the novel. Chapter Four is a conclusion of the whole paper.