Power Relations In Song Of Solomon

Song of Solomon is Morrison’s third novel which won her National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Through the description of Macon Dead family’s life experiences, Morrison reveals African American’s real life during the period from slave emancipation to the sixtieth and seventieth in the twentieth century. Adhering to Morrison’s consistent style of postmodernism, this novel deduces power relation theme vividly. This thesis focuses on Foucault’s relevant theory to explore the space war, discipline discourse, and the otherness in Song of Solomon, so as to reveal the ideology pervasive in social reality. First, the space power oppression inflicted on free black man Jake by the dominant group and the spatial conflicts about Lincoln’s Heaven reveal the power mechanism behind the space war. Second, Macon, as the representative of patriarchal society, implements discipline power on his family member especially female ones by a series of disciplinary means and techniques, which leads to family member’s tragic fate as well as rebellion. Third, Pilate, as the representative of the other in the society and bearing various weird features, changes her self from self-denial in the beginning to self-caring in the end and establishes her identity. Throughout Song of Solomon, Jake’s space war, Macon’s discipline discourse and Pilate’s otherness all reveal the irrefutable truth that power is ubiquitous. Moreover, Morrison has woven her own life experience in the family history in Song of Solomon. Thus, the pervasive power mechanism is more vividly reflected in the reality as well as the fiction. In this sense, Morrison’s insight into the world is keen and sharp, and her postmodern view is worthy of further exploration.