Female Subjectivity Construction In Beloved From A Black Feminist Perspective

The Pulitzer Award winning novel Beloved is the representative work of black feminism and it is also one of the most important novels written by Toni Morrison. Since its publication in 1987, the novel has aroused a wide and intense research among scholars. Analyses carried out from the perspectives of new historicism, post colonialism, psychological analysis, feminism, post-modern realism, symbolism as well as deconstructionism contribute to the understanding of novel’s thematic meaning, characterization and overall structure. However, the number of researches under black feminist theoretical framework is relatively in sufficient and few articles relate the construction female subjectivity to black feminism.Under the theoretical framework of black feminism and on the basis of domestic and international research background, the present thesis carries out a comparatively comprehensive and systematic study on the novel Beloved in order to interpret how black women were victimized under the triple oppressions of slavery, racism and sexism, and to emphasize in what way they endeavored to construct female subjectivity as a result of their resistance consciousness, pointing out that the tribulations they went through triggered their anger and hatred and awakened their resistant awareness to win independence and selfhood as well as to realize female subjectivity, and highlighting that their consciousness from submission to oppression to the awakening of resistance consciousness presents black female’s spiritual elevation process.Unlike what some scholars have categorized black women’s awakening of resistant consciousness and construction of female subjectivity as "emotional farce of feminist ideology"(Crouch,1987:40), the present thesis finds out that Beloved argues Morrison’s stance as a black feminist and resonates with the principles and establishments of black feminism. Firstly, through describing the reality that black females were dehumanized as reproduction machine, victimized in maternal love and estranged from family intimacy, the novel reveals black women’s sufferings under the triple oppressions of slavery, racism and sexism and indicates the inextricability between sexual racial politics and black female identity. The misery and misfortune black women suffered ignited the anger and hatred in their hearts, which motivates and hardens their desire and determination to win them freedom, equality and to achieve female subjectivity. So, their oppression experiences turn out to be one necessary and indispensable part for awakening their resistance consciousness. Then, to liberate themselves from such triple oppressions, the black females exercise efforts in constructing female subjectivity. Therefore, by narrating black women’s struggle for selfhood, adherence to ethnic identity and dependence on sisterhood, the novel exemplifies black women’s various endeavors to construct female subjectivity and demonstrates that female subjectivity consciousness has already been developed and matured in black female’s minds. At the same time, it also reflects the originality and novelty of black female creation. In a word, the novel Beloved exhibits black female’s spiritual elevation process of constructing female subjectivity from submission to oppression to the awakening of resistant awareness, which justifies the deconstruction of stereotyped black women images and the construction of novel and positive ones in black feminist works. Thus, based on the above analysis, Beloved serves as a representation and demonstration of black women’s construction of female subjectivity examined from the perspective of black feminism.Based on the perspective of black feminism, the present thesis is significant in the fact that it enriches researches about black female’s subjectivity construction under the triple oppression of slavery, racism and sexism and offers a detailed understanding of black women’s life and spiritual status quo. Besides, this thesis contributes to studies about other ethnic minority female and the third world female’s identity and subjectivity construction in a white\male dominated society and in an Anglo-American centered value system. Moreover, this thesis provides a critical reference for the examination and appreciation of other black women’s literary works.