A Study On The Power Relation In Sapphira And The Slave Girl

As one of the greatest novelists of the early 20th century, Willa Cather published her last novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl in 1940. The novel received hot discussion at its publication, but later met with its ups and downs together with Cather. However, the continuous and intense responses rising among critics and readers prove that it is of great significance to conduct a research on the novel. For instance, Susan J. Rosowski affirmed the significance of the novel in 1984 and analyzed the novel from the perspective of Gothic novel, which has provided reference for later researches. Later on, Toni Morrison’s masterpiece, Playing in the Dark, again pushed the novel to another climax of discussion. However, in comparison, relevant researches on the novel are said to be "almost blank" in China. Moreover, Cather sets the novel in her birth place, where she spent her first nine years. Sapphira and the Slave Girl sets in antebellum Virginia, telling that Sapphira, the dominating white mistress of the family, attempts to deprive the slave girl Nancy’s chastity by employing her nephew Martin, yet resulting in Nancy’s successful escape to Canada with the help of Rachel, Sapphira’s daughter. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is the only one of Cather’s novels that sets in her birth place. Cather’s memories and views relating to her birth place are for the first time revealed in front of the readers, thus providing materials for readers to know more about Willa Cather.By employing Foucault’s theory on power relation, this thesis attempts to reveal the power relation netted in the then society and analyze the power distribution among people. Sapphira, though being a woman, possesses the greatest power and occupies the dominating position in the household, regulating and managing others. The thesis reveals the increasingly unbalanced relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed as well as the power relation in behind; it also uncovers the interracial coalition between the black and the white in their resistance against the oppression; at the very end, the paper also pays attention to the old customs left by Sapphira’s age, symbolizing the subsequent influence of the power relation. The thesis shows not only the great power implying in the interracial coalition resistance facing oppression, but also Cather’s equal humanistic concern about the black and the white.Chapter One offers a brief review on the social influence and literary achievements of Willa Cather and it also provides a summary of Sapphira and the Slave Girl; it then presents the literature review of the novel home and abroad and the research task, method and structure of the thesis.Chapter Two to Four make up the main body of this thesis. Chapter Two makes an analysis of the establishment of the power relation; by focusing on the content and the background of the novel, it attempts to excavate the social and personal factors which lay a foundation for the power relation. Then, Chapter Three devotes its textual analysis to the maintenance of the power relation; as a product and promoter of the power relation, Sapphira manages and regulates her family members and slaves, attempting to maintain her dominating position in the power relation, which, in fact, helps to maintain and consolidate the power relation that support her. Finally, Chapter Four focuses its analysis on the collapse of the power relation. Nancy’s flight sublimes her personal resistance against Sapphira’s dominating power to a coalition resistance of both the black and the white against slavery, which greatly shakes the foundation of the power relation. Complying with the development of society, antislavery movement develops to its climax. The Civil War broke out and slavery was abolished, which indicates the collapse of the social foundation that supports the power relation, symbolizing the total failure of the power relation centering Sapphira.Chapter Five offers a conclusion. The thesis breaks in from a new angle of power relation, and finds the power relation buried under the surface of the society and the exploitation and resistance in interpersonal relations and the power relation. Such findings can be references and enlightenment in interpreting the power distribution in modern society.