On Space And Identity In Toni Morrison's A Mercy

A Mercy is Toni Morrison's ninth novel published in 2008.What distinguishes this novel from her previous ones is that in this novel Morrison concentrates her attention on people of different races rather than mere blacks.She shows those ethnic females' miserable experience in the early colonial period of America and portrays their struggle against oppression to seek a sense of belonging and security.In A Mercy,all the characters are involved in the production and reproduction of space.The slaveholders,Jacob and Rebekka,construct the power relations in Jacob's house.Jacob's “home” in essence is an unhomely home.The colored females suffer from oppression and loss of subjectivity in this white-dominated space.After taking rebellious spatial practices,the females successfully reconstruct their identities.Based on Henry Lefebvre's Spatial Triad Theory,this thesis aims to explore how the ruling group,Jacob and Rebekka,conceive the representation of space fraught with white/non-white,upper/lower and male/female binary opposition to dehumanize and objectify the dominated group,Florens,Lina and Sorrow,so as to restrain their representational space as well as discipline their spatial practices and how the dominated females employ rebellious spatial practices to fight against the oppression to reconstruct their identities.By analyzing the spatial politics in the novel,this thesis intends to convey the idea that claiming the ownership of space is a way to achieve self-definition.Space,a tool of thought and action,a means of power and dominance,is not only the tool of the ruling groups but also the media by which the dominated groups can make resistance to oppression.