Interpretation And Analysis Of The Repetition Phenomenon In Toni Morrison's Tar Baby

Morrison’s works reveal the black history,race,gender,class and other issues in every respect.Her literary creation characteristics are the grand historical picture,delicate writing,energetic language and rich creative technique.Her fourth novel Tar Baby was published in 1981.Ms.Morrison,who has been deeply infiltrated by black traditional culture since childhood,transplantes the African fable into the novel.Seemingly,the text depicts a black man and woman’s love story in the 70 s of last century,but in essence,it reveals how the black culture develops in modern society.J.Hillis Miller,a famous contemporary American literary critic,put forward the theory of repetition in 1982.Based on his theory,this thesis intends to interpret and analyze these repetitions through close reading of the text.According to Miller’s view,repetitions in this novel are divided into three categories: small-scale repetitions,including words and images;large-scale repetitions,namely event and scene and overlapped plot compared with other works.Miller also classifies repetitions into two modes: the Platonic repetition and the Nietzschean repetition.The former emphasizes similarity,and the latter stresses discrepancy.After interpretation,the textual significances can be fully elaborated.While thinking highly of the black traditional culture and criticizing its backwardness,Tony Morrison explores the collision and the future of the two cultures persistently with the application of Miller’s theory of repetition.