The Black Women Images:An Analysis Of This Child Will Be Great From The Perspective Of Black Feminism

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the former woman president of Liberia,also the first elected president of African continent.She is the Nobel Peace Prize winner,also the mother of four children,and she is called the "African Iron Lady" and "Ellen mom" meanwhile.This Child Will Be Great is Sirleaf's autobiography which records her true experience and creates a series of distinctive black women's images.Through in-depth analysis of these black women images,readers can deepen the understanding of contemporary African black women and minority women's literature.This thesis,guided by the theory of black feminism,probes into the images of black women in This Child Will Be Great,and focuses on the description of Liberian black women's hardship of seeking self liberation under the dual oppression of the patriarchal society and civil war from the perspective of identity and women consciousness.Based on this,the main part of this thesis analyzes the identity of black women represented by Martha and Sirleaf,and presents their identity dilemma and identity choice both under the complex social environment of Liberia(especially the ward system)and the oppression of sex and class.This thesis also refers to the awakening of women's awareness and their resistance among Sirleaf,the outstanding black women representatives and the black women groups of Liberia in patriarchal society,in order to reveal black women's realization of self-pursuit and the construction of women subjectivity in difficult situation,as well as to eulogize black women's close sisterhood and their large-scale women movement to realize national peace.Finally,this thesis reconstructs new images by explaining the characteristics of black women in This Child Will Be Great from two dimensions,namely,the harmonious black women and the self-actualized black women,describes their devotion to achieve harmonious coexistence with black men and black settler class,and stick to their black traditional culture.For black women themselves,this thesis expounds their pursuit of freedom,equality and happiness,and praises all the efforts made by them in the process of realizing women's self liberation.Women's autobiographical writing provides a platform to maintain women particularity and construct women images.Therefore,this study shows that the use of black feminism to study black women images in Sirleaf s documentary autobiography This Child Will Be Great provides a new perspective for the present research of black women,and enriches the study of African black women under the oppression of sex and class.At the same time,the study of Sirleaf\s autobiography enhances Chinese readers' understanding of the life and spirit of African black women,as well as has a important practical significance for further understanding of Liberian social culture and promoting Sino African cultural exchanges.