Black People's Survival Predicaments: A Study Of Spatial Narrative In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Toni Morrison(1931-2019),a famous African American writer,released 10 novels until 2019.She received a lot of awards,including the Nobel Prize in Literature,Pulitzer Prize for Literature,the US National Humanities Metal and so on.Based on spatial narrative theory,this thesis intends to explore the living predicaments of American black people in her famous novel Song of Solomon,and discusses how black people come back to their African tradition,realize the individual spiritual independence,find their sense of belonging and finally get rid of their survival predicaments.This whole thesis can be divided into three parts.The first part introduces the author Toni Morrison and her famous novel Song of Solomon,summarizes the researches on this novel at home and abroad,illustrates the origin and development of spatial criticism and states the thesis statement.The second part is the body of this thesis,which is composed of three chapters.Chapter One elaborates the alienation between black groups in the novel from the perspective of physical space and the reasons that lead to the estrangement of black people.Chapter Two interprets the psychological space of black people in a society dominated by the white culture.The Third Chapter focuses on social space,analyzing the conflict between white people and black people,the identity crisis of African Americans,and how black groups strive to return to African tradition and end up their rootlessness in the representational space of white people in American society.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.Taking the white culture and lifestyle as the orientation of values,abandoning black culture and being lost in the impact of the white culture will only bring chaos and confusion to black people.African traditional culture is a weapon against white spatial strategies,helping black people go out of theirsurvival predicament,but it should be combined with the black community.Only when African-Americans identify with black culture and history,and establish relationship with black communities,can they get out of the survival predicaments and become a true African-American with the cultural identity of black people.Morrison also pointed out the direction of the living predicaments of human beings:only by relying on their own national cultural traditions,and with the help of community,can individual find his own sense of belonging.