| Toni Morrison's, The Bluest Eye is a profoundly moving novel seemingly centered on one family in one community, but if analyzed through trauma theory the reader finds alarming truths not only about the characters but about society. This thesis examines the sjuzet and fabula distinction and the ways in which Toni Morrison's "broken narrative" is a dynamic example of traumatic survival. In addition, Morrison's use of multitextuality, multiple narrators and what Morrison terms as "indisputably black" language pushes against white norms to highlight the importance of black art and culture. When applied to trauma theory, one realizes, Morrison's disturbed and wounded characters not only tell the story of trauma, her intentional narrative structure and use of multiple narrators symbolically represent the repetitive, unconscious cycles of racism and the ways society perpetuates white ideologies deeply rooted in colonization. When we read The Bluest Eye as a novel about collective trauma, we become frighteningly aware that we are active members in this cyclical, societal ill. |
