A Study of the Novel Beloved from the Perspective of Space Narrative毕业论文

 2021-04-02 11:04

摘 要

在美国文学史上,托尼•莫里森是位有着强烈社会责任感,关注黑人命运的黑人女作家。《宠儿》是她的一部长篇小说,主要讲述了黑奴赛斯逃亡中扼杀幼女,女婴还魂复仇的故事。小说带有一定的神秘色彩,涉及到三个不同的黑人女性形象,贝比·萨格斯,赛斯和丹芙。面对奴隶制,她们各自有着不同的态度。小说中通过不同空间的转换,展现了人物的性格和命运。本文将利用相关空间理论,从空间叙事的视角来解读《宠儿》的写作技巧,探究小说中的地理空间,社会空间,心理空间和文本空间表现主题的效果,揭露在美国种植园奴隶制下,黑人悲惨的生活经历以及他们所遭受的身体和心灵的双重折磨。通过分析,读者能对小说有一个较为全面深入的了解,更好地理解小说人物的悲剧命运以及欣赏莫里森的写作技巧。

关键词:托尼·莫里森;《宠儿》;空间叙事

Contents

  1. Introduction 1
  2. Demonstration… 2
    1. Brief introduction to space narrative theory 2
    2. Geographical space narrative in Beloved… 3
      1. The 124 house 3
      2. The sweet home plantation… 4
      3. The clearing 5
    3. Social space narrative in Beloved 5
      1. Slavery plantation in the United States… 5
      2. The living conditions of the black… 6
    4. Psychological space narrative in Beloved 7
      1. Twisted maternal love of Sethe… 7
      2. Psychological transformation of Denver… 7
    5. Textual space narrative in Beloved… 8
      1. Repetitive imagery 8
        1. Trees 8
        2. The color red… 8
        3. The tin tobacco box 9
      2. Different narrative perspectives 9
        1. Zero focalization 9
        2. Internal focalization 10
        3. External focalization 10
  3. Conclusion… 11

Works Cited 13

Bibliography 14

A Study of the Novel Beloved from the Perspective of Space Narrative

Introduction

Toni Morrison(1931-), one of the most eminent novelists in the world, is the only African-American woman writer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is devoted to preserving and promoting the black culture. Her novels mostly focus on the exploration of black‟s cultural survival and cultural identity in the white-dominated society. Some of her excellent works are The Bluest Eye(1970), Sula(1974), Song of Solomon(1977), and Tar Baby(1981).

Beloved is one of the representative novels about the black women‟s fight against racism and sexism. It is set in a small town in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. By virtue of a revived young black woman and a black mother suffering mentally, it shows huge spiritual crisis left by slavery to African Americans. In this novel, the three black women —Baby Suggs, Sethe, and Denver, all have their own characteristics. Baby Suggs, a typical black woman, loses her children due to the slavery. And Sethe‟s

maternal love is so thick that she kills her baby daughter Beloved just in order to rescue her from the torture of being a slave. While Denver, Sethe‟s another daughter, stands up to the past and becomes an independent woman. She represents hope and brightness. All of this reveals the great spiritual trauma suffered by the black people under the cruel plantation slavery.

Up to now, Beloved has received wide critical attentions and lots of critics have made fruitful research on it from many perspectives including its rich themes, well depicted characters, unique narrative devices and so on. Agnieszka Lobodziec analyzes this novel from the perspective of magic realism. Carolyn M. Jones explores the parallelism of the myth of Cain in Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Rebecca Stone traces the theme of breastfeeding in Beloved and concludes that “Breastfeeding therefore comes to be viewed as a potential site of unconscious repetition but also as a potential site of creative and new experience for the mother as well as for the baby”(308).

While domestic studies on Beloved are as follows: Li Zhihong, analyzing the maternal love in Beloved, views that “Mother‟s body is a source of power, creativity and language. However, this kind of power is sometimes fearful and destructive”(49). Qiao Shiya analyzes the triple identities of Beloved in this novel which are reincarnation of Sethe‟s dead daughter, representation of any common black and anyone in God‟s love. Teng Jinqiu reveals Morrison‟s real intention of writing in the light of black women feminism that “…not to frighten the readers, but to confront, reconstruct, and recover the past traumatic events and find a way out” (64).

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