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在种族歧视和性别歧视的双重压迫下，黑人女性的寻找自我之路虽然漫长，但只要她们坚持抗争，根植于黑人传统文化之中，就一定能找到真正完整的自我。
关键词：托尼•莫里森 《宠儿》 黑人女性 黑人女性主义
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1 Introduction 1
2 Feminism in Beloved 4
2.1 The Contents of Feminism 4
2.2 History of Feminism 4
3 Embodiment of Feminism in Beloved 6
3.1 Reflection of Feminism in Beloved 6
3.2 Influence of Feminism in the Whole American Society 7
3.3 Toni Morrison’s Challenge to Feminism 8
4 Conclusion 10
Bibliography 13
1 Introduction
Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is a towering figure in the contemporary American and African-American letters and has drawn a lot of attention from the mainstream critics at home and abroad. Her fifth novel, Beloved, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is considered by many to be her best work. Ever since its publication in 1987, Beloved has aroused many critics’ great interests and it has been regarded as “a milestone in American literary history.” Due to Toni Morrison’s black and woman identity, the novel Beloved is deeply rooted in Afro-American culture and black women’s special experiences and feelings. Morrison engages herself in breaking the stereotypes of black female characters depicted in most of literary canon, moulds a range of vivid new images of black women, exhibits the conflict in their minds with the stress of racism and sexism, and actively establishes black women’s subjectivity. Yet, black woman is not Morrison’s only concern, she also gives admirable portrayals of black men and explores the relationship between black men and black women in her novels. Her fiction Beloved becomes the manifesto of black feminist criticism. Based on text analysis, this thesis aims at exploring and restoring Toni Morrison’s real writing intention, leitmotiv and the value of her literary creation in the light of black feminist criticism. The thesis consists of four chapters besides Introduction and Conclusion. The Introduction is a brief assessment of Toni Morrison and her novel Beloved, a survey of various criticisms on Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a general introduction to black feminist criticism and the aim of this thesis. Up to now, there are lots of articles and essays that explore Morrison’s Beloved. The critics have made fruitful research on almost every facet of the novel, including the controversial theme, the poetic and characteristic language, the quite different and well depicted characters, the plentiful and significant symbols and the unique narrative devices.
In Beloved, Morrison demonstrates the extent to which inpiduals need the support of their black community, the minorities and the enlightened Whites in order to survive. Since inpidual protest is too weak to protest themselves, they should unite all the people even including the whites as many as possible. Therefore, unity is the only way with which African American people can survive. The conclusion concludes that to interpret Beloved in the light of black feminist criticism is advantageous to explore and restore Toni Morrison’s real writing purpose, leitmotive and value of her creation. By selecting the true material of bloody slave story, the real intention of Morrison’s writing is not to frighten the readers, but to confront, reconstruct, and recover the past traumatic events and find a way out. Morrison has the strong ethnic consciousness. She strives for the improvement of African-American material life and social status. Meanwhile she has her eyes on her people’s future. In doing so, Morrison wants to prove that the Blacks are a people full of hopes. Since the future is inextricably tied to the past, she hopes that black people could combine the present with the past to rethink about the origin of today’s misery and find out something that enlightens their present and future. The way out suggested by Morrison is not only instrumental to the survival of African-Americans in a white-dominated culture, but may provide some hints to the survival of other marginalized. Morrison’s focus is not only her black people and she has a huge horizon for the whole human beings. The novel Beloved is not only serving for her black people, but also belongs to all the races. Therefore, the effect and value of the novel is far-reaching.