（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）托妮·莫里森《所罗门之歌》的母爱主题研究.pdf

摘 要 摘 要 美国当代著名黑人女作家托妮 莫里森是迄今为止美国文学史上唯一一位获 得诺贝尔文学奖的黑人女性。她在小说创作和文学评论上取得的巨大成就深刻地 影响着美国乃至整个世界文坛。 莫里森的小说始终以探索和表现美国黑人的历史、命运和精神世界为主题。 在莫里森的小说中，黑人妇女问题与母爱主题一直是莫里森关注的中心。有关莫 里森小说母爱主题的研究多关注宠儿 ， 秀拉等以女性为主人公的作品。本 文关注的是莫里森的第三部作品所罗门之歌 ，迄今为止莫里森唯一一部关于男 性成长的小说。在细读文本的基础上，本文主要从黑人女性主义研究的视角结合 主人公的成长经历，对小说中反映出的种族与性别双重压迫下的黑人母亲的“失 落的母爱”与“承载文化的母爱”进行详细的分析与解读，并试图探索这两种母 爱产生的原因，以及对个人，子女及黑人文化所产生的影响。 论文首先从母爱对莫里森本人成长经历及创作主题的影响出发，研究黑人女 性主义及莫里森的黑人女性主义理论，重点研究莫里森对“母性”的理解。其次 分析主人公生身之母，露丝的“失落的母爱”的成因与表现，以及这种母爱对黑 人子女成长的影响。然后与露丝对比，分析主人公精神之母，姑姑派特拉的“承 载文化的母爱”的成因与表现，以及对主人公成长的影响。最后的结论认为，尽 管所罗门之歌是一部以男性为主人公的作品，莫里森关于母性的黑人女性主 义思想及小说创作的母爱主题在这部作品中仍得到了淋漓尽致的表现：传承民族 文化的黑人母爱是非裔美国人的传家宝和民族凝聚力的原因所在，使非裔美国人 在种族压迫和白人主流文化的冲击下得以延续，也正是这种承载历史与文化的母 爱使新一代美国黑人拥有了真正的自我身份和民族文化意识。 关键词： 所罗门之歌 ，黑人女性主义，文化承载，母爱 abstract a study of maternal love in toni morrisons song of solomon zhao jia as the first african american female writer to win the nobel prize in literature, toni morrison ranks among the most highly regarded and widely read fiction writers and cultural critics in the history of u.s. literature and exerts vibrating influence upon the literary world. all the novels composed by toni morrison are dedicated to the exploration and depiction of the african americans history，destiny and spiritual world. as an african american female writer, morrison has the capacity of revealing black women s inner world and disclosing their difficult circumstances oppressed by racial and sexual discrimination. most protagonists in her fiction are female, and more than half of them are mothers. black women and their maternal love are the major concern and the most important themes in morrisons fiction. this paper intends to concentrate on morrisons third novel song of solomon, which is unique and different from others in its use of a male central character. based on close textual analysis and mainly from a perspective of black feminism combined with the growth of the protagonist, this paper endeavors to probe into black mothers lost maternal love and culture-bearing maternal love under oppressions of racism and sexism. it tentatively explores how and why these two maternal love get formed, and disempowerment and empowerment that they generate on their lives, the childrens growth and even the whole race. from discussing how morrisons family and maternal love she received empower her growth and influence her composition and themes in her fictions, this paper first probes into black feminism and toni morrisons feminist thought. emphasis is put on her feminist thought on motherhood. then this paper analyzes how and why the lost maternal love of ruth, milkmans biological mother, gets formed and the disempowerment it has generated on her life, especially her childrens growth. compared and contrasted with ruth, this paper then discusses how and why the culture-bearing maternal love of pilate, milkmans spiritual mother, gets formed and the empowerment it has generated on her life, especially milkmans growth. in the end the paper concludes that although the protagonist of song of solomon is a black man, this novel did embody he theme of maternal love and morrisons feminist thought on motherhood like others: it is the culture-bearing maternal love that empowers the african americans to survive against racial oppression and the patriarchal white culture, and nurture the new generation to achieve not only a strong authentic self-identity but also an ethnic cultural consciousness. key word: song of solomon, black feminism, culture-bearing, maternal love 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。 除文中已经注明引用的内容外， 本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本文所涉及的研究工作做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文 中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律责任由本人承 担。 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。 除文中已经注明引用的内容外， 本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本文所涉及的研究工作做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文 中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律责任由本人承 担。 特此声明特此声明 学位论文作者签名：学位论文作者签名： 年年 月月 日日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本人完全了解对外经济贸易大学关于收集、保存、使用学位 论文的规定，同意如下各项内容：按照学校要求提交学位论文的 印刷本和电子版本；学校有权保存学位论文的印刷本和电子版， 并采用影印、缩印、扫描、数字化或其它手段保存论文；学校有 权提供目录检索以及提供本学位论文全文或部分的阅览服务；学 校有权按照有关规定向国家有关部门或者机构送交论文；在以不 以赢利为目的的前提下，学校可以适当复制论文的部分或全部内 容用于学术活动。保密的学位论文在解密后遵守此规定。 本人完全了解对外经济贸易大学关于收集、保存、使用学位 论文的规定，同意如下各项内容：按照学校要求提交学位论文的 印刷本和电子版本；学校有权保存学位论文的印刷本和电子版， 并采用影印、缩印、扫描、数字化或其它手段保存论文；学校有 权提供目录检索以及提供本学位论文全文或部分的阅览服务；学 校有权按照有关规定向国家有关部门或者机构送交论文；在以不 以赢利为目的的前提下，学校可以适当复制论文的部分或全部内 容用于学术活动。保密的学位论文在解密后遵守此规定。 学位论文作者签名：学位论文作者签名： 年年 月月 日日 导师签名：导师签名： 年年 月月 日日 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 toni morrison as a black woman writer toni morrison (1931- ) is a nobel prize and pulitzer prize-winning american author, editor, and professor. her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters.1 as the first african american female writer to win the nobel prize in literature, toni morrison “ranks among the most highly regarded and widely read fiction writers and cultural critics in the history of u.s. literature” (smith 2) and exerted vibrating influence upon the literary world. she is a member of the american academy institute of arts and letters and a presidential appointee to the national council on the arts. she now sits in the chairs of mainstream american literary organizations and is often the principal speaker at major literary conferences. it can be said that morrisons popularity and quality are commensurate. this is evidenced by the succession of rewards and honors she has won during the years. among her best known novels are the bluest eye, song of solomon and beloved. the nobel prize in literature 1993 was awarded to toni morrison “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of american reality”.2 what i focus in this paper is morrisons third novel, song of solomon, which won the national critics circle award and the letters award in 1978. selected as one of the best 100 books by newsweek, it is popular with both critics and readers; even u.s. president barack obama regards it as his favorite. morrisons fiction does not fit well into a single category. it blends themes of race and class, coming-of-age stories, and mythical and realistic genres. morrisons achievement in fiction and literary criticism has created much space for black and feminist texts, challenging the overwhelmingly male makeup of the african american 1 “toni morrison”. e. 20 aug 2010 /wiki/toni_morrison 2 “the nobel prize in literature 1993”. n. 20 aug 2010 /nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/ 2 literary canon. from her first novel the bluest eye (1970) to the last one a mercy (2008), all of her novels have aroused critical attention immediately after their publication. her novels have inspired a large quantity of reviews, essays and book-length studies on various subjects with different critical methodologies. all the novels composed by toni morrison are dedicated to the exploration and depiction of the african americans history，destiny and spiritual world. as an african american female writer, morrison has the capacity of revealing black women s inner worlds and disclosing their difficult circumstances oppressed by racial and sexual discrimination. “as a black and a woman, i have access to a range of emotions and perceptions that were unavailable to people who were neither” (caldwell 243). “i write for black women” (46), she said to sandi russell in a 1988 interview. most protagonists in her fiction are female, and more than half of them are mothers. black women and their maternal love are the major concern and the most important themes in morrisons fiction. the loss and distortion of maternal love play across time in all her novels. according to morrisons black feminist thought，the culture-bearing maternal love at the core of her ideal of black motherhood is an ancient property and the funk of the african americans. it is the key element that guarantees the establishment of african americans complete and sound subjectivity and ensures the reconstruction of their ethnic consciousness. the african american descendants quest for maternal love is not only a way to know their mothers past and reach an understanding, but also a search of self-identity and the way to carry on the african american cultural heritage. 1.2 literature review of song of solomon among all morrisons novels, song of solomon is unique and different from others “in its use of a male central character” (oreilly 94). it is the only one whose protagonist is a black man named milkman. but it did consist of the theme of maternal love like other novels. from milkmans growth experiences, we can see that actually he has two mothers: biological mother, ruth and spiritual mother, his aunt pilate. the loss and distortion of maternal love makes him a “milkman” and the culture-bearing maternal love makes him a real man. song of solomon is morrisons third novel and one of her most commercially successful. published in 1977, the novel tentatively titled milkman dead was condensed in redbook. it was later chosen as a main selection of the book-of-the-month club, which had not selected a novel written by a black author 3 since richard wrights native son in 1940. the same month in which it was published by knopf, song of solomon was sold to new american library, a paperback publisher, for an estimated $115,000 and quickly became a bestseller. well over half a million copies are now in print, and translation rights have been sold in more than ten countries. the novel won fiction awards from the national book critics circle and the american academy and institute of letters. it also won the national book award for best novel and made the front page of the new york times book review. since morrison is known primarily for her writings that portray the challenges of growing up black and female in a white, male-dominated culture, the phenomenal success of song of solomon, which features a black male protagonist, is especially remarkable. throughout the 1980s, song of solomon frequently featured prominently in critical studies of african american literature. its popularity at that time was due, at least in part, to the ways that it addressed some of the prevailing concerns of that period of african american literary study: the critique of american individualism and northern migration, the apparent celebration of folk and oral culture, and the reclamation of african american history. over time, one mark of the greatness of the novel has been its ability to respond to changes in critical concerns and preoccupations as they have evolved. critics of african american literature in china and abroad have become increasingly engaged with such topics as construction of gender and of black folk practices in narrative and the usefulness of poststructuralist theories for interpreting black texts. in recent years, some prefer to study on the topics as the growth of the protagonist, magic realism, flight, abandoned women, the alienating effects of racism, biblical allusions, names, singing, etc. as i mentioned before, black women and their maternal love are the major concerns and the most important themes in morrisons fiction. after a general survey of the criticism on morrison, i find there is still an inadequacy in the study of such issues as black womens loss and distortion of maternal love, and culture-bearing maternal love in her fiction. only several books focus on black mothers in toni morrisons fiction, such as paula gallant eckards maternal body and voice in toni morrison, bobbie ann mason, and lee smith. from the cultural perspective, this book analyzes morrisons fiction in terms of maternal body and voice. victoria burrowss whiteness and trauma: the mother-daughter knot in the fiction of jean rhys, jamaica kincaid and toni morrison, through analyzing sula this book focuses on mother-daughter 4 relationship. andrea oreillys toni morrison and motherhood: a politics of the heart studies the black motherhood and morrisons black feminist thought. compared with the foreign studies, in china studies about this theme are inadequate. so far as i have researched, zhu rongjie: pain and healing: a study of maternal love in toni morrisons fiction from a cultural perspective, which incorporates a feminist approach with a post-colonial cultural perspective, intends to examine how morrison tries to undo the harmful effects of cultural dispossession through her ideal of reclaiming culture-bearing mother-love. this book mentions several main characters in morrisons fiction, but doesnt pay much attention to the characters in song of solomon; it only mentions the maternal love of ruth, neither mentions pilate nor study this theme incorporating with childrens growth. so do several published thesis. since song of solomon is the only one whose protagonist is a black man, when critics study the theme of maternal love, they prefer to talk about the other typical novels, such as beloved and sula. they dont pay much attention to this theme in song of solomon. as i plan to study the maternal love in song of solomon from the perspective of black feminist thought and childrens growth, several works are of benefit to my study. wu xinyuns the geographies of identity: a study on the contemporary us black feminist thought, is the first book that focuses on black feminist thought in china. rui yupings a study of american initiation stories interprets the literal meaning and the social significance of american coming-of-age stories. zhang ruwens a study on toni morrison interprets toni morrisons nationalism, feminist thought, political opinions, aesthetic consciousness, attitude to the black culture and her writing techniques. other books and thesis listed in bibliography are of benefit to this paper in some way. after a general survey of the criticism on morrisons female characters, we may find that there is still an inadequacy in the study of such issues as black womens loss and distortion of maternal love, especially culture-bearing maternal love in her fiction. as a matter of fact, much critical attention to morrisons works has been paid to the black womens search for self, identity and female fulfillment, with a complex theoretical base combining psychoanalysis and feminism. of the limited number of papers that touch on black motherhood and mother-daughter relations in morrisons novels, nearly none, so far as im concerned, have studied the maternal love in song of solomon, especially from the perspective of her black feminist thought and incorporating with childrens process of growth. this lack of critical enthusiasm does 5 not mean that the theme of maternal love in morrisons song of solomon is merely a minor issue. on the contrary, it reflects a critical blind spot. thus, after perused song of solomon and surveyed criticism on morrison, i concluded that the theme of maternal love in this novel deserved study to fill this void. 1.3 format of the research this paper intends to concentrate on morrisons third novel, song of solomon， the unique one whose protagonist is a black man. song of solomon demonstrates the process of growth of a black man, milkman. his biological mother, ruth, lives in a racist and sexiest world. the loss and distortion of maternal love makes him a “milkman” and has no aim in his life, while, pilate, his aunt and spiritual mother leads him to find the root of his ancestor. the culture-bearing maternal love makes him a real man with a sense of responsibility. based on close textual analyses, and mainly from a perspective of black feminism, this paper intends to analyze the loss of black maternal love and culture-bearing maternal love under the oppressions of racist and sexist in song of solomon. it tentatively explores how and why these two maternal love get formed, and disempowerment and empowerment that they generate on their lives, the childrens growth and even the whole race respectively. from these analysis, this paper intends to examine how morrison tries to demonstrate that for african americans, maternal love means not only the material nurturance that guarantees the physical survival of the children, maternal love also means spiritual nurturance that helps the child to develop a strong and authentic selfhood as a black man, namely mothers bear responsibility for passing down the black cultural traditions and nourish childrens spirit. only in this way children can become real adults, search for self-identity, and carry on the african american cultural heritage. this paper consists of five parts, among which the first and the last parts are introduction and conclusion; the rest (chapter two to chapter four) is the body of the paper. the introductory part offers a brief introduction to toni morrison, song of solomon and its former critical comments as well as the necessity and significance of this study. it also mentions the innovation of the study and the format of the research. chapter two “toni morrison and maternal love” firstly studies morrisons source of creation about maternal love. it introduces how maternal love and her family influence her process of growth, writing career and themes of her literary works. secondly, based on african american feminist thought on motherhood, it researches 6 morrisons black feminist thought, especially on maternal love. chapter three and chapter four can be regarded as a whole, from the perspective of morrisons black feminist thought on maternal love and incorporating with childrens process of growth in song of solomon, it m