Focusing on African American novelist Gloria Naylor’s fiction Mama Day, this article intends to analyze Mama Day and George’s distinctive relationships with maternal spaces, particularly based on French philosopher ...Focusing on African American novelist Gloria Naylor’s fiction Mama Day, this article intends to analyze Mama Day and George’s distinctive relationships with maternal spaces, particularly based on French philosopher Luce Irigaray’s philosophy concerning maternal spaces and a feminine way of communication. It is to argue that the two characters’ different ways of communicating with the maternal spaces result in their different endings in the narrative, as well as their different degrees of healing, either healing their own wounded relationships with their mothers or healing the disconnection between men and women. This finding unravels Naylor’s implicit ethical and philosophical messages in writing George’s mystic and tragic death. In addition, by engaging Mama Day in active and feminine communication with maternal spaces, Naylor successfully re-establishes “the missing pillar” of the female ancestry that Irigaray observes on Western civilization, thus offering a possibility for a woman to construct her female subjectivity with reference to her maternal origin.展开更多
This essay discusses the matricidal tradition in western culture and how Phyllis Nagy’s Butterfly Kiss(1994)rewrites this tradition and undermines the patriarchy.It suggests Nagy’s play questions the common dishones...This essay discusses the matricidal tradition in western culture and how Phyllis Nagy’s Butterfly Kiss(1994)rewrites this tradition and undermines the patriarchy.It suggests Nagy’s play questions the common dishonest plays at that time,which fea⁃tures mother and daughter friendly with each other,and avoids the prevalent antagonism between mother and daughter in the real society.It considers how the play addresses this issue of maternal hatred and how Lily’s reconstruction reveals her act of matricide is actually a loving act coming from the desire to save her mother.The essay argues that Lily’s matricide rewrites the matricidal tra⁃dition in western culture and through accounting the oppression they suffer in the patriarchal society,the mothers and daughters in the play hope for a real connection that involves intimacy,love and nurturance.展开更多
文摘Focusing on African American novelist Gloria Naylor’s fiction Mama Day, this article intends to analyze Mama Day and George’s distinctive relationships with maternal spaces, particularly based on French philosopher Luce Irigaray’s philosophy concerning maternal spaces and a feminine way of communication. It is to argue that the two characters’ different ways of communicating with the maternal spaces result in their different endings in the narrative, as well as their different degrees of healing, either healing their own wounded relationships with their mothers or healing the disconnection between men and women. This finding unravels Naylor’s implicit ethical and philosophical messages in writing George’s mystic and tragic death. In addition, by engaging Mama Day in active and feminine communication with maternal spaces, Naylor successfully re-establishes “the missing pillar” of the female ancestry that Irigaray observes on Western civilization, thus offering a possibility for a woman to construct her female subjectivity with reference to her maternal origin.
文摘This essay discusses the matricidal tradition in western culture and how Phyllis Nagy’s Butterfly Kiss(1994)rewrites this tradition and undermines the patriarchy.It suggests Nagy’s play questions the common dishonest plays at that time,which fea⁃tures mother and daughter friendly with each other,and avoids the prevalent antagonism between mother and daughter in the real society.It considers how the play addresses this issue of maternal hatred and how Lily’s reconstruction reveals her act of matricide is actually a loving act coming from the desire to save her mother.The essay argues that Lily’s matricide rewrites the matricidal tra⁃dition in western culture and through accounting the oppression they suffer in the patriarchal society,the mothers and daughters in the play hope for a real connection that involves intimacy,love and nurturance.
