This article examines the problem of individual and collective attempts at forgetting the traumatic past in Toni Morrison’s sixth novel Jazz(1992).More specifically,it emphasizes by selected examples psychological an...This article examines the problem of individual and collective attempts at forgetting the traumatic past in Toni Morrison’s sixth novel Jazz(1992).More specifically,it emphasizes by selected examples psychological and social aspects of willful amnesia which can lend itself useful in helping traumatized(country)individuals to repress painful remembrances,heal mental wounds and build a new identity in a memory-free modern city.Analyzing Jazz’s narrative featuring Joe and Violet Trace,with a particular focus put on the expectations and experiences connected with their migration to and life in the City,the article explores via Paul Connerton’s ruminations on cultural forgetting in modern times-delineated in his book How Modernity Forgets(2009)-the mechanisms of intentional amnesia used in the process of recovering from personal and social traumas resulting from more recent(migration and urban life)and more time-distant(slavery and racism)ordeals.展开更多
As the first black women Nobel laureate,Toni Morrison has drawn great attention with her fascinating and deep-thinking novels.Her 10th novel Home vividly shows the racial suffering and the post-war trauma of black vet...As the first black women Nobel laureate,Toni Morrison has drawn great attention with her fascinating and deep-thinking novels.Her 10th novel Home vividly shows the racial suffering and the post-war trauma of black veteran Frank,who has drawn critical attention from various perspectives.However,there is hardly any scholarly focus on another major character Cee,whose experience of medical and racial discrimination actually constitutes another important clue throughout the whole story.Therefore,this paper intends to analyze Home from the perspective of ethical relationship ethics,including doctor-patient relationship,doctor-society relationship,patient-society relationship,and patient-family relationship.The analysis indicates that Home not only reveals the history of medical racial discrimination and human experiment ethics problems under the rapid development of medical technology in the 1950s,but also inspire readers’thinking on the ethical problems and ethical dilemmas in the contemporary world.展开更多
Beginning with an old story, Toni Morrison uses her unique method to tell us the functions of language and her perspectives of language and literature. From this story, we can understand her writing standpoint and her...Beginning with an old story, Toni Morrison uses her unique method to tell us the functions of language and her perspectives of language and literature. From this story, we can understand her writing standpoint and her determination of making contributions to her nation and people. This paper tries to review her speech given in the Nobel Prize in Literature from four aspects. They are the introduction and comprehension of the story, narrative point of view, discourse and power and feminist criticism.展开更多
This paper reinterprets Toni Morrison＇s short story Recitatif, from the perspective of frame theory in cognitive linguistics. It proposes that readers should modify their default values by activating the old and upco...This paper reinterprets Toni Morrison＇s short story Recitatif, from the perspective of frame theory in cognitive linguistics. It proposes that readers should modify their default values by activating the old and upcoming new information pieces so as to re-match the intended cognitive framing of the writer. It finally concludes that the real theme of the novel is not the strengthening of race codes but the discoloring of the White and the Black.展开更多
When people create artistic works,the creating forms never separate with moral judgment. Therefore,it is significant to study literary works from perspective of ethics. The essay tries to discuss the ethic problems or...When people create artistic works,the creating forms never separate with moral judgment. Therefore,it is significant to study literary works from perspective of ethics. The essay tries to discuss the ethic problems or ethic metamorphosis of the characters in Beloved and of the entire black people and American whites,and of the relative background of history and society. Morrison involves the problem of ethics in all her novels,and with them she expresses her expectation of the racial fusion and the spiritual cure,and her longing-for of building a much brighter world.展开更多
The paper focuses on Toni Morrison＇s latest novel God Help the Child （2015）. By presenting a skillful though somewhat perverse merger of binary oppositions at different levels （racial, social, moral, and psycholog...The paper focuses on Toni Morrison＇s latest novel God Help the Child （2015）. By presenting a skillful though somewhat perverse merger of binary oppositions at different levels （racial, social, moral, and psychological）, the writer makes borderlines of all sorts appear artificial and therefore invalidates them. Thus, childhood merges with adulthood through sexual traumas that live on; touch with no touch as the evil touch of a parent equals an abhorrence of touching the child Other; truth with a lie as it proves as destructive as lying in good faith; passing blackness with blue blackness as the former conceives the latter; and appearances with reality in the ironic title of the book, where it is both the mother and the child that in fact need God＇s help. Thus, as Toni Morrison demonstrates, a thoroughly surreptitious, because natural, process of dissolution of all barriers makes them appear to be arbitrary constructs responsible for the equally arbitrary notion of the Other. Taking an utterly holistic view of the nature of things, Morrison seems to suggest that borderlines are a consequence and a manifestation of a lack of balance, which therefore needs to be redressed through love, mutual understanding, and maturation.展开更多
Toni Morrison＇s fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions sh...Toni Morrison＇s fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions she poses about African American realities in the contemporary United States. In doing so, Morrison often creates alternative histories or, more specifically, a usable past----one that allows her to engage in a literary （re-）construction of the Black historical and cultural material which traditional histories have chosen to ignore or disremember. Therefore, as a present-day writer of African American descent, Morrison attempts to reassemble all the fragmentary historical and cultural accounts available to her as a novelist and narrate them in the form of a convincing story. With regard to the above considerations, this article seeks to discuss some of the mechanisms employed by Morrison for weaving her postmodern, memory-filled narrative on the example of her eighth novel, Love （2003）. In particular, the analysis focuses on the book＇s central figure, Bill Cosey, and his Southern ocean-side resort--both seen against the backdrop of the pre- and post-World War II racist America, followed by the 1960s decade of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, it is also demonstrated how the author＇s use of split narrative as well as the ＂I＂ narrator-cum-character technique contribute to recounting in retrospect Love＇s main, historicized story---one viewed and judged from a present-time perspective.展开更多
Toni Morrison,the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993,has been hailed as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century.Her works explore and portray blacks’destiny,history,and spiritual world,...Toni Morrison,the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993,has been hailed as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century.Her works explore and portray blacks’destiny,history,and spiritual world,emphasizing on gender,race,and culture.Song of Solomon and Beloved,the two novels the thesis has selected to make analysis are crucial to her writing career.Toni Morrison’s great many literary works anatomize the survival and psychological pain of African Americans under the restrain and repression of mainstream culture,trying to find out a solution.展开更多
Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are among the most outstanding female African-American writers in Contemporary American Literature. Their works have been popular since 1960s to now. Although Walker and Morrison grew up...Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are among the most outstanding female African-American writers in Contemporary American Literature. Their works have been popular since 1960s to now. Although Walker and Morrison grew up under different family environments, they had the same experience of witnessing African-American women's movements in last Century; therefore, they reached an agreement on writing thoughts and contents. For instance, they both referred to Racism, Sexism and "Womanism"in many of their works. This dissertation studies about the two authors'difference and sameness descriptions on African-American women's identities, social status, rights, powers and fates,and to express their self-consciousness and bright prospection after experiencing the most painful encounters through comparative study on two of their short stories-Everyday Use and Recitatif.展开更多
On May 8, 2012, African-American writer Toni Morrison who has been in her eighties had her tenth novel Homepub-lished. Morrisonarranged the setting of Home in the 1950 s in the United States after the Korean War and s...On May 8, 2012, African-American writer Toni Morrison who has been in her eighties had her tenth novel Homepub-lished. Morrisonarranged the setting of Home in the 1950 s in the United States after the Korean War and she also uncommonly setthe protagonist as a male, a veteran coming back from the Korean War.With the Freudian Psychoanalysis, the thesis aims to lucubrate the inner mind of the protagonist Frank, analyze his personalitystructure, and reveal his real mental status, the final purpose of which is to expose the white society's oppression and exploits exert-ed upon the black people, the anxious and depressed mental status of black community as well as their arduous and painstakingjourney to find a place where they could call"Home", and to reveal the living status of black people in a society dominated bywhite culture and then sharply denounces the mutilation of the racialism on the black people.展开更多
Morrison's latest novella Home(2012) reveals abundant grounds to discuss direct or indirect representations of characters' displacement and exile.The protagonist of the novella Frank Money encounters with dive...Morrison's latest novella Home(2012) reveals abundant grounds to discuss direct or indirect representations of characters' displacement and exile.The protagonist of the novella Frank Money encounters with diversified painful issues.This paper intends to ex-plore and interpret Frank's traumatic memories from three dimensions of homeless,the Korean War and racial discrimination.Frank'sfeeling of alienation is provoked by loveless childhood memories,the participation in the Korean War and his miserable losses there,aswell as the racism that he still experiences in America of the 1950 s.Frank's journey to rescue his sister Cee assists him to partially over-come those traumatic memories and acquire some kind of spiritual redemption in the end.展开更多
文摘This article examines the problem of individual and collective attempts at forgetting the traumatic past in Toni Morrison’s sixth novel Jazz(1992).More specifically,it emphasizes by selected examples psychological and social aspects of willful amnesia which can lend itself useful in helping traumatized(country)individuals to repress painful remembrances,heal mental wounds and build a new identity in a memory-free modern city.Analyzing Jazz’s narrative featuring Joe and Violet Trace,with a particular focus put on the expectations and experiences connected with their migration to and life in the City,the article explores via Paul Connerton’s ruminations on cultural forgetting in modern times-delineated in his book How Modernity Forgets(2009)-the mechanisms of intentional amnesia used in the process of recovering from personal and social traumas resulting from more recent(migration and urban life)and more time-distant(slavery and racism)ordeals.
基金This paper is funded by key project of China National Social Science Fund(Project Number:19AWW007).
文摘As the first black women Nobel laureate,Toni Morrison has drawn great attention with her fascinating and deep-thinking novels.Her 10th novel Home vividly shows the racial suffering and the post-war trauma of black veteran Frank,who has drawn critical attention from various perspectives.However,there is hardly any scholarly focus on another major character Cee,whose experience of medical and racial discrimination actually constitutes another important clue throughout the whole story.Therefore,this paper intends to analyze Home from the perspective of ethical relationship ethics,including doctor-patient relationship,doctor-society relationship,patient-society relationship,and patient-family relationship.The analysis indicates that Home not only reveals the history of medical racial discrimination and human experiment ethics problems under the rapid development of medical technology in the 1950s,but also inspire readers’thinking on the ethical problems and ethical dilemmas in the contemporary world.
文摘Beginning with an old story, Toni Morrison uses her unique method to tell us the functions of language and her perspectives of language and literature. From this story, we can understand her writing standpoint and her determination of making contributions to her nation and people. This paper tries to review her speech given in the Nobel Prize in Literature from four aspects. They are the introduction and comprehension of the story, narrative point of view, discourse and power and feminist criticism.
文摘This paper reinterprets Toni Morrison＇s short story Recitatif, from the perspective of frame theory in cognitive linguistics. It proposes that readers should modify their default values by activating the old and upcoming new information pieces so as to re-match the intended cognitive framing of the writer. It finally concludes that the real theme of the novel is not the strengthening of race codes but the discoloring of the White and the Black.
文摘When people create artistic works,the creating forms never separate with moral judgment. Therefore,it is significant to study literary works from perspective of ethics. The essay tries to discuss the ethic problems or ethic metamorphosis of the characters in Beloved and of the entire black people and American whites,and of the relative background of history and society. Morrison involves the problem of ethics in all her novels,and with them she expresses her expectation of the racial fusion and the spiritual cure,and her longing-for of building a much brighter world.
文摘The paper focuses on Toni Morrison＇s latest novel God Help the Child （2015）. By presenting a skillful though somewhat perverse merger of binary oppositions at different levels （racial, social, moral, and psychological）, the writer makes borderlines of all sorts appear artificial and therefore invalidates them. Thus, childhood merges with adulthood through sexual traumas that live on; touch with no touch as the evil touch of a parent equals an abhorrence of touching the child Other; truth with a lie as it proves as destructive as lying in good faith; passing blackness with blue blackness as the former conceives the latter; and appearances with reality in the ironic title of the book, where it is both the mother and the child that in fact need God＇s help. Thus, as Toni Morrison demonstrates, a thoroughly surreptitious, because natural, process of dissolution of all barriers makes them appear to be arbitrary constructs responsible for the equally arbitrary notion of the Other. Taking an utterly holistic view of the nature of things, Morrison seems to suggest that borderlines are a consequence and a manifestation of a lack of balance, which therefore needs to be redressed through love, mutual understanding, and maturation.
文摘Toni Morrison＇s fiction may arguably be characterized as postmodern discourse on memory, history and culture. In her novels, the Nobel laureate frequently returns to the past to search for answers to the questions she poses about African American realities in the contemporary United States. In doing so, Morrison often creates alternative histories or, more specifically, a usable past----one that allows her to engage in a literary （re-）construction of the Black historical and cultural material which traditional histories have chosen to ignore or disremember. Therefore, as a present-day writer of African American descent, Morrison attempts to reassemble all the fragmentary historical and cultural accounts available to her as a novelist and narrate them in the form of a convincing story. With regard to the above considerations, this article seeks to discuss some of the mechanisms employed by Morrison for weaving her postmodern, memory-filled narrative on the example of her eighth novel, Love （2003）. In particular, the analysis focuses on the book＇s central figure, Bill Cosey, and his Southern ocean-side resort--both seen against the backdrop of the pre- and post-World War II racist America, followed by the 1960s decade of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, it is also demonstrated how the author＇s use of split narrative as well as the ＂I＂ narrator-cum-character technique contribute to recounting in retrospect Love＇s main, historicized story---one viewed and judged from a present-time perspective.
文摘Toni Morrison,the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993,has been hailed as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century.Her works explore and portray blacks’destiny,history,and spiritual world,emphasizing on gender,race,and culture.Song of Solomon and Beloved,the two novels the thesis has selected to make analysis are crucial to her writing career.Toni Morrison’s great many literary works anatomize the survival and psychological pain of African Americans under the restrain and repression of mainstream culture,trying to find out a solution.
文摘Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are among the most outstanding female African-American writers in Contemporary American Literature. Their works have been popular since 1960s to now. Although Walker and Morrison grew up under different family environments, they had the same experience of witnessing African-American women's movements in last Century; therefore, they reached an agreement on writing thoughts and contents. For instance, they both referred to Racism, Sexism and "Womanism"in many of their works. This dissertation studies about the two authors'difference and sameness descriptions on African-American women's identities, social status, rights, powers and fates,and to express their self-consciousness and bright prospection after experiencing the most painful encounters through comparative study on two of their short stories-Everyday Use and Recitatif.
文摘On May 8, 2012, African-American writer Toni Morrison who has been in her eighties had her tenth novel Homepub-lished. Morrisonarranged the setting of Home in the 1950 s in the United States after the Korean War and she also uncommonly setthe protagonist as a male, a veteran coming back from the Korean War.With the Freudian Psychoanalysis, the thesis aims to lucubrate the inner mind of the protagonist Frank, analyze his personalitystructure, and reveal his real mental status, the final purpose of which is to expose the white society's oppression and exploits exert-ed upon the black people, the anxious and depressed mental status of black community as well as their arduous and painstakingjourney to find a place where they could call"Home", and to reveal the living status of black people in a society dominated bywhite culture and then sharply denounces the mutilation of the racialism on the black people.
文摘Morrison's latest novella Home(2012) reveals abundant grounds to discuss direct or indirect representations of characters' displacement and exile.The protagonist of the novella Frank Money encounters with diversified painful issues.This paper intends to ex-plore and interpret Frank's traumatic memories from three dimensions of homeless,the Korean War and racial discrimination.Frank'sfeeling of alienation is provoked by loveless childhood memories,the participation in the Korean War and his miserable losses there,aswell as the racism that he still experiences in America of the 1950 s.Frank's journey to rescue his sister Cee assists him to partially over-come those traumatic memories and acquire some kind of spiritual redemption in the end.
