摘要
《宠儿》是曾获得诺贝尔文学奖的美国黑人女作家托妮•莫里森最杰出的著作。它以深切而残酷的母爱故事震撼了所有读者。《宠儿》围绕残酷的弑婴故事，刻画了一位坚韧又刚烈的黑人母亲形象，反应出了在奴隶制下生存的黑人女性的悲惨人生。而女主角出于母性而做出的一系列行为，在一定程度上反映出黑人女性自我意识的萌芽，以及试图对后代、未来的改变的探究。
母性，是《宠儿》中最突出的主题。塞丝浓厚的母爱特别体现在弑婴这一行为上，它是强烈母性的畸形表现。塞丝作为女黑奴，一个特殊的受压迫群体，长久以来受到了奴隶制的身体、精神上的迫害和人格否定。她的性格和外界环境决定了她在面对社会和命运的压迫时不妥协，维护自己作为女人和母亲的身份，终以极端的方式对孩子、自我进行捍卫和保护。这着巨大的压力之下所做出的极端反弹，反映了其自我意识的发展。
除了略论小说中黑人赛丝所体现的母性，本文还将对著作中其作为女儿、女人和母亲三重身份的苦痛与挣扎进行略论阐述，通过具体事件和语言来解读塞丝。本论文主要包括三个部分：第一部分通过略论塞丝幼年时母爱缺失的状态和青年期饱受压迫的环境，来探析其日后形成畸形母爱的原因。并通过解读悲惨的弑婴情节和非常态的母女联系来充分反映塞丝的病态母爱。第二部分旨在略论塞丝在成长过程中所不断形成的自我意识，根据其不同的发展状态分为了萌芽、发展和稳定三个阶段。第三部分在独立略论塞丝所表现出的母性和自我意识的基础上，讨论母性和自我意识相互促进发展的联系。通过以上略论，本论文认为《宠儿》中的黑人塞丝在曲折的人生历程中，被激发出了强烈的母性，并且自我意识得到了一定的发展。
关键词： 黑人文学，英语论文题目，托妮•莫里森，英语论文，母性，自我意识，女性文学
Abstract
Beloved is Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s most notable novel. As an African American female writer, Toni Morrison strives to show the world how miserable life African American people used to live and how brave they are in the battle against slavery system. She makes every effort to unfold the reality that black women had been largely considered to be inferior in terms of gender and race for a long time.
Her fifth novel Beloved portrays Sethe, the heroine, to be a fearless black female slave. Escaping from her slave master, ending her baby’s life and living on her own to support the whole family, all seem to be impossible missions for a black woman. The most astonishing plot of this novel is definitely the infanticide. Though readers may criticize her for her extreme and immoral behavior, no one can deny her thick love to her children and her courage to fight against the vicious slavery system. Sethe’s dead daughter’s reincarnation makes this story even more striking. This bitter story not only shows us the miserable life of a black female slave, but also reveals all black people’s struggle for recognition.
Motherhood and selfhood are two main themes of this fiction. This thesis will probe into these two obvious features of Sethe. The body of this thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, Sethe’s three roles as daughter, woman and mother will be illustrated with examples. The origin, development and embodiment of her distorted maternal love will be analyzed. Secondly, her growing progress of selfhood will be demonstrated with specific examples. This progress can be divided into three stages: the embryonic stage, the developing stage and the stable stage. In the last part, the relationship between motherhood and selfhood will be explored based on analyses from previous parts. This thesis will conclude that Sethe’s motherhood and selfhood have been developing together through tortuous struggles.
Key words: African-American literature, Toni Morrison, motherhood, selfhood, women’s writing |
