toni morrison
Toni_Morrison简介资料
Beloved
When slavery has torn apart one's heritage, when the past is more real than the present, when the rage of a dead baby can literally rock a house, then the traditional novel is no longer an adequate instrument. And so Pulitzer Prize-winner Beloved is written in bits and images, smashed like a mirror on the floor and left for the reader to put together. In a novel that is hypnotic, beautiful, and elusive, Toni Morrison portrays the lives of Sethe, an escaped slave and mother, and those around her. There is Sixo, who "stopped speaking English because there was no future in it," and .... Baby Suggs, who makes her living with her heart because slavery "had busted her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb and tongue;" and Paul D, a man with a rusted metal be that allows women to cry. At the center is Sethe, whose story makes us think and think again about what we mean when we say we love our children or freedom. The stories circle, swim dreamily to the surface, and are suddenly clear and horrifying. Because of the extraordinary, experimental style as well as the intensity of the subject matter, what we learn from them touches at a level deeper than understanding.
Toni Morrison
Morrison’s extensive use of flying as a literal and not just metaphorical event pushes Song of Solomon toward the genre of magical realism. The novel’s characters accept human flight as natural. For instance, the residents of Shalimar, Virginia, do not think that Solomon’s flight is a myth; they believe that the flight actually occurred. Morrison’s novel belongs to the genre of magical realism because in it human flight is both possible and natural. For the long period of time during which Milkman doubts the possibility of human flight, he remains abnormal in the eyes of his community. Only when he begins to believe in the reality of flight does he cease to feel alienated.
c. Theme: Flight The fathers may soar And the children may know their names The epigraph to Song of Solomon is the first reference to one of the novel’s most important themes. While flight can be an escape from constricting circumstances, it also scars those who are left behind.
托尼_莫里森
1、《最蓝的眼睛》:研究主要集中在主 题分析、创作手法和人物分析 主题研究主要从性别种族文化的角度 创作手法:小说的结构评析和对象征意象 的分析 单独对人物分析比较少
2、《秀拉》:国内研究主要是主题分析、 叙述特征分析和女性主义等方面 主题分析主要是女性的自我建构和价值 实现 特征分析中叙事特征分析相对较多
4、爱
莫里森的作品,爱是贯穿始终的主题。家庭的 关爱,社区黑人的集体关爱,民族之间的爱, 对自己的爱
5、历史
美国黑人如果不愿意接受历史,无论他们到哪 里,到那块大陆都不会有未来。接受自己的过 去——自己的历史——并不等于要沉溺其中, 而是要学会在其中受益。
6、魔幻与现实交替
将现实主义和黑人神话结合在一起
第三,“娇女”代表了黑人现实中仍就 在遭受的不平等的苦难,是过去苦难的 延伸。 娇女是每个人的娇女,是每个黑人心目 中那段惨痛的历史记忆。
(三)Theme(主题)
1.黑人分裂自我的重新整合。 莫里森:“我热爱我的人民,我首先是 作为一个黑人,一名黑人女性在写作。” 《娇女》的开篇题词“六千万甚至更多” 莫里森:“种族主义的创伤,对种族主 义者和牺牲者,都是自我的严重分裂, 对我来说永远是导致精神病的原因(而 不是症状)”。
访谈录的翻译资料有四篇 1、余正、邹旭东翻译的尼利· 麦凯与莫 里森的访谈录 2、王家湘摘译的“访托尼· 莫里森” 3、少况译的托马斯· 勒克莱尔与莫里森 的访谈录“语言不能流汗” 4、托马斯· 勒克莱尔采访的
莫里森生平、思想和创作的总体研究
美国文学 Toni Morrison
Awards: Morrison is an award-winning writer. •1977, The National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon •1988, The Pulitzer prize (普利策奖) •1993, The Nobel Prize for literature •2000, National Humanities Medal Award
Thanks
1970bluesteye最蓝的眼睛1973sula秀拉1977songsolomon所罗门之歌1981tarbaby柏油孩子1987beloved宠儿1992jazz爵士乐1998paradise乐园1993lovemercy恩惠otherworks
Toni Morrison (1931- )
英教一班 第六组: 李丹 王风茹 崔皓月 刘婷婷
Writing Features
1. Powerful fictional style 2. Provocative themes 3. Sophisticated(复杂的) narrative techniques 4. Poetic style
Comments
Toni Morrison is a major contemporary American writer. She is the foremost author of contemporary black women's renaissance which includes, among others, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, and Gayle Jones. Her oeuvre has drawn the attention of her readers to the importance of reconstructing history and interpreting the past from a racial perspective. She has blazed a new trail for her fellow writers.
黑人女性主义视角下的《爱》
World Literature Studies 世界文学研究, 2023, 11(5), 357-360Published Online October 2023 in Hans. https:///journal/wlshttps:///10.12677/wls.2023.115062黑人女性主义视角下的《爱》宋银苗连云港师范高等专科学校外语与商务学院,江苏连云港收稿日期:2023年6月28日;录用日期:2023年9月21日;发布日期:2023年10月7日摘要黑人女性主义文学是随着西方女性主义运动的发展而出现的,托妮·莫里森无疑是黑人女性主义作家的里程碑。
本文从黑人女性主义视角聚焦于小说《爱》中黑人女性的生存困境,商品化的黑人女性及爱的缺失、爱的回归与救赎、爱的多元共生以及黑人女性实现完整生存的可能性。
关键词托妮·莫里森,《爱》,黑人女性主义,多元共生,完整生存Love from the Perspective of Black FeminismYinmiao SongSchool of Foreign Languages and Business, Lianyungang Normal College, Lianyungang JiangsuReceived: Jun. 28th, 2023; accepted: Sep. 21st, 2023; published: Oct. 7th, 2023AbstractBlack feminism literature emerged with the development of western feminist movement. Toni Morrison is undoubtedly a milestone of black feminism writers. From the perspective of black fe-minism, this paper focuses on the survival dilemma of black women in the novel Love, the com-mercialized black women and the lack of love, the return and redemption of love, the multiple symbiosis of love, and the possibility of black women’s complete survival.KeywordsToni Morrison, Love, Black Feminism, Pluralistic Symbiosis, Complete Survival宋银苗Copyright © 2023 by author(s) and Hans Publishers Inc.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0)./licenses/by/4.0/1. 引言黑人女性主义文学是随着西方女性主义运动的发展而出现的,是历史和社会进步的产物。
Toni Morrison
Major Works
The Bluest Eye (1970)
Sula (1973) Song of Solomon (1977) Tar Baby (1981) Beloved (1987)
Song of Solomon (2部15章)
Brief introduction
Hero:Milkman Friend:Guitar Aunt:Pilate Why would he try to kill me before I got it or even found out what happened to it? (p835) And the skin of shame that he had rinsed away in the bathwater after having stolen from Pilate returned. But now it was as thick and as tight as a caul. (p848 para3)
1989 MLA Commonwealth Award in Literature 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature 1993 Commander of the Arts and Letters, Paris 1994 Condorcet Medal, Paris 1994 Pearl Buck Award 1994 Rhegium Julii Prize for Literature 1996 Jefferson Lecture 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters 2000 National Humanities Medal 2002 100 Greatest African Americans, list by Molefi Kete Asante 2005 Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University 2009 Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement 2010 Officier de la Lé gion d'Honneur 2011 Honorary Doctor of Letters at Rutgers University Graduation Commencement 2011 Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Geneva 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom 2013 The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal awarded by Vanderbilt University
Paradise Toni Morrison
The exploration of the developing history of the families in Ruby helps us know better of the present black families. Compared with the nuclear families of the women in the Convent, the features of the extended families in Ruby are further highlighted. Due to the bitter history, a kind of self-closed psychology and narrow homogamy model are formed within the townhood. Meanwhile, along with the influence of industrialization, the living conditions of the families in Ruby are improved; new ideas penetrate into the families with modern commodities. The family tradition, therefore, has a little vacillation at the same time. All the factors foretell a new future for the families in Ruby.Fra bibliotekParadise
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prizewinning American novelist, editor and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Paradise and Beloved.
Toni Morrison (1931-)
Lorain, Ohio
Achievements
American author, who has been awarded a number of literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, the first African American ever who received such an honor.
Macon Dead III (Milkman, the protagonist, lover Hagar)
An Analysis of the Protagonist
• Milkman Dead: born into the noble lineage of a prominent black doctor and a wealthy landowner. • Distorted or split personality: Prior to the transformation, selfish, inconsiderate; though, fitting in upscale parties, feeling alienated by family, community, and humanity in general. • Integrated personality: Through his discovery of the story of Solomon and his ability to fly, Milkman learns to take pride in his ancestry and to value his connections to family and community. • By traveling to Shalimar: the site of Solomon’s flight toward liberty, also where Milkman heals his wounds.
美国黑人文学和托尼莫里森
比格·托马斯
“他们不让我活,我就杀人。或许杀人不对, 我想我也并不想真正杀人。可我一想起为什 么杀人,我开始感觉到我需要的是什么,开 始感觉到我是怎样一个人……”
赖特将小说取名为《土生子》,意在揭示美 国社会对比格犯罪应负的责任。他力图说明: 黑人的野蛮凶暴既非天性也非民族性,而是 美国社会制度使然。作为土生土长的美国人, 比格的性格是美国社会文明的产物,他的行 为和结局是由美国社会及其歧视黑人的法律 所造成。
《土生子》
“抗议小说”的经典之作《土生子》(Native Son) :1940
赖特:“有关《汤姆叔叔的孩子们》的评论开始出 现时,我意识到自己犯了一个极其天真的错误。我 发现自己写的书连银行家的闺秀们也会去读,会为 之掉泪,并且感觉良好。于是我发誓,如果再写小 说,我要叫任何人也无法掉泪;小说要写得冷酷而 深刻,读者必须直面这部书,毫无泪水的慰藉。正 是这种心态促使我极其认真地动手去写。”
锲而不舍金石可镂豆丁网友友情分享1660年代后的黑人女性作家不再停留在控诉美国社会对黑人的种族歧视与压迫而是从独特的角度描写女性经验在抨击种族歧视的同时揭露性别歧视或者主要反映黑人妇女争取妇女平等权利的斗争
第五节 美国黑人文学和托尼·莫里 森
一、美国黑人文学
在诗歌方面,黑人诗人休斯(Langstm Hughes)、海登(Robert Hayden)、安 吉罗(Maya Angelou)、达夫(Rita Dove) 等人是美国诗坛重要的声音,他们的诗篇大 大拓宽了美国诗歌的领域。
以美国黑人的生活为主要表现对象
博恩在其开拓性研究《美国黑人小说》中指 出:“美国黑人小说,一如美国黑人生活, 和美国白人的小说既相像又不同。当其跟随 (通常落后几步)美国小说主要历史进程的 同时,又有自己另外的生活,这生活发源于 一种完全不同的少数裔民族文化的土壤。”
关于种族歧视的文学作品
关于种族歧视的文学作品
1.《树上的艾米》(Toni Morrison)。
出版日期:1977年。
这部小说是一部表现黑人女性生活的精彩之作,通过一位名叫艾米的
女性的经历指出了种族和性别歧视的问题。
2.《一个月里的星期天》(James Baldwin)。
出版日期:1956年。
这本书有短篇小说,讲述了关于种族歧视的各种故事,包括在白人主
导的社会中的黑人生活,描绘了几个不同的黑人角色的经历。
3.《颜色紫》(Alice Walker)。
出版日期:1982年。
这部小说曾获得普利策文学奖,描述了南方黑人女性苏菲的生活经历。
她在早年经历了强奸,并生了两个孩子,她的丈夫对她非常残忍。
她的精
神和肉体遭受了不同层面上的打击和恶意,这部小说刻画出了苏菲从被动
的角色到能够自我解放的转变。
4.《绿色的眼睛》(Toni Morrison)。
出版日期:1970年。
这本书是关于一位黑人女性搜索自己身份的故事,她想了解自己的家
庭背景,关于自己被遗弃的过去中有哪些事情她不了解。
一旦得到所有的
信息,她意识到她的困境与许多黑人女性的人生有着惊人的相似。
5.《随波逐流》(Ralph Ellison)。
出版日期:1952年。
2023届河北省石家庄市高中毕业年级教学质量检测(二)英语试卷(含答案解析)
2023届河北省石家庄市高中毕业年级教学质量检测(二)英语试卷学校:___________姓名:___________班级:___________考号:___________一、阅读理解The Nobel Prize has been awarded to women60times between1901and2022.These women have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of medicine,science,literature and so on.Here are four of them.Dorothy Crowfoot HodgkinAward:Nobel Prize in ChemistryYear:1964Dorothy Hodgkin was a British chemist whose interest in research began when,as a child,she received a chemistry book containing experiments with crystals.She studied at Oxford University and developed protein crystallography,which advanced the development of X-rays.This earned her the Nobel Prize.Gertrude B.ElionAward:Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineYear:1988Gertrude Elion won the Nobel Prize for her discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.Elion had watched her grandfather die of cancer,so she decided to fight the disease throughout her life.Elion,together with George Hitchings,with whom she shared the award, created a system for drug production that relies heavily on biochemistry.Toni MorrisonAward:Nobel Prize in LiteratureYear:1993Toni Morrison,whose book“Beloved”earned her the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award,was the first Black woman to ever receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.Born in Ohio,Morrison was a writer whose works are mostly about life in the Black community.She taught writing and served as an honorary professor at Princeton University.Esther DufloAward:Nobel Prize in EconomicsYear:2019“The elderly want stuffed animals not only for comfort,but they were conversation starters.It reminded them of their childhood,”she said.And she recalled one man said,“You know,I never wanted to go to school.And my father said if I would go that day,he would take me to the Brooklyn Zoo.And you know what?This was the first animal I saw there and it looked just like this giraffe.”Spreading joy isn’t just a holiday pastime for Patricia.She is also known as the“Happy Flower Lady”around Philadelphia,because she collects old flowers from stores and passes them out to anyone who needs a pick-me-up.“When you give,you really do get more back,”Patricia said.“Every morning,whether it’s the flowers or the stuffed animals,I have a purpose.”4.Why did Patricia go to the nursing homes in2009?A.To send gifts to the seniors.B.To read a story to the elderlyC.To get over her loneliness.D.To get rid of her kids’toys. 5.What does the underlined word“capping”in paragraph3mean?A.Limiting.B.Recording.C.Identifying.D.Doubling. 6.What can we infer from paragraph4?A.Seniors love good old days.B.Cute animals have healing effects on seniors.C.Giving makes seniors happy.D.Stuffed animals have more than one function.7.What does Patricia think of her giving experiences?A.Rewarding.B.Entertaining.C.Timely.D.Tough.A new study suggests classic paintings by well-known Impressionists Joseph Turner and Claude Monet may have been influenced by air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.The study,published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by authors from Harvard and Sorbonne universities,analyzed60oil paintings by Turner from1796to 1850and38paintings by Monet from1864to1901.Scientists don't know exactly how polluted the cities were during that time for lack of data.However,researchers say examining the works of Turner and Monet can give a picture of long-term environmental change with the air pollution.In particular,researchers said changes in local sulfur dioxide emissions from burningcoal may explain changes in the colour contrast and intensity of Turner,Monet,and others' works,even after taking into account the artistic trends and subject matter of the time.Scientists successfully measured painters'representation of nature,focusing on differences in local weather patterns which influenced colour in works painted in different parts of Europe.Paintings'done in Britain generally feature a paler blue sky than other works in other parts of the continent.Generally,artists can historically accurately represent their environment,so Turner and Monet were chosen because they are famous for their landscape and cityscape paintings and also because they were active during the Industrial Revolution, when air pollution grew at a rate never seen before.Additionally,researchers say that as the air in London and Paris became more polluted, the cities would appear hazier to the eyes as well as in photographs.By comparing the paintings of Turner and Monet to pictures from the era,they were able to determine the artists were at least partly influenced by the change in emissions.8.How did the researchers conduct the study?A.By referring to relevant historical records.B.By comparing the paintings of Turner and Monet.C.By relating the paintings to the air conditions then.D.By analyzing the data during the Industrial Revolution.9.What did the researchers find in the works of Turner and Monet?A.Air pollution at that time.B.Change in subject matter.C.Social trends of the period.D.Development of photography 10.What can we learn from paragraph5?A.European artists preferred landscape paintings.B.Scientists focused on studying weather patterns.C.Turner and Monet intended to present pollution.D.Britain suffered from air pollution most in Europe.11.What is the purpose of the text?A.To inform people of a new discovery.B.To instruct people to appreciatepaintings.C.To introduce the Industrial Revolution.D.To call on people to protect theenvironment.Many owners of electric cars have wished for a battery pack that could power their vehicle for more than a thousand miles on a single charge.Researchers have developed a lithium-air battery that could make that dream a reality.The new battery design could also one day power airplanes and trucks.The main new component in this lithium-air battery is a solid electrolyte(电解质)instead of the usual liquid variety.Batteries with solid electrolytes are not subject to safety problems with the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion and other battery types,which can overheat and catch fire. More importantly,the solid electrolyte can potentially boost the energy four times,which translates into longer driving range.For over a decade,scientists have been working overtime to develop a lithium(锂) battery that makes use of the oxygen in air.The lithium-air battery has the highest energy of any battery technology being considered for the next generation of batteries beyond lithium-ion.The new solid electrolyte is composed of a material made from relatively inexpensive elements,compared with the past designs.Besides,the chemical reaction in lithium-ion only involves one or two electrons stored per oxygen molecule(分子),while that for lithium-air battery involves four electrons.More electrons stored means higher energy.The new design is the first lithium-air battery that has achieved a four-electron reaction at room temperature.It also operates with oxygen supplied by air from the surrounding environment.The capability to run with air avoids the need for oxygen tanks to operate,a problem with earlier designs.“With further development,we expect our new design for the lithium-air battery to reach a record of1200watt-hours per kilogram,”said Curtiss,a researcher.“That is nearly four times better than lithium-ion batteries.”12.What contributes most to the lithium-ion battery?A.Lithium-ion.B.Oxygen molecules.C.Solid electrolytes.D.Liquidcomponent.13.What’s the problem with lithium-ion batteries?A.They burn easily if overheated.B.They are unsafe in production.C.They damage the environment.D.They require longer charging time. 14.How does the author organize paragraph4?A.By giving examples.B.By making comparisons.C.By presenting statistics D.By analyzing cause and effect. 15.What is the best title of the text?A.How Lithium-air Batteries Work B.What will Be Used to Power Airplanes C.Electric Cars Are Becoming More Popular D.New Batteries Offer LongerDriving Range二、七选五E.So actively being mindful of the present reduces stress.F.You'd better take a quick break to check in with your breathing.G.More minutes of movement add up to big health benefits over time.三、完形填空30.A.informed B.reminded C.warned D.convinced 31.A.turn B.quit C.wait D.rush 32.A.magic B.madness C.horror D.calmness 33.A.looked back B.turned around C.pulled over D.helped out 34.A.packed B.placed C.removed D.grabbed 35.A.kindness B.trust C.comfort D.admiration四、用单词的适当形式完成短文五、其他应用文46.假定你是李华,4月18日是国际古迹遗址日(World Heritage Day),你的外国笔友William发来邮件询问你校的活动计划。
《最蓝的眼睛》中边缘人形象分析
中文摘要托尼·莫里森是美国著名的黑人女作家,也是第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的黑人女作家。
《最蓝的眼睛》作为莫里森的第一部作品,一经出版就赢得了广泛的关注与讨论。
该书将视角投向了处于社会边缘地带的黑人家庭,塑造了布里德洛夫一家三口不同层面的边缘化人物形象。
这些鲜明的人物形象是社会主流意识形态下边缘群体的缩影。
本文试图运用美国边缘人理论来分析小说黑人家庭中父亲乔利,母亲宝林,女儿佩克拉三者在道德,文化,及精神方面的边缘人形象,试图挖掘三种边缘人形象的成因及表现,探讨在恶劣环境下边缘人人性的发展与心理危机,总结其小说创作的艺术价值与意义。
小说描述了三个黑人家庭成员在白人主流文化下产生的不同层面的边缘人形象。
作为道德的边缘人,黑人父亲乔利从小被抛弃,年少时期道德标杆的缺失造成了他是非观念的空白。
来自白人世界的侮辱造成了他极端的自卑心理,后期黑人社会与其家庭的冷漠更是加剧了他道德意识的沦丧和善恶观念的扭曲。
在酒精的作用下,乔利完全沦为了本能和欲望的野兽。
他性侵了自己的女儿,虐待自己的妻子,最终从无能的受害者彻底沦为道德败坏的施害者。
作为文化的边缘人,黑人母亲宝林毅然决然地抛弃了自己的黑人家庭,主动切断了同黑人文化的联系并极度向往和推崇白人文化。
但是因为种族歧视,宝林却始终无法得到白人主流文化的认可。
即使宝林主动迎合白人文化标准,接受白人的审美观念,但是她的存在价值仅仅只是附属品女仆身份,最终宝林沦为了不黑不白的文化边缘人。
年仅11岁的黑人女孩佩克拉从心智正常的失语者沦为了精神边缘的疯子,走向了精神世界的边缘化。
破裂的家庭环境的忽视,学校师生的歧视及社会环境的冷漠造成了佩克拉精神的崩溃,人格的分裂。
因此她疯狂盲目地追求所谓的蓝色眼睛,最终丧失了理性思维,走向了精神层面的癫狂。
本文通过对三种边缘人类型及特征的划分,总结不同角色因种族,文化,性别对其边缘人形象形成的原因,揭示了莫里森对弱势的边缘黑人人性的挖掘,传递了莫里森对弱势边缘黑人命运的悲悯及关怀。
Beloved
奴隶制
• 奴隶制导致了黑人家园的缺失、权力的缺 失、自我决定的缺失、语言的缺失。 • 加纳先生的死亡 • 黑尔的失踪 • 宠儿鬼魂的纠缠
西方文学中的“黑性”
• 西方文学中的“黑性”是一片空白
• 黑人是物化的; • 黑人是忠实的奴隶(《汤姆叔叔的小屋》 《飘》《根》《无形人》)
《宠儿》中的黑人文化与社会认同
Novels
• • • • • • • • • 1970 1973 1977 1981 1988 1992 1999 1993 2008 The Bluest Eye 《最蓝的眼睛》 Sula 《秀拉》 Song of Solomon 《所罗门之歌》 Tar Baby 《柏油孩子》、《黑宝贝》 Beloved《 宠儿》 Jazz 《爵士乐》 Paradise《天堂》、《乐园》 Love 《爱》 A Mercy《恩惠》
莫里森作品及其研究的译介出版
• 1980年到80年代中后期,译介主要限于对 部分书名的翻译和对部分作品的简要介绍 • 1984年,吴巩展选译了Tar Baby的第九章, 译名是《黑婴》 • 1993年莫里森获诺贝尔奖后作品开始增加 • 21世纪,国内译届对莫里森的关注持续升 温
世人对托尼/莫里森的矛盾评价
Abouቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ the Author
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio to George and Ramah Wofford. She had three other siblings and grew up in a working-class family.
• 从奴隶与自由市场上的被剥削的物体转变 为一种强有力的存在。 • 自我感在被剥削的经历中、边缘处、被否 定状态中产生出来。 • 塞思的杀婴——作为有自己主宰权的个体
最蓝的眼睛-莫里森
Toni Morrison and 《The Bluest Eye》I、Toni MorrisonToni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931), is a Nobel Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2001 she was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal.1、Early life and careerToni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, the second of four children in a working-class family. As a child, Morrison read constantly; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. Morrison's father, George Wofford, a welder by trade, told her numerous folktales of the black community (a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings).In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University to study English. While there she began going by the nickname of "Toni," which derives from her middle name, Anthony. Morrison received a B.A. in English from Howard in 1953, then earned a Master of Arts degree, also in English, from Cornell University in 1955, for which she wrote a thesis on suicide in the works of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. After graduation, Morrison became an English instructor at Texas Southern University inHouston, Texas (from 1955-57) then returned to Howard to teach English. She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.In 1958 she married Harold Morrison. They had two children, Harold and Slade, and divorced in 1964. After the divorce she moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked as a textbook editor. Eighteen months later she went to work as an editor at the New York City headquarters of Random House.As an editor, Morrison played an important role in bringing African American literature into the mainstream. She edited books by such black authors as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis and Gayl Jones.2、Writing careerMorrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She went to one meeting with a short story about a black girl who longed to have blue eyes. The story later evolved into her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), which she wrote while raising two children and teaching at Howard. In 2000 it was chosen as a selection for Oprah's Book Club.In 1973 her novel Sula was nominated for the National Book Award. Her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), brought her national attention. The book was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the first novel by a black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1940. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award.In 1988 Morrison's novel Beloved became a critical success. When the novel failed to win the National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, a number of writers protested the omission. Shortly afterward, it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Beloved was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Morrison later used Margaret Garner's life story again in an opera, Margaret Garner, with music by Richard Danielpour. In May 2006, The New York Times Book Review named Beloved the best American novel published in the previous twenty five years.In 1993 Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first black woman to win it. Her citation reads: Toni Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." Shortly afterwards, a fire destroyed her Rockland County, New York home. Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison does not identify her works as feminist. She has stated that she thinks "it's off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things. In addition to her novels, Morrison has also co-written books for children with her youngest son, Slade Morrison, who works as a painter and musician.3、Later lifeMorrison taught English at two branches of the State University of New York. In 1984 she was appointed to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the University at Albany, The State University of New York. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison heldthe Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University.Though based in the Creative Writing Program, Morrison did not regularly offer writing workshops to students after the late 1990s, a fact that earned her some criticism. Rather, she has conceived and developed the prestigious Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together talented students with critically acclaimed, world-famous artists. Together the students and the artists produce works of art that are presented to the public after a semester of collaboration. In her position at Princeton, Morrison used her insights to encourage not merely new and emerging writers, but artists working to develop new forms of art through interdisciplinary play and cooperation. At its 1979 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded her its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. Oxford University awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in June 2005.In November 2006, Morrison visited the Louvre Museum in Paris as the second in its "Grand Invité" program to guest-curate a month-long series of events across the arts on the theme of "The Foreigner's Home."She currently holds a place on the editorial board of The Nation magazine.PoliticsMorrison caused a stir when she called Bill Clinton "the first Black President;" saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas." This opinion was both adopted by Clinton supporters like the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and ridiculed by critics. It should be noted that, in the context of the 2008 Democratic Primary campaign, during which Clinton made some remarks that were construed as unsympathetic to African-Americans, Morrison revisited her statement. Morrison stated to Salon magazine: "People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race." However, in the 2008 presidential race, Morrison has endorsed Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton.II、The Bluest EyeThe Bluest Eye is 1970 novel by American author Nobel Prize recipient Toni Morrison. Morrison's first novel, which was written while Morrison taught at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own, the story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio named Pecola. It takes place against the backdrop of America's Midwest as well as the Great Depression. The Bluest Eye is told from five perspectives: Pecola's, her mother's, her father's, her friend Claudia's, and Soaphead Church's. Because of the controversial nature of the book, which deals with racism, incest, and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to ban it from schools and libraries. In 2000, the novel became a selection for Oprah's Book Club.1、Plot summaryThe narrator advises the reader not to look at the "why" of the story but at the "how." The novel, with child sex, irresponsible adults, and corrupt society seeks to show the misery of black people living in a white society. When she indirectly refers to Pecola as "dirt" and to the Breedloves as animals, she is exposing the ills to which they are submitted. Soaphead Church's letter to God is a summary of the insanity of the world around him, as the novel could be for the author. The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl who is regarded “ugly” by everyone, including her parents--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. She is raped by her drunk father and get pregnant, later she gives birth to a stillborn(夭折的)child. Finally Pecola lose her mind and spend the rest of her life as a madwoman thinking she has the bluest eyes of the world…Pecola's parents' history is examined throughout the novel, showing who they are in three main parts: her father Cholly's background, her mother Pauline's past life, and the couple's conflicted marriage. Cholly was deserted by both his parents, and was rebuked when he tried to contact his father. His son seems to do the same thing later on, running away repeatedly.In the afterword, Morrison explains that she is attempting to humanize all the characters that attack Pecola or cause her to be the way she is; that it is not a matter where one person can be pointed out as being the cause of all this pain.Ideas of beauty, particularly those that relate to racial characteristics, are a majortheme in this book. The title refers to Pecola's wish that her eyes would turn blue. Claudia is given a white baby doll to play with and is constantly told how lovely it is. Insults to the appearance are often given in racial terms. A light-skinned schoolmate is favored by the teachers.There is a contrast between the world shown in the cinema, the one in which Pauline is a servant, the WASP society, and the existence the main characters live in. Most chapters' titles are extracts from a Dick and Jane reading book, presenting a happy white family. This family is contrasted with Pecola's existence.ThemeSource of the tragedy: black people accepted and internalized white values and developed self-contempt and self-hatred for themselves or other black people, making some of their own people victims and scapegoats .The impact of mainstream white culture upon black people, which make them victim of the circumstances.2、CharactersPecola Breedlove - The protagonist of the novel, a poor black girl who believes she is ugly because she and her community base their ideals of beauty on "whiteness". The title The Bluest Eye is based on Pecola's fervent wishes for beautiful blue eyes. She is rarely developed during the story, which is purposely done to underscore the actions of the other characters. Her insanity at the end of the novel is her only way to escape the world where she cannot be beautiful and to get those blue eyes she wanted to get since the beginning of the novel.Cholly Breedlove - Pecola's abusive father, an alcoholic man who rapes his daughter at the end of the novel. Rejected by his father and discarded by his mother as a four day old baby, Cholly was raised by his Great Aunt Jimmy. After she dies, Cholly runs away and pursues the life of a "free man", yet he is never able to escape his painful past, nor can he live with the mistakes of his present. Tragically, he rapes his daughter in a gesture of madness mingled with affection. He realizes he loves her, but the only way he can express it is to rape her.Pauline Breedlove - Pecola's mother. Mrs. Breedlove is married to Cholly and lives the self-righteous life of a martyr, enduring her drunk husband and raising her two awkward children as best she can. Mrs. Breedlove is a bit of an outcast herself with her shriveled foot and Southern background. Mrs. Breedlove lives the life of a lonely and isolated character who escapes into a world of dreams, hopes and fantasy that turns into the motion pictures she enjoys viewing.Sam Breedlove - Pecola's older brother. Sammy is Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove's one son. Sam's part in this novel is relatively low key. Like his sister Pecola, he is affected by the disharmony in their home and deals with his anger by running away from home.Claudia MacTeer - Much of the novel is told from the perspective of Claudia. She is the primary narrator in the book. Claudia is Pecola's friend and the younger sister of Frieda MacTeer. The MacTeer family serves as a foil for the Breedloves, and althoughboth families are poor, Mr. and Mrs. MacTeer are strict but loving parents towards their children - a sharp contrast to the dysfunctional home of the Breedloves.Frieda MacTeer - Claudia's older sister and close companion. The two MacTeer girls are often seen together and while most of the story is told through Claudia's eyes, her sister Frieda plays a large role in the novel.Henry Washington - a man who comes to live with the MacTeer family and is subsequently thrown out by Claudia's father when he inappropriately touches Frieda. Soaphead Church - a pedophile and mystic fortune teller who "grants" Pecola her wish for blue eyes. The character is somewhat based on Morrison's Jamaican ex-husband.Great Aunt Jimmy - Cholly's aunt who takes him in to raise after his parents abandon him. She dies when he is a young boy.Maureen Peal - A light-skinned, wealthy mulatto girl who is new at the local school. She accepts everyone else’s assumption that she is superior and is capable of both generosity and cruelty. She changes her attitude throughout the novel towards Pecola.3、AdaptationThe Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois commissioned Lydia R. Diamond to adapt the novel into a full-length stage production. The play was developed through the Steppenwolf for Young Adults and the New Plays Initiative where it received its world premiere in February, 2005. The play was reprised in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theatre in October, 2006 by popular demand. The Bluest Eye received its off-Broadway premiere at the New Victory Theater in New York in November, 2006.The Bluest Eye written by African American writer Toni Morrison narrates a tragic story about a black girl who longs for a pair of blue eyes owned exclusively by white people. Strongly influenced by white dominated culture, many other black women are also lost in the myth of white beauty. However, in addition to the description of this negative impact, Morrison, in her novel, also explores effective approaches to demystify the myth of white beauty and maintain the real-self of the black people through the voice of a rebellious narrator.4、MotifsMotifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.The Dick-and-Jane NarrativeThe novel opens with a narrative from a Dick-and-Jane reading primer, a narrative that is distorted when Morrison runs its sentences and then its words together. The gap between the idealized, sanitized, upper-middle-class world of Dick and Jane (who we assume to be white, though we are never told so) and the often dark and ugly world of the novel is emphasized by the chapter headings excerpted from the primer. But Morrison does not mean for us to think that the Dick-and-Jane world is better—in fact, it is largely because the black characters have internalized white Dick-and-Jane values that they are unhappy. In this way, the Dick and Jane narrative and the novel provide ironic commentary on each other.The Seasons and NatureThe novel is divided into the four seasons, but it pointedly refuses to meet the expectations of these seasons. For example, spring, the traditional time of rebirth and renewal, reminds Claudia of being whipped with new switches, and it is the season when Pecola’s is raped. Pecola’s baby dies in autumn, the season of harvesting. Morrison uses natural cycles to underline the unnaturalness and misery of her characters’ ex periences. To some degree, she also questions the benevolence of nature, as when Claudia wonders whether “the earth itself might have been unyielding” to someone like Pecola.Whiteness and ColorIn the novel, whiteness is associated with beauty and cleanliness (particularly according to Geraldine and Mrs. Breedlove), but also with sterility. In contrast, color is associated with happiness, most clearly in the rainbow of yellow, green, and purple memories Pauline Breedlove sees when making love with Cholly. Morrison uses this imagery to emphasize the destructiveness of the black community’s privileging of whiteness and to suggest that vibrant color, rather than the pure absence of color, is a stronger image of happiness and freedom.Eyes and VisionPecola is obsessed with having blue eyes because she believes that this mark of conventional, white beauty will change the way that she is seen and therefore the way that she sees the world. There are continual references to other characters’ eyes as well—for example, Mr. Yacobowski’s hostility to Pecola resides in the blankness in his own eyes, as well as in his inability to see a black girl. This motif underlines the novel’s repeated concern for the difference between how we see and how we are seen, and the difference between superficial sight and true insight.Dirtiness and CleanlinessThe black characters in the novel who have internalized white, -middle-class values are obsessed with cleanliness. Geraldine and Mrs. Breedlove are excessively concerned with housecleaning—though Mrs. Breedlove cleans only the house of her white employers, as if the Breedlove apartment is beyond her help. This fixation on cleanliness extends into the women’s moral and emotional quests for purity, but the obsession with domestic and moral sanitation leads them to cruel coldness. In contrast, one mark of Claudia’s strength of character is her pleasure in her own dirt, a pleasure that represents self-confidence and a correct understanding of the nature of happiness.5、SymbolsSymbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.The HouseThe novel begins with a sentence from a Dick-and-Jane narrative: “Here is thehouse.” Homes not only indicate socioeconomic status in this novel,but they also symbolize the emotional situations and values of the characters who inhabit them. The Breedlove -apartment is miserable and decrepit, suffering from Mrs. Breedlove’s preference for her employer’s home over her own and symbolizing the misery of the Breedlove family. The MacTeer house is drafty and dark, but it is carefully tended by Mrs. MacTeer and, according to Claudia, filled with love, symbolizing that family’s comparative cohesion.Bluest Eye(s)To Pecola, blue eyes symbolize the beauty and happiness that she associates with the white, middle-class world. They also come to symbolize her own blindness, for she gains blue eyes only at the cost of her sanity. The “bluest” eye could also mean the saddest eye. Furthermore, eye puns on I, in t he sense that the novel’s title uses the singular form of the noun (instead of The Bluest Eyes) to express many of the characters’ sad isolation.The MarigoldsClaudia and Frieda associate marigolds with the safety and well-being of Pecola’s baby. Their ceremonial offering of money and the remaining unsold marigold seeds represents an honest sacrifice on their part. They believe that if the marigolds they have planted grow, then Pecola’s baby will be all right. More generally, marigolds represent the constant renewal of nature. In Pecola’s case, this cycle of renewal is perverted by her father’s rape of her.。
托尼莫里森致辞诺贝尔文学奖
托尼·莫里森诺贝尔奖致辞Autumn 1998 (6.3)Pages 46-50The Bird in Our Hand: Is It Living or Dead?Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech1993Toni Morrison, American writer and 1993 Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature. Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (1997).Morrison's speech was delivered in Stockholm on December 7, 1993. An audio version of the speech read by the author herself is available from Random House Audio (RH 348).A hardbound print version is available from Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN 0-679-43437-2). For more information about the Nobel Prizes, visit the official Nobel Committee site in Sweden at <www.nobel.se>. A mirrored site is located in San Diego (USA) at<>. In commemoration of a Century of Nobel Prizes, an Electronic Nobel Museum will be inaugurated in 2001. Global, open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, this flexible, cost efficient Museum using the medium of the Internet will be just one more legacy of some of that oil that was produced at the turn of last century in Baku.Once upon a time . . .Members of the Swedish Academy, ladies and gentlemen, narrative has never been merely entertainment for me. It is, I believe, one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge. I hope you will understand then why I begin these remarks with the opening phrase of what must be the oldest sentence in the world and the earliest one we rememberfrom childhood, "Once upon a time.""Once upon a time there was an old woman. Blind but wise." Or was it an old man? A guru, perhaps. Or a griot soothing restless children. I have heard this story, or one exactly like it, in the lore of several cultures."Once upon a time there was an old woman. Blind. Wise."In the version I know, the woman is the daughter of slaves, black, American, and lives alone in a small house outside of town. Her reputation for wisdom is without peer and without question.Among her people, she is both the law and its transgression. The honor she is paid and the awe in which she is held reach beyond her neighborhood to places far away; to the city where the intelligence of rural prophets is the source of much amusement.One day the woman is visited by some young people who seem bent on disprovin g her clairvoyance and showing her up for the fraud they believe she is. Their plan is simple: they enter her house and ask the one question the answer to which rides solely on her difference from them, a difference they regard as a profound disability: he r blindness. They stand before her, and one of them says."Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird. Tell me whether it is living or dead."She does not answer, and the question is repeated. "Is the bird I am holding living or dead?"Still she does not answer. She is blind and cannot see her visitors, let alone what is in their hands. She does notknow their color, gender or homeland. She only knows their motive.The old woman's silence is so long, the young people have trouble holding their laughter.Finally she speaks, and her voice is soft but stern. "I don't know," she says. "I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands."Her answer can be taken to mean: if it is dead, you have either found it that way or you have killed it. If it is alive, you can still kill it. Whether it is to stay alive is your decision. Whatever the case, it is your responsibility.For parading their power and her helplessness, the young visitors are reprimanded, told they are responsible not only for the act of mockery but also for the small bundle of life sacrificed to achieve its aims. The blind woman shifts attention away from assertions of power to the instrument through which that power is exerci sed.Speculation on what (other than its own frail body) that bird in the hand might signify has always been attractive to me, but especially so now, thinking as I have been about the work I do that has brought me to this company. So I choose to read the b ird as"language" and the woman as a "practiced writer."She is worried about how the language she dreams in, given to her at birth, is handled, put into service, even withheld from her for certain nefarious purposes. Being a writer, she thinks of language partly as a system, partly as a living thing over which one has control.But mostly as agency - as an act with consequences. So the question the children put to her, "Is it living or dead?" is not unreal, because she thinks of language as susceptible to death, erasure; certainly imperiled and salvageable only by an effort of the will. She believes that if the bird in the hands of her visitors is dead, the custodians are responsible for the corpse.For her, a dead language is not only one no longer spoken or written, it is unyielding language content to admire its own paralysis. Like status language, censored and censoring. Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than to maintain the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance.However moribund, it is not without effect, for it actively thwarts the intellect, stalls conscience, suppresses human potential. Unreceptive to interrogation, it cannot form or tolerate new ideas, shape other thoughts, tell another story, fill baffling silences. Official language smitheried to sanction ignorance and preserve privilege is a suit of armor, polished to shocking glitter, a husk from which the knight departed long ago. Yet there it is; dumb, predatory, sentimental.Exciting reverence in schoolchildren,providing shelter for despots,summoning false memories of stability,harmony among the public.She is convinced that when languagedies, out of carelessness, disuse,indifference, and absence of esteem, orkilled by fiat, not only she herself butall users and makers are accountable for its demise.The first oil tanker, the Zoroaster, which belonged to the Nobel Brothers (late 1800s). In her country, children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the void of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, orexpressing love.But she knows tongue-suicide is not only the choice of children. It is common among the infantile heads of state and power merchants whose evacuated language leaves them with no access to what is left of their human instincts, for they speak only to those who obey, or in order to force obedience.The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties, replacing them with menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity-driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities; hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek - it must be rejected, altered and exposed.It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks it s fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and can not, do not, permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.The old woman is keenly aware that no intellectual mercenary or insatiable dictator, no paid-for politician or demagogue, no counterfeit journalist would be persuaded by her thoughts. There is, and will be, rousing language to keep citizens armed and arming; slaughtered and slaughtering in the malls, courthouses, postoffices, playgrounds, bedrooms and boulevards; stirring, memorializing language to mask the pity and waste of needless death.There will be more diplomatic languge to countenance rape, torture, assassination. There is, and will be, more seductive, mutant language designed to throttle women, to pack their throats like paté-producing geese with their own unsayable, transgressive words; there will be more of the language of surveillance disguised as research; of politics and history calculated to render the suffering of millions mute; language glamorized to thrill the dissatisfied and bereft into assaulting their neighbors; arrogant pseudo-empirical language crafted to lock creative people into cages of inferiority and hopelessness.Underneath the eloquence, the glamour, the scholarly associations, however stirring or seductive, the heart of such language is languishing, or perhaps not beating at all - if the bird is already dead.She has thought about what could have been the intellectual history of any discipline if it had not insisted upon, or been forced into, the waste of time and life that rationalizations for and representations of dominance required - lethal discourses of exclusion blocking access to cognition for both the excluder and the excluded.The conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story is that the collapse was a misfortune. That it was the distraction or the weight of many languages that precipitated the tower's failed architecture. That one monolithic language would have expedited the building and heaven would have been reached. Whose heaven, she wonders? And what kind? Perhaps the achievement of Paradise was premature, a little hasty if no one could take the time to understand other languages, other views, other narratives. Had they, the heaven they imagined might have been found at their feet. Complicated, demanding, yes, but a view of heaven as life; not heaven as post-life.She would not want to leave her young visitors with the impression that language should be forced to stay alive merely to be. The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers. Although its poise is sometimes in displacing experience, it is not a substitute for it.It arcs toward the place where meaning may lie. When a President of the United States [Abraham Lincoln] thought about the graveyard his country had become, and said [at his address at Gettsyburg in 1863],"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. But it will never forget what they did here," his simple words were exhilarating in their life-sustaining properties because they refused to encapsulate the reality of 600,000 dead men in a cataclysmic race war.Refusing to monumentalize, disdaining the "final word," the precise "summing up," acknowledging their "poor power to add or detract," his words signal deference to the uncapturability of the life it mourns. It is the deference that moves her, that recognition that language can never live up to life once and for all. Nor should it. Language can never "pin down" slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity, is in its reach toward the ineffable.Be it grand or slender, burrowing, blasting or refusing to sanctify; whether it laughs out loud or is a cry without an alphabet, the choice word or the chosen silence, unmolested language surges toward knowledge, not its destruction. But who does not know of literature banned because it is interrogative; discredited because it is critical; erased because alternate? And how many are outraged by the thought of a self-ravaged tongue?Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that securesour difference - our human difference - the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."Once upon a time. . ." Visitors ask an old woman a question. Who are they, these children? What did they make of that encounter? What did they hear in those final words: "The bird is in your hands?" A sentence that gestures toward possibility, or one that drops a latch? Perhaps what the children heard was, "It is not my problem. I am old, female, black, blind. What wisdom I have now is in knowing I cannot help you. The future of language is yours."They stand there. Suppose nothing was in their hands. Suppose the visit was only a ruse, a trick to get to be spoken to, taken seriously as they have not been before. A chance to interrupt, to violate the adult world, its miasma of discourse about them. Urgent questions are at stake, including the one they have asked: "Is the bird we hold living or dead?" Perhaps the question meant: "Could someone tell us what is life? What is death?" No trick at all; no silliness. A straightforward question worthy of the attention of a wise one. An old one. And if the old and wise who have lived life and faced death cannot describe either, who can?But she does not; she keeps her secret, her good opinion of herself, her gnomic pronouncements, her art without commitment. She keeps her distance, enforces it and retreats into the singularity of isolation, in sophisticated, privileged space. Nothing, no word follows her declaration of transfer. That silence is deep, deeper than the meaning available in the words she has spoken. It shivers, this silence, and the children, annoyed, fill it with language invented on the spot."Is there no speech," they ask her, "no words you can give us that help us break through your dossier of failures? Through the education you have just given us that is no education at all because we are paying close attention to what you have done as well as to what you have said - to the barrier you have erected between generosity and wisdom? "We have no bird in our hands, living or dead. We have only you and our important question. Is the nothing in our hands something you could not bear to contemplate, to even guess? Don't you remember being young, when language was magic without meaning?"When what you could say, could not mean? When the invisible was what imagination strove to see? When questions and demands for answers burned so brightly you trembled with fury at not knowing?"Do we have to begin consciousness with a battle heroes and heroines like you have already fought and lost, leaving us with nothing in our hands except what you have imagined is there? Your answer is artful, but its artfulness embarrasses us and ought to embarrassyou. Your answer is indecent in its self-congratulation. A made-for-television script that makes no sense if there is nothing in our hands."Why didn't you reach out, touch us with your soft fingers, delay the sound bite, the lesson, until you knew who we were? Did you so despise our trick, our modus operandi, that you could not see that we were baffled about how to get your attention? We are young. Unripe. We have heard all our short lives that we have to be responsible. "What could that possibly mean in the catastrophe this world has become; where, as a poet said, 'nothing needs to be exposed since it is already barefaced?' Our inheritance is an affront. You want us to have your old, blank eyes and see only cruelty and mediocrity."Do you think we are stupid enough to perjure ourselves again and again with the fiction of nationhood? How dare you talk to us of duty when we stand waist deep in the toxin of your past?"You trivialize us and trivialize the bird that is not in our hands. Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? You are an adult. The old one, the wise one."Stop thinking about saving your face. Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created. We will not blame you if your reach exceeds your grasp; if love so ignites your words that they go down in flames and nothing is left but their scald."Or if, with the reticence of a surgeon's hands, your words suture only the places where blood might flow. We know you can never do it properly - once and for all. "Passion is never enough; neither is skill. But try. For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us beli ef's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul."You, old woman, blessed with blindness, can speak the language that tells us what only language can: how to see without pictures. Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation."Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company. "Tell us about ships turned away from shorelines at Easter, placenta in a field. Tell us about a wagonload of slaves, how they sang so softly their breath was indistinguishable from the falling snow. How they knew from the hunch of the nearestshoulder that the next stop would be their last."How with hands prayered in their sex, they thought of heat, then sun. Lifting their faces as though it was there for the taking. Turning as though there for the taking. They stop at an inn. The driver and his mate go in with the lamp, leaving them humming in the dark. The horse's void steams into the snow beneath its hooves and the hiss and melt are the envy of the freezing slaves."The inn door opens: a girl and a boy step away from its light. They climb into the wagon bed. They boy will have a gun in three years, but now he carries a lamp and a jug of warm cider. They pass it from mouth to mouth."The girl offers bread, pieces of meat and something more: a glance into the eyes of the one she serves. One helping for each man, two for each woman. And a look. They look back. The next stop will be their last. But not this one. This one is warmed."It's quiet again when the children finish speaking, until the woman breaks into the silence."Finally," she says. "I trust you now. I trust you with the bird that is not in your hands because you have truly caught it. Look. How lovely it is, this thing we have done - together."“在从前某个时候有一个老妇。
翻译BelovedbyToniMorrison
翻译BelovedbyToniMorrison 翻译《宠儿》——托尼·莫里森《宠儿》是美国作家托尼·莫里森于1987年发表的一部小说,本文将对该小说进行翻译。
《宠儿》通过揭露奴隶制度的残酷性,探究家庭、记忆和自由的复杂关系,以及黑人在美国历史中的地位,展现了莫里森卓越的文学才华。
小说的故事发生在19世纪末的美国南方,主要围绕着奴隶女的经历展开。
故事的主要人物是塞斯,她是一个在田地上工作的奴隶。
而她拥有的宝贵的东西,正是那段曾经属于她的自由时光。
小说通过塞斯的回忆,展示了她在奴役和自由之间不断变换的身份。
在塞斯的回忆中,读者得以追溯她的童年和成年时期。
小说通过描述她在奴隶主家庭的生活,以及与其他奴隶的关系,揭示了奴隶制度下黑人家庭的痛苦与苦难。
读者还会看到塞斯与自己的母亲的感情纠葛,以及她对家庭的思念。
小说的另一个重要主题是对奴隶女性身体的控制和剥夺。
塞斯作为奴隶女性,身体是她所受的压迫和剥削的象征。
她的身体不再属于她自己,而是成为她的奴隶主非法占有的对象。
这一主题从小说的开头一直贯穿到结尾,深入剖析了奴隶制度对女性的摧残。
通过塞斯的故事,莫里森不仅展示了奴隶制对黑人社区的破坏,也揭示了黑人社区中内部的阶级分化和对抗。
小说中的角色们不断为了权力和地位而相互争斗,使得整个社区充满了敌意和矛盾。
这一描绘与塞斯对自由的渴望形成了鲜明的对比,凸显了黑人社区内部的复杂关系。
同时,《宠儿》还探索了黑人人物的记忆和身份问题。
塞斯回忆起她作为奴隶的经历,以及她在自由之后的生活,这既是对她个人身份的反思,也是对整个黑人群体历史的再现。
莫里森通过描写塞斯与其他黑人人物的关系,以及他们对共同经历的回忆,探究了黑人身份和历史的融合。
《宠儿》以其独特的叙事风格和深入的主题展示了莫里森作为一位重要作家的才华。
她通过精细入微的描写和复杂的叙事结构,为读者呈现了一个生动而令人难忘的故事。
小说中的每个细节都是深思熟虑的,呈现了作者对历史和人类命运的深刻洞察力。
Toni Morrison
中文名:托尼· 莫里森 外文名:Toni Morrison 别名:琪洛· 沃尔德 国籍:美国 民族:非洲裔 出生地:美国俄亥俄州克里夫兰 出生日期:1931年2月18日 职业:黑人女作家 毕业院校:康奈尔大学 主要成就:1993年诺贝尔文学奖
这些使她接触了丰富、翔实而系统的美国 黑人历史和素材,为她后来的观念和创作 提供了良好的基础。此后,文学创作上的 成功使离异后独自带着两个儿子生活的她 (她于1964年与丈夫离婚)勇敢地辞去了 编辑职务,成为专业作家,并先后在纽约 州立大学、耶鲁大学、巴尔德学院和普林 斯顿大学等院校讲授黑人文学及魔幻现实 主义。
人物简介
托妮· 莫里森(Toni Morrison,1931~) 美国黑人女作家,生于美国俄亥俄州克 里夫兰附近的罗伦镇 ,儿时恰逢经济大 萧条,父亲要做三份工,母亲还要给人 家帮佣,全家才能勉强糊口。托妮的父 母都是极有个性的人:父亲会在他参与 制造的船上刻下自己的名字;母亲曾把 收租人赶出了家门。小托妮是在父亲的 故事和母亲的歌声中长大的。从小身处 的种族歧视环境,加之父母的熏陶,使 她具备了强烈的民族意识和浓厚的文艺 兴趣,这为她后来的写作种下了第一颗 种子。
在写过一个女孩和一个 姑娘之后,这位把文学 创作视为“一生中所尊 重的事业”的女作家才 开始谨慎地写男人,这 就是发表于1977年的 《所罗门之歌》。
从1966年起,托妮作为兰多姆出版社的高 级编辑,平均每年都要编辑六七本书,其 中有囊括三百年间美国黑人史料、被称为 美国黑人史百科全书的图文并茂的《黑人 之书》,以及《拳王阿里自传》等。
Thanks
《柏油孩子》Tar Baby (1981) 《宠儿》 Beloved (1988,获普利策奖) 《爵士乐》 Jazz (1992)
Toni Morrison 托尼莫里森
Other works
Children's literature
•The Book of Mean People (2002) •The Big Box (1999) •Dreaming of Emmett (1986)
Plays
Libretto(歌剧脚本)
•Margaret Garner (first performed May 2005)
淡的爱根本就不是爱tryingputmybabieswheresafe爱的疯狂beloved爱的畸形爱的愧疚社会对女性的戕害女性畸形的反抗与悲惨的挣扎awakening1899goldennotebook1962colorpurple1982beloved1987爱情与欲望的觉醒导致疯狂的绝望与毁灭混乱多变的时代下失重灵魂的探索与追求压迫与反抗的交织唤醒真正的信仰与自由历史与现实的交错缔造民族文化悲壮史诗女权主义作品awakeningbeloved强大的社会文化传统面前女性的困惑与无奈以及难以承受的压抑人性的精神磨难意识觉醒后的绝望与毁灭种族主义的现实暴力和历史创伤导致人格的分裂和全民族的记忆缺失无法摆脱的创伤与折磨女性作品对比awakening觉醒edna埃德娜平淡无奇压抑孤寂裸体自杀只为涅槃重生肉体解放催生深沉思索邂逅爱情挑战权威女性角色对比leoncegostayouthere
1964-a turning point of Morrison
• got married in 1958 • got divorced in 1964 and moved to New York, working as an editor. • began her writing career.
Non-fictions
• Remember : The Journey to School Integration • The Black Book • Birth of a Nation'hood • What Moves at the Margin • Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power :Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality • Play in the Dark : Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
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托尼-莫里森像个魔术师一样,把不同的声音结合组织起来,构筑成不同的人物形象,而不是把自己的观点生硬地塞给读者。她要使读者在阅读过程中真正走进小说里,同她一起品味主人公生活的甘苦,内心世界的奥妙。那是一个黑人女孩在一个充满丑陋、歧视、欺凌的世界中,在来自另一个世界的“蓝色眼眸”的诱惑下,对美丽人生的梦幻。在她身上,你能够看到托尼-莫里森成熟塑造的“苏拉”(93年诺贝尔文学奖获奖作品《苏拉》的主人公)的影子。 莫里森的作品充满魔幻现实主义的神秘因素。《所罗门之歌》之歌中,派特拉平坦、没有肚脐眼的腹部;戴德一世的鬼魂;奶娃与神话小说中寻宝人经历相似的自我发现之旅;取材于黑奴传说的“飞回非洲的黑人”;《柏油娃儿》中来自非洲的“柏油夫人”这些超现实因素及黑人传说和神话,为莫里森的小说蒙上了一层神秘和魔幻色彩。莫里森的语言吸取了黑人口头文学的传统,看似简单却幽默,机智。那是经过精雕细琢之后又不留痕迹的文学语言。她的作品还随处可见色彩和音乐的意想,语言的美感更是得到了加强。 西方评论界普遍认为莫里森继承了拉尔夫·埃利森和詹姆斯·鲍德温的黑人文学传统,她不仅熟悉黑人民间传说、希腊神话和基督教《圣经》 ,而且也受益于西方古典文学的熏陶。在创作手法上,她那简洁明快的手笔具有海明威的风格,情节的神秘隐暗感又近似南方作家福克纳,当然还明显地受到拉美魔幻现实主义的影响。但莫里森更勇于探索和创新,摒弃以往白人惯用的那种描述黑人的语言。
编辑本段写作风格
自我追寻是莫里森小说的一个重要主题。正如非洲和美国在地理上分离的一样,非洲美国人的自也是断裂的。一方面,渴望加入美国主流社会;另一方面,又要保持自身的黑人文化传统。因此,总是在自我和异化之间痛苦地挣扎着。这里黑人自我异化主要由于自我与自身文化传统的断裂(主要表现在忘记过去,历史和母亲缺席等)和白人世界中主流文化对黑人文化渗透和颠覆造成的,而莫里森的小说旨在修复黑人文化,文化传播的断裂及持续性中黑人自我的异化。同时小说家本人也在警示他们:无论怎样都不要离开黑人社区。在莫里森看来离开黑人社区越远也就越危险。因为黑人的自追寻和实现从来不是孤立的,总是要和所处的黑人团体相联系的,离开了这个团体,个体就会孤立无依,并且可能会丧命,更谈不上追寻了。追寻不但不能离开黑人社区,而且还不能脱离过去-----历史。对莫里森而言,黑人的过去是黑人无法割断的纽带,过去是黑人文化精髓的宝库,只有回归过去才能找到黑人灵魂的寄托。这里“过去”,在莫里森的笔下,既包括非洲也包括旧南方,而旧南方也和非洲一样,是指黑人传统。莫里森小说中的人物或在争取自由的道路上过于疲惫,或是误以为他们已经获得了自由,或是面临着被白人文化所同化的生存困境,往往忘记过去,从而放弃自我追寻。
编本段评价与成就
西方评论界普遍认为莫里森继承了拉尔夫·埃利森和詹姆斯·鲍德温的黑人文学传统,她不仅熟悉黑人民间传说、希腊神话和基督教《圣经》,而且也受益于西方古典文学的熏陶。在创作手法上,她那简洁明快的手笔具有海明威的风格,情节的神秘隐暗感又近似南方作家福克纳,当然还明显地受到拉美魔幻现实主义的影响。但莫里森更勇于探索和创新,摒弃以往白人惯用的那种描述黑人的语言。 1993年,由于她“在小说中以丰富的想象力和富有诗意的表达方式使美国现实的一个极其重要方面充满活力”,莫里森获诺贝尔文学奖。
从祈求到反抗!
从《最蓝的眼睛》中一个黑人小女孩渴望得到一双白人那样的蓝眼睛,经过日夜祈求上帝,最后居然夙愿得偿,真的有了一双美丽的蓝眼睛,却终于发现自己仍然无法摆脱悲惨的命运;到《秀拉》中正是黑人女孩秀拉那种令人瞠目的要把这个世界“撕成两半”的决心让她成为同胞心目中倾慕的独立、大胆和自由精神的化身,美国黑人似是已从只知祈求的儿童发展到决心反抗的青年。
托妮·莫瑞森(1931~)是当今美国最有影响的黑人女作家,《最蓝的眼睛》(1970)是她发表的第一部小说。讲的是一个年仅11岁的黑人少女佩克拉·布里德洛夫,因为相貌平平,不被家人、同学和邻居喜欢,生活压抑,于是便梦想着能有一双像白人姑娘那样美丽的蓝眼睛,因为当时黑人女孩子普遍相信“蓝眼睛的黑人是最美的”。然而美好的梦想与丑陋的现实有着太大的反差。她不仅没有实现自己的愿望,反而被父亲强奸,怀上了身孕,堕入更加痛苦的深渊。理想与现实的矛盾冲突使佩克拉精神错乱,心智疯狂,她出现了幻觉,相信自己真的拥有了一双十分美丽的最蓝的眼睛。30年前,正是这部作品确立了莫瑞森在美国黑人文坛上的地位。之后,她继续探索黑人生活,尤其是黑人妇女的遭遇,又创作了反映黑人反抗精神的小说《秀拉》(Sula, 1973),成名作《所罗门之歌》(Song of Solomon, 1977),获普利策小说奖的《宠儿》(Beloved, 1987),进入90年代后,她还发表了长篇小说《爵士乐》(Jazz, 1992)和《乐园》(The Paradise,1998)。莫瑞森的作品揭示了在美国种族压迫的大背景下,白人文明与黑人传统之间的矛盾冲突,探讨黑人获得自由人格的出路。莫瑞森在作品中利用黑人民间文学和神话传说来渲染气氛,又借鉴魔幻现实主义的创作手法,给环境和人物笼罩了一层诡谲的神秘色彩,把今天的现实描绘成“现代神话”,而且她的语言十分口语化,人物的对话写得生动传神。所有这些特点,使莫瑞森成为当代美国黑人文学的代表和领袖人物,因而,她于1993年荣获诺贝尔文学奖也是毫不奇怪的。奇怪的是1970年出版的这部不足20万字的《最蓝的眼睛》,居然在30年后的今天又大受青睐,跻身新书畅销榜的行列,这是很耐人寻味的。
编辑本段主要作品
莫里森的主要成就在于她的长篇小说。自1970年起,她一共发表了六部长篇小说:《最蓝的眼睛》(1970)、《秀拉》(1973)、《所罗门之歌》(1977,获全国图书评论奖)、《柏油孩子》(1981)、《宝贝儿》(1988,获普利策奖)、《爵士乐》(1992)。这些作品均以美国的黑人生活为主要内容,笔触细腻,人物、语言及故事情节生动逼真,想象力丰富。
托妮·莫瑞森在其处女作《最蓝的眼睛》(1969)及其后的《秀拉》(1973)这两部小说中不仅刻画了佩克拉·勃瑞德拉渥和秀拉·匹斯这两个有着强烈对比的形象,以她们的不同命运及书中众多其他黑人的屈辱生活为人们昭示了作者本民族的过去和现状,并探讨了期 未来的前人管,更一举确立了她“当代美国黑人社会文学观察家”的地位。
编辑本段简介
托妮·莫里森(Toni Morrlson,1931~)美国黑人女作家。生于俄亥俄州钢城洛里恩,父亲是蓝领工人,
母亲在白人家帮佣。1949 年她以优异成绩考入当时专为黑人开设的霍华德大学,攻读英语和古典文学。大学毕业后,又入康奈尔大学专攻福克纳和沃尔夫的小说,并以此获硕士学泣。此后,她在德克萨斯南方大学和霍德华大学任教。1966年,她在纽约兰多姆出版社担任高级编辑,曾为拳王穆罕默德·阿里自传和一些青年黑人作家的作品的出版竭尽全力。她所主编的《黑人之书》,记叙了美国黑人三百年历史,被称为美国黑人史的百科全书。70年代起,她先后在纽约州立大学、耶鲁大学和巴尔德学院讲授美国黑人文学,并为《纽约时报书评周报》撰写过3O篇高质量的书评文章,1987年起出任普林斯顿大学教授,讲授文学创作。莫里森可以说是一位学者型的小说家。
The disallowance of the specific cultures and histories of African-Americans and black women especially is figured in The Bluest Eye primarily as a consequence of or sideline to the more general annihilation of popular forms and images by an ever more all-pervasive and insidious mass culture industry. This industry increasingly disallows the representation of any image not premised on consumption or the production of normative values conducive to it. These values are often rigidly tied to gender and are race-specific to the extent that racial and ethnic differences are not allowed to be represented. One lesson from history, as Susan Willis reiterates, is that "in mass culture many of the social contradictions of capitalism appear to us as if those very contradictions had been resolved" ("I Shop" 183). Among these contradictions we might include those antagonisms continuing in spite of capitalism's benevolent influence, along the axes of economic privilege and racial difference. According to Willis, it is because "all the models [in mass cultural representation] are white"--either in fact or by virtue of their status as "replicants ... devoid of cultural integrity"--that the differences in race or ethnicity (and class, we might add) and the continued problems for which these differences are a convenient excuse appear to be erased or made equal "at the level of consumption" ("I Shop" 184). In other words, economic, racial and ethnic difference is erased and replaced by a purportedly equal ability to consume, even though what is consumed are more or less competing versions of the same white image.