(最终稿)从芭芭拉____史密斯的黑人女性主义批评视角看《宠儿》的弑婴母题

南京晓庄学院

本科生学士学位论文

从芭芭拉·史密斯的黑人女性主义批评视角看《宠儿》

的弑婴母题

ON THE MOTIF OF INFANTICIDE IN BELOVED FROM PERSPECTIVE OF BARBARA SMITH’S

BLACK FEMINIST CRITICISM

所在院（系）：行知学院

学生：张林枫

指导老师：陈永

研究起止日期：2010年6月至2011年4月

二○一一年四月

Abstract and Key Words

Abstract:Beloved by Toni Morrison is taken as the best of Morrison’s works. Based on the real story of Margaret Garner, a black woman, Morrison has presented a full picture of the miserable situation of

the black women under the oppression of slavery. The present thesis attempts to make a tentative study on infanticide from perspective of Babara Smith’s black feminism theory. It mainly analyzes Sethe’s infanticide and presents what prompts her to kill her baby. Sethe is constantly exposed to the traumas under the oppression of slavery, racism and sexism, and her infanticide indicates her self-consciousness and resistance to these oppressions.

Key words: infanticide; black feminism; Sethe

摘要：托尼·莫里森的《宠儿》被誉为莫里森的最杰出的著作。小说的原型来源于玛格丽特·加纳，一个女黑奴的真实经历。本文试图从芭芭拉史密斯的黑人女性主义理论角度探究这部小说的弑婴主题。本文着重分析塞丝的弑婴经历，并剖析其原因。在奴隶制、种族主义以及性别歧视三重压迫下，塞丝身心遭受巨大的折磨。塞丝的弑婴意味着她的觉醒和反抗。

关键词：弑婴；黑人女性主义；塞丝

CONTENTS

1. Introduction.................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

1.1 Introduction to Beloved

1.2 Introduction to Toni Morrison and Black Feminism

1.3 Literature Review

2. Analysis of Infanticide in Beloved from the Feminist Perspective 错误！未定义书签。

2.1 Sethe’s Suffering fr om Slavery, Racism and Sexism

2.2 Sethe’s Awakening of Self-consciousness

2.3 Sethe’s Infanticide

3. Conclusion (6)

Bibliography (7)

Acknowledgements (8)

On the Motif of Infanticide in Beloved from the Perspective of Barbara Smith’s Black Feminist Criticism

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction to Beloved and Toni Morrison

Beloved presents the truths that even history sometimes fails to deliver. Morrison dedicates the novel to “Sixty Million and More” slaves and acknowledges the freedom that all the slaves yearned for (Therese, 2001). The publication of Belove d in 1987 shakes the American literary world, and is heralded as a milestone in American literary history.

Set in the Reconstruction era (1870-90) after the Civil War and emancipation, the novel revolves around a child murder case committed by a desperate slave mother in Cincinnati, Ohio for protecting her daughter from the potential sufferings of slavery. It is inspired by a true story of Margaret Garner, an escaped slave from Kentucky who chose death for herself and her children rather than suffering from the misery and indignity of slavery. However, she succeeded only in killing one and the rest were recaptured and sold. Morrison transplants the true story into the novel and creates the mother infanticide Sethe, and the dead baby Beloved (Andrews, 1999). This novel penetrates deeply into the hearts of black women and reveals their agonies and distorted maternal love under the multiple oppressions of sexism, racism and class prejudices imposed on black women.

Toni Morison is the first black female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is hailed as a remarkable representative of black female writers. She believes that she is a “black woman novelist”, as she says, “As a black and a woman, I have access to a range of emotions and perceptions that were unavailable to p eople who were neither.” (Caldwell, 1994: 243)

Throughout her life, Toni Morrison has contributed to the study and development of black and women literature. In addition to Beloved, she has written even more novels. As a matter of fact, Morrison’s novels are closely associated with two notions: “black” and “female”. Seven out of her eight novels are drawn from women’s unique experiences. In her writings, Morrison is dedicated to breaking the stereotyped black female figures portrayed in the canon of American literature,vividly creates a wide range of new images of black women, and presents the black women’s subjectivity. Besides, Morrison is also engaged in the description of black men and their relationship with women. Morrison’s great concern over the i ssues of black men exerts profound influence on other black women writers and stimulates the shift of the focus in black feminist criticism. Toni Morrison clearly