Identity―Reconstruction of African American Females in Toni Morrison’s Trilogy.docVIP

Identity―Reconstruction of African American Females in Toni Morrison’s Trilogy 　　【Abstract】Morrison’s trilogy， Beloved， Jazz and Paradise， represents black women’s traumatic life experience and reveals the significance of sisterhood to black women’s identity-reconstruction.Then it explores the respective representation of sisterhood in Morrison’s trilogy and points out black females can help and respect each other to reconstruct their identity in sisterhood.Also， their quest for self-identity brings vitality to all African Americans’ identity-reconstruction. 　　【Key words】Toni Morrison； trilogy； black females； identity-reconstruction； sisterhood 　　1 Introduction 　　As the first black woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993， Toni Morrison achieves the highest literature praise in her nine novels， among which Beloved， Jazz and Paradise form a trilogy as a unity by depicting African Americans’ life experiences.During their quest for identity， black women are always confused about three specific questions： who am I？ Where am I from and where will I go？ To resolve these questions， they should understand that “identity” is constructing and closely related to history， race， gender and so on.Stuck in a “genderized， sexualized， wholly racialized world” [5]4， black women’s identity-reconstruction in sisterhood are urgent and significant. 　　2 Traumas which black females underwent in Beloved， Jazz and Paradise 　　As the most marginalized group in white-dominated America， black women are tortured by the whites and even black men so painfully that they lose their black voice so long.Thus， to reconstruct their subjectivity and identity， black women are forced to look back on their unspeakable past. 　　2.1 Three generations of black women in Beloved 　　Baby Suggs， a representative of the first generation， luckily gets ten years of freedom after sixty years of life under slavery.As a slave， she is randomly raped， and bear eight children.Unluckily， all of t