Black Women’s Quest for Subjectivity: Identity Politics in Toni Morrison’s Novels’: Song of Solomon &amp; Beloved

Khamsa Qasim

doi:10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.2p.85

Abstract

Identity politics is a dominant theme in Black feminist fiction. Black Woman’s quest for cultivating a positive identity is often being complicated by the intersecting oppression of race, class and gender. Morrison’s novels describe the secret stories of violence and aggression and capture the lives of abuse survivors and ex-slaves who are trying their best to render their lives normal. In her novels, Morrison presents her female characters as subjects not as marginalized others. Morrison’s women emerge as powerful characters, brave abuse-survivors who try to live under the shadow of oppression but do not lose their identity as human beings. They learn how to heal their emotional and psychological wounds and celebrate their womanhood. Thus through her novels Morrison tries to record the histories of those countless ‘Subaltern’ subjects whose voices and stories have been missing in history. Her novels record the lives of all those female subjects who are left out of the colourful discussion of life.

Highlights

Throughout the history of western culture and thought, certain people, concepts, and ideas have been defined in terms of other
Patricia Hill Collins (2004) in Black Feminist Thought argues that black women are always treated as others in white patriarchal society
No system of oppression can work without ideological justifications

Summary

Introduction

Throughout the history of western culture and thought, certain people, concepts, and ideas have been defined in terms of other. These others pose a threat to the social norms of a civilized society. Black women are presented as mammies, whores, matriarchs, breeders, superwomen and the beasts These negative images of black women are promoted to hide their political, social and economic exploitation. Morrison tries to create a “black aesthetic” that would capture the experiences of coloured women who are “left out of literature” These stereotypical images of black women are sabotaged by Morrison who writes “of the silence behind the stereotype” and gives voice to black female identity (William 2001, p.4)

Morrison’s Black Women and their Quest for Subjectivity

Conclusion