Foucault's Power Discourse and Morrison's The Beloved

Abstract

Referring himself as an ＂experimenter＂, Foucault challenges many fundamental philosophical ideas in the Western tradition with a socio‐historical approach. His power discourse theory, in particular, by reexamining power as a relational network that intertwines with economic, political, social and all other factors, reveals an immense power mechanism that enfolds all human societies in history. His understanding of power relations is, to some extent, vividly mirrored in Toni Morrison's novel The Beloved, where the author, by using a ＂language that drinks blood＂, presents the prevailing operation of power under the shadow of slavery. Morrison ruthlessly snatches readers into the atrocious Afro‐American history and tries to regain power and discourse for the marginalized. By inquiring into Foucault's power discourse theory, this essay analyzes how dynamic power interactions between the white and the black play a central part in shaping the subjectivity of individuals and constructing history in Morrison's The Beloved.