Postcolonial african American female writing
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Date
2013
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university of Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
This study tries to investigate the representation of black women in Toni Morrison's beloved from the slave mother point of view. The main objective is to demonstrate how Morrison- in a postcolonial context- draws on history, memory, magical realism and imagination in order to invert dominant Western assumptions. In order to highlight this point, an analyses of the development of magic realism is made to understand its connection with history. Following this, the next stage is to analyze the presence of the ghost of beloved in the narrative by defining its identity, and denote the reasons and effects behind its presence on the characters and the community. The study also attempts to make a link between
Postcolonial theory and african american literature. The main concern is to show that the concept of “Postcolonialism” exists in the american literature, through analyzing the history of the colonized societies within. By focusing on showing that the literature produced by some african american writers can be regarded as postcolonial; by examining their
hybridized characters, and try to show how they live in the space of in-between-ness. Using Black women’s response to the conflicting roles shaped by the american society, the question asked is How these women reflected and challenged the norm to create a new meaning of black Womanhood, and define the context of slavery for blacks, and how black women
operated in slave society to affirm their identity through their writings. Furthermore, the thesis discusses magical realism as a form of literary expression and artistic style used by some postcolonial authors. First, a definition of this term is given, in addition to its postcolonial significance in the black Feminist Thought. Further, a clarification of the use of one of its
devices – the supernatural- is made to explain the significance of the “Ghost” in literature and popular culture.
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Black women