The Construction of African American Women’s Subjectivity in Toni Morrison’s Home

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211120.010How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Toni Morrison; Home; Subjectivity

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s novels mostly focus on the experience of African Americans, especially the African American women’s miserable experience in the white-dominated society. Loss of self-identity has always been Morrison’s concern in her writing. Home, which was published in 2012, tells a story about how the protagonists Frank and Cee reestablish their subjectivities by recovering from severe physical and psychological trauma in the society. In the novel, Morrison depicts Cee’s traumatic experience under racial oppression and discrimination. And Cee’s absence of familial love and education also cause her psychological trauma. This article analyzes Cee’s traumatic experience and loss of subjectivity, and examines her recovery from trauma by setting up stable relationships with others and the black community as well as by retelling the horror memories. It shows the importance of sisterhood for Cee to gather support and realize self-value. At the same time, by recalling and retelling the traumatic events, Cee can face the past bravely and finally construct her subjectivity as a real human being.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhang Bei
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/11/29
TI  - The Construction of African American Women’s Subjectivity in Toni Morrison’s Home
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 57
EP  - 62
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211120.010
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211120.010
ID  - Bei2021
ER  -