摘 要

19世纪末以来，随着女性的解放，越来越多的女性致力于写作，非裔美国女作家开始走上了文学舞台。但由于种族歧视和性别歧视，非裔美国女性文学被排斥在主流文学之外。直到20世纪下半叶民权运动和妇女解放运动日益高涨，非裔美国女性文学才迎来了繁荣和发展的新阶段。本文主要研究非裔美国女性文学在其高潮期的发展，了解当时非裔美国女作家的民族意识觉醒和性别意识觉醒。虽然国内外已有关于非裔美国女性文学的研究，但多集中于以单一作品为例分析非裔美国女性文学的整体特征。本文的创新之处在于：结合爱丽丝·沃克和托妮·莫里森两位著名作家的作品进行对比分析。本文通过比较《紫色》和《所罗门之歌》这两部皆成书于非裔美国女性文学高潮期的作品，研究这两部作品的共同特点和微妙差异，了解美国黑人女性文学在其高潮期的发展变化。

关键词：民族意识；女性性别觉醒；妇女主义

Abstract

With the feminine liberation, more and more women devoted themselves to writing since the end of 19th century, and a number of African-American women writers coming to the literary stage. In any case, African-American female literature was excluded from the mainstream literature from its beginning because of racism and sexism. Until the second half of the 20th century when the civil rights movements and the women's liberation movements were growing higher and higher, African-American female literature ushered in a new phase of prosperity and development. This paper mainly discusses the development of African-American female literature at its climax as well as the awakening of national consciousness and the awakening of female gender at that time. Although there are already relevant studies of African-American female literature at home and abroad, most of them focus on analyzing the overall characteristics of African-American female literature with only one single work as example. My research is original in that it has compared works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. Based on examples of The Color Purple and Song of Solomon—two works finished at the climax of African-American female literature with 20-year time difference, this paper researches the same characteristics and subtle differences between the above two works as well as the developmental changes of African American women's literature in the climax.

Key Words: national consciousness; the awakening of female gender; womanism

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Innovation 2

1.3 Research Objectives and Significance 3

2 An Analysis of the Characteristics of The Color Purple 4

2.1 Plot 4

2.2 Dominating Figure 5

2.3 Metaphors 5

2.4 Womanism 7

3 An Analysis of the Characteristics of Song of Solomon 9

3.1 Plot 9

3.2 Dominating Figure 10

3.3 Metaphors 11

3.4 Feminism 12

4 Comparison of The Color Purple and Song of Solomon 14

4.1 From the Perspective of Culture Return 14

4.2 From the Perspective of Feminism/Womanism 15

4.3 Other Characteristics 15

5 Conclusion 17

References 18

Acknowledgements 19

An Analysis of the Characteristics of African-American Female Literature—Case Studies of The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

1 Introduction

Research Background

Throughout the history of African-American female literature, that black women are engaged in writing is seldom the case because of racial discrimination and sexual discrimination before the 20th century. It is until 20th century that black female writers begin to appear with the influence of the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement as well as the Harlem Renaissance. More and more black women begin to pay attention to the marginalization of their social identity, and pay more and more attention to the living status of black women, therefore African-American female literature comes into being. In the 1960s, with so many social reasons such as the further upsurge of American civil rights movement and the defeat of Vietnam War, American society begins to become freer, more humane and more equal. More and more attention has been paid to the political status of black people, and less and less oppression is intensified on black women. In the context of American cultural integration, African-American female literature has entered the climax of its development, and has gradually been accepted by the mainstream. During this period, a number of outstanding literary workers appear, such as poets Rita Dove and Maya Angelou, novelists Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, etc.

Toni Morrison, the first black female writer to be awarded the Noble Prize for literature in the history, is well-known for keen observation of black American life with her passionate, brief and poetic works. And it is because of her rich imagination and poetic expression that she wins the Noble Prize in 1993. In her representative work Song of Solomon, Morrison fully explains the theme of returning to black culture. In the novel, Morrison portrays a black baby boy who finally returns to nature under the baptism of black culture. The song of Solomon sung by black people and the legend of Solomon flying run through the whole novel, which are both symbols of black culture and the spiritual sustenance of black people 's yearning for freedom and returning to self.

Alice Walker, a Pulitzer Prize winner, novelist, poet and social activist, is devoted to reflecting black women's struggle for their rights in her works, and thus gets a lot of echoes. Her representative work The Color Purple is an outstanding masterpiece of black feminism. Describing the transformation and growth process of a black woman once bound by the old-dated ideas, the novel fully shows the black women's political situation and living conditions under the double oppression of gender and race as well as their resistance to the double oppression and their desire and pursuit for self-improvement and perfect life, which deeply reflects the author's feminist thoughts. The Color Purple also profoundly reveals the connotation of feminism and the positive significance of seeking liberation and equality for black women.

Therefore, it is a great breakthrough point to study developmental characteristics of African-American female literature during the peak periods by comparing representative works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, both of two being typical figures.

Research Innovation

Nowadays, a surging number of studies focus on African-American female literature, but most of them either pay attention to the overall development characteristics of African-American female literature, or analyze the unique style of works of one representative writer. This research takes two famous writers as the research object to compare and analyze the overall characteristics and development changes of African-American female literature in its climax stage, which has high research value and pioneering significance.

When choosing the objective, the research fully considers that Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are both active in 1970s and 1980s, that is, the height of African-American female literature. The research contents of this study, Song of Solomon and The Color Purple—representative works of two writers, are completed in 1977 and 1982 respectively. This means that such comparative analysis can not only research the change and development of African-American female literature during the 1970s and 1980s, but also discuss the overall characteristics of African-American female literature of its climax stage.

Nowadays, African-American Civil Rights Movement and feminism movement in the United States are sweeping all over the world step by step, and the voices against racial discrimination and gender discrimination are becoming louder and louder. Therefore, under the new circumstances, the analytical research of African-American female literature is conducive not only to understand the struggle of black women writers in the 20th century, but also to guide the attention of the current society to the issues of race and gender.

Research Objectives and Significance

Purpose of the study: Based on examples of two African-American women writers with great reputation and their representative works, this research makes a comparison between Alice Walker with The Color Purple and Toni Morrison with Song of Solomon to summarize the developmental characteristics of African-American female literature of its peak period in the 1970s and 1980s. This paper starts from analyzing the plot, the dominating figure and metaphors used through the two novels. On this basis, the research compares their similarities and differences so as to get the unique characteristics of African-American female literature from the perspective of novelistic topics—culture return and feminism/womanism—as well as from the perspective of other details.

Significance of the study: In a sense, African-American female literature has broken the inherent restrictions of male gender, good white stock and middle class to create a special literary framework with their own gender, race, class and culture characteristics, thus becoming the focus of women's literature, American literature and even world literature. Only through this research, can we specifically recognize the serious oppression of black women at that time, their eagerness to change as well as the pursuit of freedom, and can we explicitly understand the literary characteristics of African-American female literature in its peak period. It is the essential approach that we can use to comprehend the identity of black women at that time as well.

2 An Analysis of the Characteristics of The Color Purple

2.1 Plot

The novel The Color Purple consists of 94 letters. Setting in the background of rural Georgia in the south of the United States, the story takes place at the beginning of the 20th century. It tells the story of Celie, an uneducated black girl oppressed by the male, who gets rid of the oppression and grows up to be a self-supporting, independent woman with complete personality and dignity with the help of other women. The novel profoundly reveals the oppression on women, successfully shapes the image of black women who manage to reinvent themselves, and publicizes the theme of female growth and love among women.