摘 要

黑人女性作为一个具有双重身份的社会群体，遭受着双重压迫：种族歧视和性别压迫。托尼莫·里森和爱丽丝·沃克是新一代具有创新意识的美国黑人女作家，她们将自己年幼时的经历或者参加政治运动的经验用文学的笔触记录下来，再现黑人女性当时的生存状况。凯瑟琳·斯多克则是一位当代白人女性作家，她的著作有且只有一本就是《相助》，其创造灵感来自于照顾了年幼时自己的黑人女佣德米特里。本文选取不同种族的三位女性作家的作品《最蓝的眼睛》、《紫颜色》和《相助》来展现二十世纪初到二十世纪六十年代美国黑人女性主体意识发展的艰难历程。黑人女性的主体意识从矛盾到成长到最后的成熟不仅是个体努力的结果也是群体内部和群体之间相互支撑的结果。

关键词：黑人女性；主体意识；自我矛盾；自我成长；自我认可

Abstract

As a social community with dual identities, black women suffer from double oppression: racial discrimination and gender oppression. Tony Morison and Alice Walker are a new generation of innovative African American women writers who record their experiences of youth or political movements with literary brushstrokes to reproduce the living conditions of black women at the time. Kathryn Stocket is a contemporary white female writer. Her book has only one, The Help, which is inspired by the care of a black maid named Demetrie when she was little. This paper selects the works of the three female writers of different races, The Blue Eyes, The Color Purple and The Help to show the difficult course of the development of the subject consciousness of black women in the early 20th century to the 1960s. The subjective consciousness of black women from contradiction to growth to final maturity is not only the result of individual efforts but also the mutual support between different communities.

Key Words: Black female; subject consciousness; self-contradiction; self-growth; self-identity

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The self-contradiction of black female subject consciousness 3

2.1 The elucidation of subject consciousness in The Bluest Eyes 3

2.2 The explanation 3

2.2.1 Persecution by male chauvinism 3

2.2.2 Persecution by violence 4

2.2.3 Collaborative persecution of the black community 5

2.2.4 Pecola herself 5

3 The self-growth of black female subject consciousness 7

3.1 The elucidation of female subject in The Color Purple 7

3.2 The explanation 7

3.2.1 Persecution by male chauvinism 7

3.2.2 Black women's help 8

4 The self-identity of black female subject consciousness 11

4.1 The elucidation of subject consciousness in The Help 11

4.2 The explanation 11

4.2.1 The influence by African-American Civil Rights Movement 11

4.2.2 The white girl's help 12

4.2.3 Black sisters' mutual help 12

4.2.4 Same-sex mutual help across races 13

5 Conclusion 15

References 17

Acknowledgements 19

Self-contradiction, Self-growth and Self-identity of Black Female Subject Consciousness

1 Introduction

The history of blacks being sold as slaves to the American continent led to the fact that black women are destined to be the most oppressed group. On one hand, they are subject to the brutal oppression and ruthless abuse of white ethnic society. The stubborn and ruthless white racist forces not only seek to deprive the blacks of their political freedom, but also seek to deprive their economic autonomy. White culture rules black culture, and the ideological ideology of white society oppresses black people heavily. As a victim of this kind of racism, black women are always at the bottom of society in terms of political economy and social status. One the other hand, like women of other races, black women are also subject to the domination of patriarchal society. Black men are in a dominant position, and black women are in a disadvantaged and obedient position. In the political, economic, legal, religious, educational, military or family spheres, all authoritative positions are reserved for men. What women can do is doing housework and taking care of children at home. Influenced by the male chauvinism in the white culture, the black males basically have no emotional and spiritual communication in dealing with the wife. Everything is as man wishes. If man is slightly unsatisfied, woman will be reprimanded. This double-edge identity has caused black women to suffer physical and spiritual damage. And the spiritual destruction is reflected in the subjective consciousness of black women. In the early white works, black women were the image of the female slaves who worked hard, such as William Faulkner's character Dilsey. They are the "labor machines" of the whites in the south. During the two Harlem Renaissance periods, many male writers are known for discovering the ancient traditions of black people and building national pride. They focus on the description of conflict between races. But until the 1970s, with the rise and development of the black feminist movement, many black female writers emerge. They begin to describe the dual identity, social situation and spiritual existence of black women. Tony Morrison and Alice Walker are represented. In the days that followed, the literature about black women emerges endlessly. People are more and more consciously concerned about the development of feminism.

This paper selects three works by three female writers to discuss the development of black women's subjective consciousness in a vertical perspective, which are The Bluest Eyes, The Color Purple and The Help by starting from the textual content of these three novels. This paper explores the development process of black female subjective consciousness from self-contradiction to self-growth to self-identity. It helps readers know the inner world of the black women who suffer a lot from the oppression of race, gender and white mainstream culture and hence are caught in the confusion of identity cognition. Specifically, female subjective consciousness means that women can consciously recognize and fulfill their historical mission, social responsibility, and life obligations, clearly understand their own characteristics, and participate in social life in a unique way to affirm and realize their social values (Yang, 2002). The female subjective consciousness unites "human being" and "women", embodying the value pursuit including gender and transcending gender. Although subject consciousness is labeled with the word "subject", it actually has a very deep social attribute. What human beings think are influenced by different cultures and people with various identities in the social environment. No man is an island so the whole society needs to do more to help these women out.

2 The self-contradiction of black female subject consciousness

2.1 The elucidation of subject consciousness in The Bluest Eyes

The self-contradiction of black female subject consciousness is that women have a strong desire to realize self-worth, but they cannot find a balance in the interlacing and conflict between traditional and realistic concepts. They are eager to find the meaning of life. When they are not recognized by the society, their mind is in a contradiction.

On the toughest and lonely days, Tony Morrison created her first novel, The Bluest Eyes, which was published in 1970. Pecola is the heroine of this novel. The 12-year-old black girl Pecola believes that having the beauty of a white person is her greatest life value. This unfair world brings her a lot of malice. The rudeness of the parents, the ridicule of the classmates and the unfriendliness of the strangers make her realize that it might be the reason for her dark skin. She is friendly and eager to be loved, but the real world is cruel. She begins to fantasize that she has a pair of blue eyes and becomes a beautiful little girl, so that her parents would love her, and her classmates would be willing to be friends with her, and strangers would respect her. However, Pecola can't deal with the relationship between reality and illusion, can't find the balance between the two, and loses herself in the search for the value of being loved and the reality. Pecola drops her spiritual sustenance and eventually forms the process of self-contradiction.

2.2 The explanation

2.2.1 Persecution by male chauvinism

The Bluest Eyes shows the tragedy of black women's subjective consciousness under the impact of white strong culture. Through the destruction process of Pecola's growth, the novel first reveals another source of pain for African Americans, that is, African Americans are not only victims of racial oppression and discrimination, but also victims of white culture. In this novel, there is an intrinsic white aesthetic that distorts black women.