Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science) ›› 2012, Vol. 14 ›› Issue (4): 372-376.DOI: -

• 文学研究 • Previous Articles    

Expounding the Construction of the Black Community in Beloved from the Perspective of Space

WANG Xiu-jie1,2   

  1. (1. School of Foreign Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China; 2. College of English, Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China)
  • Received:2012-01-10 Revised:2012-01-10 Online:2012-07-25 Published:2015-11-10
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Abstract: Toni Morrison has a unique understanding of the sociality of space. Her Beloved presents the racial reality, the racial oppression, the racial discrimination, and the racial hatred in the Nineteenth-century America. As a matter of fact, all the problems presented could be boiled down to space. Expounding Beloved through Lefebvres “Spatial Triad” theory can bridge the racial relationship and spatial relationship in the novel, representing the journey of the construction of the black community from a spatial perspective, that is, the white exert their disciplines over the black through the written representations of space and internalize black peoples ideology, bringing about the ideological paralysis within the black community; the black choose the marginal space, carry out their spatial practices deviating from the disciplines of white peoples representations of space and “knit” their own space by means of space of representation. Eventually, the process of the construction of the black community is displayed in their spatial practices and representations.

Key words: Toni Morrison, Beloved, representation of space, space of representation, spatial practice

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