An Ecofeminist Interpretation Of Toni Morrison's Beloved

Toni Morrison is the first African-American who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her representative novel Beloved, which won Morrison Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is regarded as one of the milestones in the American black literature. In the novel, not only women and nature bear a close relationship with each other, but also the individuality and nature are intensely connected with the development of community. The ecofeminism embodied in the novel supplies a good recipe for the removal of racism and sexism, and for the elimination of the ecocrisis and spiritual crisis. This thesis aims to interpret the novel from the ecofeminist perspective. The first part introduces ecofeminism, Toni Morrison and Beloved; the second part elaborates the close relationship between women and nature; the third part analyzes the spiritual ecocrisis in the black community; the fourth part points out the ways to break the bondage and establish a harmonious spiritual home for the black women from the ecofeminist perspective; and the last part concludes the instructive meaning of ecofeminism for the establishment of a harmonious society.