Struggling Out Of Trauma: Multi-spaces In Beloved

Beloved, as one of the trilogy of Toni Morrison, proves itself to be therepresentative masterpiece of reconstruction of Afro-American history and identity.It explores issues of slavery, its agonizing stigma on black people, as well as arduousand tortuous resistance of black people, which embody in the development of theghost story happened in a small space124on Bluestone Road. The novel not onlyreplays bitter history of black people, but also reveals the progressive processes ofconquering the psychological trauma and haze caused by slave history in explicitdetail by means of multilevel voices narrative unfolded in multi-spaces.In the novel, Morrison employs multi-angle fragmentation narrative under theinfluence of postmodernism, which becomes her unique creating style. In particular,the adoption of multi-spaces under ternary combination endows the novel withmultilevel spaces in which black history and reality are on show jointly, which isclosely related with the term of literature space theory, specifically, Henri Lefebvre’strialectics in The Production of Space and Edward W. Soja’s third space theory. ToniMorrison brilliantly creates multi-spaces in the novel and combines them together asthe third space, which adds magic and multi-spaces to the novel so that the storydevelops in the multi-spaces simultaneously which boosts anfractuous plot andunique space structure. Meanwhile, the skillful arrangement of space conveysMorrison’s close attention on the awakening of black consciousness and fate of blackpeople in the third space. In Beloved, by creating multi-spaces, namely, perceivedspace, conceived space, lived space, and the third space as well as embedded spacesin them, Toni Morrison reveals black people’s arduous and tortuous process to resistslavery and conquer trauma caused by its inhumanity step by step in themulti-spaces.Based on literature space theory, this thesis aims at revealing multi-spatialityin Beloved through probing connotations of perceived space, conceived space, lived space, embedded spaces in them and the third space in the novel as well asdemonstrating Morrison’s elevation of psychological trauma of black people andaspiration of struggle out of haze of history.There are totally six parts in the thesis. It will be conducted as the following:the first part is a brief introduction to Beloved and Henri Lefebvre’s ternarycombination spatiality in The Production of Space and Edward W. Soja’s third spacetheory, including a brief introduction of the novel, a short literature review, andtheory related to the novel and thesis statement. The significance of the study is alsoreferred to this part. The second part is mainly centered on the root of trauma inperceived space. This part will analyze two specific perceived spaces which causeblack people’s trauma and suffering in the novel, namely, Sweet Home whichrepresents cruel slavery as the barrier of perceived space and corn field which standsfor an access out of perceived space. The third part is about experience of torture inconceived space. Two conceived spaces created by Morrison can be fully interpretedin this part, and Beloved’s wrathful censure and deceased black slaves’ extricationcan be vividly sensed in conceived space. The intricacy of ambivalence in livedspace will be the fourth part in which multi-spaces appeared in the novel will bediscussed one by one. The triumph over trauma in the third space will be the fifthpart of the thesis. Many other spaces also appear in this part, and meanwhile, blackslaves will conquer their trauma and haze caused by slavery in the third space. Allspaces finally exist in harmony and balance in the third space. The final part will bea conclusion to summarize the thesis.