On The Narrative Point Of View Of Beloved From The Perspective Of Defamiliarization

Toni Morrison is noted as having said that she wishes "to subvert the reader’s traditional comfort so that he may experience an unorthodox one." Inspired by the spirit of anti-tradition, Morrison skillfully utilizes defamiliarized point of view to endow Beloved with unique artistic value and charming aesthetic significance. With a systematic review of the theory of defamiliarization and the concept of point of view, the thesis amis to analyze the utilization of defamiliarized point of view in Beloved and its thematic significance, attempting to reveal the novel’s unique artistic charm and to offer fresh and enlightening perspective to the understanding of the novel.There are resourceful researches about Beloved, but it is still meaningful to explore it now, especially given the fact that there is almost a dearth of criticism of the novel from narrative perspectives, such as defamiliarized point of view. With a sketchy introduction to the theory of defamiliarization and the concept of point of view, this thesis tries to analyze Morrison’s employment of the defamiliarized point of view and examine how one of the novel’s important theme-pain is represented in Morrison’s text.Morrison employs the defamiliarized point of view in text to probe into her characters’pain under the horrible slavery system under which characters in Beloved are spiritually and physically fragmented individuals. By decreasing the proportion of narration of omniscient omnipotent point of view, Morrison adopts the defamiliarized point of view to narrate one important aspect of pain-distorted maternal love, which is narrated from internal point of view, external point of view and abnormal narrator. The narration from internal point of view is respectively from fixed internal point of view, variable internal point of view, and multi-internal point of view. The employment of defamiliarized point of view brings a thematic significance, that is to take to task a tradition of romantic suffering, a tradition that considers suffering as the pivotal experience whereby an individual becomes fully human. Morrison suggests that major characters in Beloved are fragmented figurers under the torture of slavery system, whose language, reasoning powers and even their sense of self have been dismantled. She de-familiarizes traditional pain and suggests that pain that has produced these fragmented individuals may not point the way to redemption.