Reconstruction Of The Local Black Community In Toni Morrison’s Beloved

In the study of the local Black community, critics have mainly focused on the importance of the community and its solidarity but ignored the problems of the old local Black community and solutions of those problems through language. In Toni Morrison’s opinion, language can act with consequences. The practice and struggle of the dominant class for the hegemony largely depends on the form of language (oral or written). This thesis tries to adopt the approach of critical discourse analysis to find out the old local Black community’s problems and exam how Toni Morrison tries to reconstruct the local Black community from the perspective of language. This thesis begins with finding the problems of the old community such as the loss of the Black’s self-identity, absence of community’s values and relationship and the erasure of the Black’s Blackness. Then it studies how to reconstruct the Black’s self-identity through body and narrative therapy; how to restore the community’s values and rebuild relationship through verbal communication; and how to rediscover the Black’s Blackness through generating their own language. In chapter1, the thesis tries to point out the problems existing in the old local Black community. There exist the problem of loss of the Black’s self-identity due to the their physical and spiritual trauma, the problem of absence of community’s values and relationship due to the community’s meanness, lack of communication and corporation, and the problem of erasure of the Black’s Blackness due to the White’s language and cultural dominance. In chapter2, the thesis mainly demonstrates that through body and narrative therapy, the Black reconstruct their self-identity through healing physical and spiritual trauma. Body and mind are the one; therefore through body-mind interaction; the Black can confirm their self-identity. By narrating the past and separating problems through narrative therapy, the Black reconstruct their self-identity through healing spiritual trauma. In chapter3, the thesis mainly demonstrates that through verbal communication, the Black restore the community’s values and reconstruct their relationship through regaining the spirits of community’s solidarity, unity and mutual assistance. When people in trouble break the silence by asking the community for help, the community are willing to offer their hands and help those out of trouble. In chapter4, the thesis mainly demonstrates that through generating the Black’s own language, the Black rediscover their Blackness through reclaiming their culture. The Black’s national language arouses their cultural awareness and makes them gain their collective strength and national pride. At last, the thesis concludes that through body language, narrative therapy, verbal communication and generation of the Black’s own language, we can solve the old local Black community’s problems, reconstruct the Black’s self-identity, restore the community’s good values, rebuild people’s relationship and rediscover the Black’s Blackness. So in the new local Black community, the Black are proud of themselves and also proud of being a Black.