A Study On The Dilemma And Resistance Of The Other In A Mercy From The Perspective Of Eward W.Soja's Spatial Theory

Toni Morrison(1931-2019)is one of the most influential black women writers in contemporary America.She has made extraordinary achievements in the field of novel creation and won many awards including the Nobel Prize for literature.A Mercy is Morrison's ninth novel which was published in 2008.The Washington Post once praised it as a successful work comparable to Morrison's Nobel Prize winning work Beloved.Once it was published,it quickly attracted the attention of readers and commentators.Scholars have analyzed and interpreted A Mercy from the perspectives of narratology,feminism,archetypal criticism and so on,which greatly deepened the readers' understanding of A Mercy.In fact,in addition to the above perspectives,the spatial issues in this novel are also worthy of attention.As a writer who inherits the tradition of African American literature and American literature,Morrison always takes Space as an important element in her novels.In A Mercy,Morrison writes for the Marginal people and the Other,and with Space as the carrier,expresses her great consideration of race,gender and class.She tries to show how the dilemmas of the Other are formed step by step in different types of Space through the presence of history in this novel.At the same time,she also shows how the Other seek resistance in the unfair society and try to build their living Space in this novel.Therefore,it is of great significance to study A Mercy from the perspective of spatial theory.This thesis is based on the Spatial theory of Edward W.Soja to explore the rich literary connotation of Morrison's A Mercy.And it can be divided into three parts: introduction,the main body,and conclusion.The first part is the introduction of this thesis.In this part,the author of this thesis mainly introduces the research topic,the current situation of the research on Toni Morrison and A Mercy,and the main content and shortcomings of the spatial theory of Soja.The second part is the most important part of the thesis which includes three chapters.In chapter one,the author of this thesis expounds the racial dilemmas that black people and Indians are confronted with in different types of Space.In the Firstspace,their houses and natural resources are plundered by white people.And in the Secondspace,their cultures are eroded or even replaced by white culture.To get rid of these dilemmas,these disadvantaged Others seek resistances and survival possibilities in the Thirdspace.In chapter two,with the gender issues in the Space as the core point,the author of this thesis analyzes the gender dilemma and women's resistances in the patriarchal society.In the novel,women are ignored in the material Firstspace,such as houses and ships.At the same time,they also suffer a lot in the spiritual Secondspace.Women as the Other of Men,also try to resist the male power in the Thirdspace in their own ways.The third chapter starts from the class contradictions,through differences of different classes of people in the real Firstspace,such as houses,land property,and oppression of the lower classes by the upper classes in the abstract Secondspace,to reveal the class predicament of the slaves and the indenture workers who live in the bottom of the society.It explores how these marginal groups resist in the Thirdspace to undermine the mainstream power,and finally get survival.The last part is the conclusion of this thesis.All in all,this thesis shows that A Mercy embodies Morrison's creative idea of combining her political thoughts with Space struggle.The novel shows Morrison's thoughts on the survival predicament and possibility of the marginal people and the Other,and conveys the idea that Space is not only a tool for the strong to oppress the weak,but also a way for the weak to regard Space as the place of resistance and survival.At the same time,it also embodies Morrison's concern for the weak and her wish for the harmonious coexistence of human beings.