| Toni Morrison(1931-2019)is the first black female writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature in American history.She is concerned about black people’s fate,especially black women’s fate,and sympathizes with the racial discrimination,gender discrimination and patriarchal oppression they have suffered.Toni Morrison has a far-reaching influence in the literary world.Once her tenth work Home was published,it was highly praised by the western and even the whole literary world.From the perspective of spatial criticism and based on Gabriel Zoran’s theory of spatial criticism,this paper explores the black female images in Toni Morrison’s Home from the topographical space,chronotopic space and textual space,analyzes the spatial characteristics of the novel,and tries to reveal the most appropriate way of life for black women proposed by the author through this novel.This paper includes introduction,four chapters and a conclusion.The introduction briefly introduces Toni Morrison,Home,literature review and the thesis statement of the paper.The first chapter introduces the origin and development of spatial criticism theory,and focuses on Gabriel Zoran’s space criticism theory.The second chapter discusses the construction of the topographical space in the novel,contrasting the dark and oppressive countryside and the tempting town.Of these,the dark rural space shows the misfortune suffered by the heroine Cee and the main reason for her suspicion of her life value,while the attractive urban space displays her pursuit of her own identity.The third chapter analyzes the formation of chronotopic space.Through a synchronic study of the black women’s characters in the novel,it is clear to explore the different outcomes caused by their different life choices.In addition,through the diachronic study of the heroine Cee,the inner world of the majority of black women represented by her is revealed,which fully reflects black women’s sufferings.The fourth chapter discusses the composition of textual space.In the selectivity of language,Toni Morrison utilizes many special expressions of the black community,which are very symbolic and reflect the black culture.Moreover,there is the combination of the concrete and the abstract descriptions,which embodies black women’s tough situation and strikes a responsive chord in the readers? hearts.In terms of narrative angle,the first-person narrative perspective and the third-person omniscient perspective of the narrator Frank both appear in this novel.Meanwhile,from the non-linear narrative sequence,it is obvious that the author analyzes black women’s survival way step by step,points out several methods,and finally concludes that returning to the black community and adhering to the originality of black culture are the most appropriate ways for the majority of black women.The conclusion discusses the practical significance of analyzing Home from the perspective of spatial criticism.The application of spatial criticism to the study of Home can help readers grasp the theme of the novel from the perspective of space,understand the characters? inevitable fate in the social background at that time,and excavate Toni Morrison’s spatial narrative skills.The interpretation of black women images in the novel through topographical space,chronotopic space and textual space is helpful for readers to comprehend the characters? running track and psychological changes and the writing methods used by the writer when she speaks on behalf of the black women in a three-dimensional and all-round way.It also reveals black women’s difficult living situation in the white-dominated society and has insight into the voice of black women represented by Toni Morrison and her imagination of black women’s ideal living space.Simultaneously,through the practice of spatial criticism on the black female images in Home,the understanding of the theme and connotation of the novel can be deepened,and more feasibility for the study on Toni Morrison can be provided. |
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