Spatial Politics of Black Women’s Home in Toni Morrison’s ＂Beloved＂ and ＂Jazz＂

Toni Morrison is a known writer for her novels dealing with the double-minority-black female protagonists. In this essay, the author will explore Morrison's two novels: ”Beloved” and ”Jazz” focusing on the complicated issues of spatial politics in black women's home(s). As the two novels illustrate stunning descriptions of the struggle of black women respectively from the slavery era to post-liberation, the issues of dealing with the hardship of outside world are in strong contrast to the stability and warmth of home. However, the term ”home” here does not merely refer to architecture of physical form, but also in the abstract/imaginary realm. Furthermore, home can be viewed as an interchangeable term to community. At times, it stands as a micro-community, involving inhabitants who are relatives or friends vis-à-vis outside threats; on the other hand, the community can also be viewed as a macro-home. Yet, by categorizing home in such dichotomy or dualism is over-simplifying its complexity. Therefore, the author will analyze Morrison's ”Beloved” and ”Jazz” by applying bell hooks' notion of re-visioned space, and moreover, Edward Soja's notion of Thirdspace while dealing with the complicated issues of politics of space and location. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that in Morrison's two novels home is a community of resistance shared by black women, a space characterized by ambivalence, as being a stable ”shelter” which, nevertheless, evolves into ”openness.”

並列關鍵字

Toni Morrison ； bell hooks ； resistance ； African American Literature

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