Trauma and Narrative Strategies in The Bluest Eye: The Political Meaning in Toni Morrison's Novel

在《最藍的眼睛》中，湯妮．莫莉森再現黑人在美國社會中的集體經驗。由於白人文化的宰制，文化創傷滲透在黑人的生活當中。身為一個黑人女性作家，莫莉森深刻感受黑人在美國社會的附屬地位，以及普羅大眾對於黑皮膚人種的刻板印象。她在小說中，她選擇以「美麗」當作中心主題，揭露黑人集體經驗底下複雜又矛盾的社會脈絡，看似連貫的黑人歷史源於不可或知的創傷，使得他們無可避免地再製相同的歷史。透過抒寫黑人的故事，莫莉森重新檢視黑人的經驗與歷史，試圖喚醒集體潛藏的意識，去重新思考黑人在美國歷史當中的位置。 這篇論文主要分成兩個章節分別討論《最藍的眼睛》的故事與形式，探討莫莉森的論述如何替黑人發聲，如何去挑戰白人的宰制文化，並尋求重新改寫黑人歷史的可能性。在這本小說中，作者莫莉森在故事中再現了黑人的生活（black reality），呈現出黑人群落附屬於白人文化的單一面貌，羞愧與罪惡感滲透在每一個黑人角色的主體當中，並同時投射於小女孩琵可拉 (Pecola)的身上，使其成為黑人群落的代罪羔羊，導致她最後的瘋狂。在形式上，莫莉森透過刻意的安排，展現了對於主宰文化的抗議，並置不同的論述（narrative）、文本（text）、文類（genre）以及刻意誇張的手法去挑戰傳統的文學形式，變相地挑戰主流文化。同時她也將黑人的集體經驗個人化，透過書中每個角色的不同論述，強調黑人的集體認同與個人經驗的相互穿透，呈現出不同的個人歷史，瓦解黑人穩定又連貫的共同歷史。在這本小說中，莫莉森結合內容與形式去呈現黑人文學的潛在能量，其坦承黑人歷史與白人文化的無法切割，並非強勢地與白人文化作區隔，而是接受其為歷史的一部份，真實面對黑人群落的矛盾與困境，企圖喚醒黑人集體的認知，並尋找重寫黑人歷史的可能性。In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison represents Afro-American's traumatic experiences in American society. The cultural trauma, which is the consequence of the white culture's domination, penetrates the black's collective experiences. As an Afro-American writer, Morrison is aware of the black's subordinate position in America and the negative characteristics of black stereotype rooting in the public's conception. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison selects “beauty” as the motif to disclose the complicated and ambivalent social context underneath the black's collective experience. While the inescapable consequence for the black to reproduce their history of subordination actually results from the inaccessible trauma, Morrison knows the need to re-examine the black's history by retelling the black's story and expects the possibility to awaken the black's consciousness and to reclaim their position in American history. The thesis is divided into two chapters to respectively discuss the story and the form in The Bluest Eye and further look for the political meaning in Morrison's narrative. In the story, Morrison represents the black's collective experience of subjecting to the white values and being confined to the cultural trauma which results in the black's shame and guilt. Every protagonist in the story projects his/her shame on Pecola, who eventually becomes the scapegoat of the black community, and determines Pecola's madness. However, in the form of the novel, Morrison shows her protest against the dominant power by challenging the traditional literary form, such as the juxtapositions of different narratives, texts and genres in the novel. By combining the content and form in the novel, Morrison displays the potential of the black writing which never asserts its entire separation from the white culture but rather accepts the influence of the white's ideological domination in the black's history. The political meaning in the novel lies in its exposition of the black's ambivalence of being an American with the black skin and its attempt to challenge the white's domination by the formal devices. By juxtaposing the different narratives in the story, Morrison tries to emphasize that every black's personal experience is enwound with their cultural trauma and results in different personal meaning. It is Morrison's strategy to challenge the black's history is collective and unchangeable.Acknowledgment I English Abstract II Chinese Abstract IV Table of Content V Introduction 1 Chapter One: Cultural Trauma in Afro-American Community 7 Chapter Two: Toni Morrison's Narrative Strategies in The Bluest Eye 28 Conclusion 54 Works Cited 6