The larger issue of the relationship between theory, fiction and experience provides the backdrop for a study of constructions of home in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved. Feminist standpoint theory contends that knowledge is socially and historically constructed. Using the home as a category of analysis, I show how Morrison's constructions of home are located within specific socio-economic, racial, and political contexts which mold the novels' characters. Both feminist standpoint theory and the novels develop a notion of "positionality"--one's location within a larger social and historical network. Differences in focus do exist, however, which stem from their respective developmental and experiential contexts--one being primarily theoretical and scholarly, and the other being the complex literary and fictional mediation of a political experience. Unlike the theoretical articulation of concepts of the standpoint, fiction offers a complex perspective that may, in turn, be used to inform discussions of political and epistemological concepts.

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The protagonists in the fiction of Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison illuminate American cultural perceptions of black women and illustrate how the creators of these characters hope to change those perceptions. I studied Paule Marshall's Daughters, Alice Walker's Meridian and The Color Purple, and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye to learn what the writers of these novels have to say about the women they hope black girls can grow up to be and to learn what potential for self-development they see for black women. For example, in order to become whole people, what do black girls and black women need from their parents and their community? What do black women need from their intimate relationships? "Part One: Political, Historical and Religious Identity " surveys politics, religion and history for views of black women. Politically, they appear disenfranchised; historically they were property. In reference to religion, I found that a white male religion does not serve black women well. Walker sees god within her female protagonist Celie, and Marshall has a belief in a Caribbean/African diaspora that provides a sense of spiritual and cultural continuity. "Part Two: Childhood Identity" explores childhood and the community's role. Childhood appears as a critical time for self-development. The adults in the community contribute to the child's self-awareness. Mistreatment of girls causes them harm throughout their lives. How well the community safeguards its children is a measure of how highly these children are valued. These authors want to see girls more highly regarded. Toward this end, they expose the abuse that takes place in the community. Morrison shows not only the abuse, but also the love. By showing concerned parents as well as neglectful ones, Morrison offers a fuller portrait of the community she knows. The Color Purple also tells a story of sexual abuse of a girl, but this abuse is overcome by the inner strength of the victim combined with the loving support of Shug Avery and the supportive community context of the juke where Celie is accepted. The portrayal of childhood in Daughters involves a Caribbean island culture where the roles of the women that the child Ursa observes offer few role models. "Part Three: Adult Relational Identity" looks at the dilemma in communication between the sexes and across the generations from mother to daughter. Step-fathers and husbands are abusive characters in Walker's writing, while Morrison shows a loving father and an incestuous father in The Bluest Eye. "Part Four: Language Identity" discusses Black English, orality and dialect, looking at the role of language as an aspect of self-definition. James Baldwin's view of language is presented: rejecting a child's language is rejecting the child himself. Baldwin's view supports the attitude toward language as self-defining that appears in the writing of Marshall, Morrison, and Walker. These authors show pride in Black English, and they demonstrate their ability with edited English through their own writing. / Graduation date: 1994

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Secrets and silence appear frequently in the work of Toni Morrison. In three novels, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, and Paradise, she repeats a specific phrase that acts as a signal to the reader. Morrison three times writes, “Quiet as it’s kept” in her novels to alert readers to the particular significance secrets and silence play in these novels. Morrison portrays this secrecy and silence as a barrier to building strong communities and even a strong self-identity. While the phrase appears in the same form, with each subsequent appearance, Morrison takes the idea a step further. In each novel she demonstrates how breaking the silence and refusing to keep quiet is an act of healing or salvation and she expands this healing to be increasingly inclusive. What begins as a single voice breaking the silence in The Bluest Eye becomes a group of people sharing their secrets in Jazz, and finally an entire town coming to terms with the power of speaking up. This thesis looks at the secrets and their impact on characters in each novel and explores the progression of the power in refusing to keep quiet.

Ce mémoire considère l'évolution des stéréotypes racistes et sexistes qui sont contestés dans trois œuvres littéraires afro-américaines, soit Not Without Laughter de Langston Hughes, The Bluest Eye de Toni Morrison et Citizen : An American Lyric de Claudia Rankine. L'analyse de ces livres vise à déterminer comment la double contrainte des femmes noires sous-tend les stéréotypes et préjugés qui sont apparus pendant l'esclavage et qui persistent dans la culture du vingt-et-unième siècle. Ces stéréotypes, tels que la Mammy, la Jezebel ou la femme en colère, ont été créés et maintenus afin de fournir une justification idéologique à la marginalisation et à l'exploitation des femmes noires. De plus, ils ont servi à soutenir les intérêts et objectifs de la société blanche patriarcale telle que manifestée aux États-Unis à travers le temps. Encore aujourd'hui, ces images discriminatoires et non représentatives contribuent à la perpétuation du racisme et du sexisme, et continuent de contrôler le corps, l'esprit, et la sexualité des femmes noires aux États-Unis. À travers une analyse chronologique des œuvres, publiées respectivement en 1930, 1970, et 2014, mon argumentaire postule que les performances de féminité noire étudiées dans chaque roman révèlent un désir de contester et réfuter ces stéréotypes, s'avérant ainsi des actes de résistance et d'autodétermination. Mon approche, éclairée par les théories de l'intersectionnalité et du féminisme noir, étudie la manière dont Hughes, Morrison, et Rankine revisitent, remettent en question, et déconstruisent les stéréotypes raciaux afin de mettre en évidence la multiplicité des identités féminines Afro-Américaines et ainsi, rejeter la fausse perception monolithique des femmes noires. / This thesis investigates the evolution of racist and sexist stereotypes forced onto black women in three African American works: Langston Hughes's Morrison's The Bluest Eye , and Claudia Rankine's Not Without Laughter Citizen: An American Lyric , Toni . The thesis aims to show the pervasiveness of the double bind of African American women that emerged during slavery and that persists in the culture of the twenty-first century as the Mammy, the Jezebel, or the angry black woman, among . Stereotypes, such others, were created and maintained to provide an ideological justification for the marginalization and exploitation of black women, which, in turn, were used to support the interests of the white mainstream and patriarchal society. To this day, these cont rolling images black female body, mind, and sexuality perpetuate racism and regulate the in the United States. Through a chronological analysis of the works, respectively published in 1930, 1970, and 2014, my argumentation posits that the chosen iterations of black womanhood talk back to their racial heritage, a vexed history of misrepresentation and misconception, thereby allowing for new performances and scripts of the black female self to be inscribed in culture. My approach to this thesis, grounded in theorizations related to intersectionality and black feminism, demonstrates that Hughes, Morrison, and Rankine revisit, challenge, and deconstruct racial stereotypes to highlight the multiplicity of African American female identities and, ultimately, reject the monolithic perception of black women.