《宠儿》中魔幻现实主义与黑人文化的整合(英文)

3   Fusion of magical realism and black culture in Beloved 
Although the supernatural elements and circular structures in Beloved are frequently linked with the traditional Latin magical realism, they are different indeed, because the magical realism engaged by Toni Morrison is fused with black culture. In this part, the author of this dissertation will first discuss the embodiment of this fusion in Beloved. And then, she will analyze how does this fusion serve on the theme by analyzing the function of the ghost.
3. 1 Embodiment of the fusion in Beloved
Basically, there are two points to show the embodiment of fusion of magical realism and black culture in Beloved. On one hand, the magical realism engaged by Morrison is originated in the universal values of black people and ancient religious culture in Africa instead of Indian culture in ancient South American, the basis of traditional magical realism. This is the first point which shows the fusion of black culture and magical realism. On the other hand, because of the special identity of being a African- American, Morrison actually conveys African-American culture to show the horrible history of slavery. In fact, the history of Sethe’s family is the history of the whole African-American groups. The main characters in the novel are all haunted by their personal history and history of their people, and the character of Beloved- the basic element of magical realism in Beloved, may represent the physical manifestation of history, signifying how the past can invade present. Therefore, using magical realism to uncover the tragic past of black people and encourage them to embrace the bright future is another point reflecting the fusion of magical realism and black culture in Beloved.
3.1.1 Traditional culture of ancient Africans
Toni Morrison grew up in the traditional black family, and she has been familiar with the supernatural and magical realist folk stories among the black people since she was a child. Therefore, Morrison is quite different from her forerunners on treating the traditional heritage of black community. Some critics pointed out that Morrison was embracing the history of black people which was considered useless by other writers like Richard Wright. For Morrsion, those traditions work as a bridge to the heart of black people and can not be abandoned on matter what. She put this thought into practice, so one would not feel surprised to find African-style oral legend, folk story and other forms of traditional culture of ancient Africans. For example, tar baby that seduced the rabbit, Solomon who can fly, the crying gully and so on. As far as she concerned, those elements reflect an universal value and they are originated in ancient African religious culture. In Beloved, she then used traditional belief that the dead can communicate with living creature, spirit can be called back to life and return in human form, there is no boundary between life and death.
3.1.2 History of African-American
Toni Morrison has succeeded in bringing the traditional African values and black culture to her work. Nevertheless, the culture penetrating in Beloved is nothing but normal African culture. Instead, it is a unique African-American culture, a history which indicates hundreds years of humiliation and misery of slavery in America. 转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net