Lexical means of representation of feminine identity in the novels "A mercy" and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison in a multicultural aspect

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Lexical means of representation of feminine identity in the novels «A mercy» and «Beloved» by Toni Morrison in a multicultural aspect

Kovalenko М.M.

In terms of modern literary criticism the phenomenon of multiculturalism or diversity of the artistic world of authors with two or more cultural backgrounds comes to the fore. This forms a distinguishing means of representation of identity. The research is devoted to the investigation of the peculiarities of lexical representation of feminine identity in the novels «A Mercy» and «Beloved» by Toni Morrison in a multicultural aspect.

Multiculturalism as a modern branch of literary criticism and linguistic studies has been analyzed in the works of such scholars as H.Bhabha, M.Bradbury, M.M.Bachtin, S.P.Tolkachov, M.V.Tlostanova, I.V.Kozlyk, D.E.Agosto, M.Cai, L.A.Sanders, J.Yokota and others. The category of identity, which is crucial to the enquiry into multicultural literature, has been studied by J.Habermas, E.Goffman, P.Page, S.Munyi, S.Huntington, N.Wolf, D.Damean and others.

Contemporary Japanese scholar J.Yokota suggests that multicultural literature includes literature about people who are considered outside the mainstream of society, with diverse cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds. In addition, it encompasses issues on gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities [5, p. 14].

American scholar Shea Munyi thinks that feminine identity embodies a constellation of meanings, it generally refers to the attributes, behaviors, interests, mannerisms, appearances, roles, and expectations that we have come to associate with being female during the socialization processes [4, p. 277].

Toni Morrison (Chloe Anthony Wofford) was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, making her the first African American to win this honour [1,p.44].

The peculiar features of Toni Morrison's novels are depiction of African American woman as embodiment of collective memory, national traditions and customs, her understanding of own place in the world. The author combines literature experiment with folklore and myth, postmodern techniques with oral tradition.

In our research we would concentrate on the representation of feminine identities of the protagonists of Toni Morrison's novels “A Mercy”, Florens, and “Beloved”, Sethe, as shaping of their identities fully embodies the talent of Toni Morrison in the choice of artistic devices.

One of the aspects that shape feminine identity is women's image in men's eyes. In both novels women are victims of men's desires and cruelty. Their self-categorization is of inferior to men, they are “...of and for men... ”, humans “.who never shape the world. The world shapes us”” [2, p. 66] as it was said in the novel «A Mercy». The protagonist of the novel «Beloved», Sethe, even pays for her daughter's headstone providing pleasure for an engraver: “Ten minutes, he said. You get ten minutes, I'll do it for free” [3, p. 2]. This feeling is enforced in a multicultural society, as here women face subjugated role not only because of gender, but belonging to another culture, colour, therefore, social class. Gender and race identity, sexuality and violence converted a black woman into a commodity, toy, tool and just a piece of flesh. The scariest thing is that a woman self-categorizes herself as it mentioned above.

Love is another component of feminine identity, and Florens describes herself when being with blacksmith as “I am already kill by you”, “careless”, “For the first time I am live” [2, p. 38]. Therefore, she feels her life and soul are inseparable and incomplete without the man. Sethe also self-categorizes as a woman when gets married, thus, a woman can be complete and full only in the union with man.

We observe using cultural extracts in the novel as Florens calls her mother “minha mae”, an impersonal form of mother in Portuguese. The usage of these lexemes is explained by confusion of Florens' identity, as she has not entirely adapted to the new culture.

Being a mother is a significant component of shaping of feminine identity. As a child, Florens indirectly identifies herself with her mother, who seemingly willingly offered her daughter to a stranger. This abandonment ultimately becomes the core of her personality and shapes her relationship to herself, abandoned or forsaken, Florins identifies initially solely as a slave, worth “twenty pieces of eight” [2, p. 29].

In the novel "Beloved” we observe drastic hypertrophy of motherhood and mother's love. Seethe didn't even know her mother, she only has one memory of her as a woman with the mark of a slave, thus, she becomes lost and her identity lacks a significant component. When Seethe's family becomes her only devotion, we observe the shaping of her identity as a fearless and desperate mother. In the novel slavery has such a destructive power that compels Seethe to kill her little daughter as it is better destiny than being a slave till death: “Schoolteacher wouldn't treat her the way he treated me. First beating I took was the last ” [3, p. 101]. multiculturalism literature morrison women

Toni Morrison's novel is characterized by the abundance of symbols some of which function as foreshadowing for the upcoming events, others help represent the protagonist's identity multidimensional^.

Mother's milk is a symbol of motherhood, and it is a crucial for shaping of Sethe's feminine identity: "Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else--and the one time I did it was took from me--they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby ” [3, p. 100]. It is also a symbol of peaceful future for Sethe and her family, as

having got to her children, Sethe will save them with a vital mother's power in her breasts. Therefore, when Sethe was deprived of milk by strangers, she was not just deprived of the capacity to save her life, she was deprived of a life at all: “The one I managed to have milk for and to get it to her even after they stole it; after they handled me like I was the cow, no, the goat, back behind the stable because it was too nasty to stay in with the horses'" [3, p. 100].Toni

Morrison emphasizes on the bound between a mother and a child through breastfeeding and depicts the destructive effect of its absence.

Shoes and feet become the main symbol of Florens' feminine identity through the whole story. Wearing shoes that not only belong to someone else but are also broken and do not fit (“way-too-big”) signifies that Florens has no identity of her own - or one that is very confused. The author describes her feet as “too tender for life and never have the strong soles” [2, p. 10] that life requires. If shoes function as a trope for Florens' self, then the soles - shoes' foundations - are the homonymic metaphors for Florens' divided soul. Near the end of her story, Florens walks barefoot through the forest, her feet “as hard as cypress” [2, p. 141]. She has become harder and stronger from her experiences, as have her feet, has grown both physically and psychologically.

In conclusion, we may say that within a compelling narrative Toni Morrison creates a multicultural mosaic of self-representation of female characters. Toni Morrison uses parallelism and fragmentation of the text which occurs as shards of memories. This helps to reveal the confusion of the identity of the protagonists and splitting between American and African cultures in their souls. The main artistic techniques Toni Morrison uses are metaphors and symbolism referring to the representation of feminine identity. These symbols serve as a foreshadowing and create a magic effect of connection with the protagonist's ancestors despite being displaced.

References

1. Гранкина Е. В. «Свой голос» афроамериканской литературы: от невольничьего повествования» к Нобелевской премии / Е.В. Гранкина. Вест БДПУ, 2011. - c.44.

2. Morrison T. A Mercy / T. Morrison. - Random House, 2008. - 178 p.

3. Morrison T. Beloved / T. Morrison. - Christian Bourgois, 2015. - 137 p.

4. Shea M. Toward a constructionist perspective of examining femininity experience: The development and psychometric properties of the Subjective Femininity Stress Scale / M. Shea // Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2014. p.277.

5. Yokota J. Kaleidoscope: A multicultural booklist for grades K-8 / J. Yokota. Urbana. IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2001. - p.14.

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