An Analysis of the Construction of Female Identity in A Mercy Under the Perspective of Homi Bhabha’s Post-Colonial Theory

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210609.110How to use a DOI?

Keywords

identification, post-colonialism, Toni Morrison, Homi Bhabha, A Mercy

Abstract

Toni Morrison (1931-2019), the only black female Nobel laureate up to now, has made her name by her novels with the outstanding depiction of the living condition and mentality, poetic language and unique style of narration. The post-colonial elements in her fictional works also appeal to post-colonial critics. Published in 2008, A Mercy tells a story about a few American residents on a farm in the colonial American continent, enunciating their living situation, mental state and destiny by multi-angle narration. Homi Bhabha (1949-) enjoys the reputation of “one of the three most acclaimed post-colonial theorists” with his creative literary and cultural critiques and the contribution to the development of post-colonial criticism. His theories including hybridity pave the way for and usher in a new era of the post-colonial literary criticism, and the main points of his theory will be employed to examine the construction of female identity, focusing on the two female roles, Lina and Sorrow, in A Mercy. Characters of Other in this novel, Lina and Sorrow have traumatic experience involving loss of family and enslavement. However, the results of their searching for the rebuilding of their identities differentiate, which can be concluded that only independence and self recognition can solid foundation of identity construction, instead of salvation or mercy from others in the post-colonial discourse.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lu Xingyu
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/06/10
TI  - An Analysis of the Construction of Female Identity in A Mercy Under the Perspective of Homi Bhabha’s Post-Colonial Theory
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 550
EP  - 557
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210609.110
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210609.110
ID  - Xingyu2021
ER  -