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140609

From Self-realization to Communal Identification: A Postmodern Reading of Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Beloved

Article

Last updated: 25 Dec 2024

Subjects

-

Tags

Arts
Social studies

Abstract

In Afro-American literature freedom has been a watchword that derives its essence from a deep awareness of history and a comprehensive sense of wholeness that both evolves within a full realization of a strong sense of responsibility. This paper aims at tracing the journey from self- realization to communal identification in Morrison's selected novels through shedding light upon the significance of history and freedom in a postmodern society characterized by fragmentation, detachment, loneliness and displacement. The paper argues that freedom is only acquired when linked with a co-existent trend for integration, either vertical or horizontal. In Morrison‟s Song of Solomon and Beloved, the communal element dominates the background of the action. The paper concludes that history evolves as a ruling principle that all the time has its own positive aspects that keep people safe providing them with a cultural identity that induces them with a personal one. Though freedom is a personal dream in the first place, it converts to nothing if isolated from the more comprehensive collective communal vision. It needs the community to feed its hunger for support the same as it needs the individual to frame up its strife for distinction.

DOI

10.21608/buijhs.2020.140609

Keywords

Key Words: Freedom, History, communal identification, Morrison, postmodernism

Authors

First Name

Amany

Last Name

Eldiasty

MiddleName

Abdullah

Affiliation

Deaprtment of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Damietta University

Email

amanyeldiasty@du.edu.eg

City

Mansoura

Orcid

0000-0002-8044-8280

Volume

2

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

20831

Issue Date

2020-12-01

Receive Date

2020-08-23

Publish Date

2020-12-01

Page Start

9

Page End

35

Print ISSN

2314-8802

Online ISSN

2314-8810

Link

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/article_140609.html

Detail API

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=140609

Order

2

Type

Original research articles

Type Code

1,076

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Beni-Suef University International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Publication Link

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

From Self-realization to Communal Identification: A Postmodern Reading of Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Beloved

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023