Toni Morrison’s Politics of Feminist and European Literary Tradition: Discerning Feminist Matricentric Streaks in Morrison’s Work

Abstract

This research investigates the Morrison’s novels, Sula and The Bluest Eye that how it depicts patriarchal explanation of motherhood in the Afro-American context and observe some Western / European dominant patriarchal literary tradition to explore a thrust of a feminist world view in every wake of life. The article establishes a relation of Toni Morrison’s writings with the feminist perspectives and mothering issues (particularly in black families) that led the change of minds and was highly applauded in European society. The article deals with the Morrison theory on mothering to explore the experiences of black marginalized mothers that were absent in the white European patriarchal narratives on the motherhood. Drawing on Patricia Hills Collin’s concept of Black feminist Motherhood and Andrea O’Reilly’s theories on feminist mothering the study will investigate the impact of Morrison’s works that deconstruct the patriarchal discourse in western writings. Morrison’s novels playing a viable role in liberating mothering experience from suppression to rather intellectual and emotional development. This kind of mothering empowerment became a political and social act. The research follows the narrative approach and techniques of content analysis.