1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

as the population mobility accelerates, the analysis on the identity of minorities in america has increased a lot in recent years. as a reflection of human society, the literature constitutes a good way to analyze the identity problem. among the minorities writers, especially the african american writers, toni morrison plays a very important role in the contemporary american literature. her fifth novel beloved is a good illustration for her adroit writing skills and the painful history of her people. the female characters in this book are most notable. to some extent, they experience the process of the awakening of women’s self-identity through several generations.

toni morrison was firstly introduced to china in the 1980s. after toni morrison won the nobel prize, the research on her novels soared greatly. in those years, the research and studies on her works have increased a lot and some of her works are included into the textbooks. as for beloved, the foreign and domestic researches mainly focus on the description of the painful african american history, such as the racism, slavery, and trauma from the thematic perspective, the narrative techniques in her works, such as magical realism and the legends and myths originating from the african traditions and inheritance, and the analysis of certain characters, especially the intriguing image of beloved. during the research history of more than 30 years, some specific study methods have been employed to analyze the african american female writer, such as the traditional ideologically socio-realism (jiang xinxin), comparative study (hu xiaoying) and the feminist perspective in recent years.

based on a close textual reading and the character analysis, this paper aims to provide a virtually comprehensive illustration for the awakening of the self-identity of the female african americans in terms of the developing process. the former analyses tend to ignore the significance of the white characters for the awakening of the black people’s self-identity, such as amy denver, the white girl sethe met during her fugitive process and the garners in sweet home. besides, the concept of self-identity needs to be expounded further. in conclusion, this paper is designed to provide some new thoughts in the current researches on beloved. furthermore, it intends to provide a clarification of the female african americans’ situation in the history and their possibility in the future.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

introduction: literature review, research gap, and significance of further study

part 1: a brief introduction to the self-identity from the perspective of psychology and the discussion about the possibilities of women’s identity

part 2: elaboration of the female characters in the novel

3. 研究计划与安排

before 25th, april submission of the first draft

before 24th, may revision of the draft

before 30th may submission of the final paper

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1] farid parvaneh. formation of identity in toni morrison’s african-american fictional characters [j]. studies in literature and language, 2010, vol.1(5): 35-45.

[2] fuston-white, jeanna. “from the seen to the told”: the construction of subjectivity in toni morrison’s beloved[j]. saint louis: african american review, 2002(fall):461-473.

[3] li wen. dissolution of dichotomy in beloved[d]. changsha: central south university,2013.