摘 要

托妮·莫里森的《所罗门之歌》是当代美国文学中不可缺少的一本著作。书中描写了黑人男孩“奶娃”一路向南的寻根成长之路。“奶娃”的寻根之旅使他从一个冷漠、懦弱、对生活失去热爱的人成长为一个坚定自信、有担当的成熟男性。寻根之旅使“奶娃”获得了精神上的真正自由，并且对自己的民族有了新的认识，自豪自己是“会飞的所罗门”的后代。书中很多的描写运用到了魔幻现实主义手法，成为本书特色之一。这也是托妮·莫里森作品的一大共同点。本文通过《所罗门之歌》一书，着重探讨了莫里森通过对“黑人会飞”的传说、派拉特的超自然能力以及对梦境和现实亦真亦幻的魔幻现实主义描写，构建了美国黑人精神文化上的“身份追寻”之路。莫里森认为，只有从本民族文化中汲取力量和自信，重视本民族文化，才能真正实现文化的传承，不至于在白人为主的西方社会中迷失自我。

关键词：所罗门之歌；身份追寻；魔幻现实主义；黑人文学

Abstract

Song of Solomon, written by Toni Morrison, is an indispensable work in contemporary American literature. The book describes the transformation of a young American black boy "Milkman" and his journey to South to find the root of his family and his culture. The trip to South changes Milkman from an indifferent, weak boy who lost his passion for life, to a confident, mature man who finally gains the spiritual freedom and achieves new understanding of his own ethnic culture. Milkman is proud to find out that he is the offspring of “the flying Solomon”. Magic realism is widely adopted in Song of Solomon as one of the major elements of the book. It is also a common feature of Toni Morrison's works. The paper focuses on the mythology of flying blacks, the supernatural power of Pilate and the conscious experience and dreamlike reality in Song of Solomon. It analyzes Morrison’s usage of magic realism in demonstrating the cultural identity of African American Literature. According to Morrison, one can get strength and confidence in his own traditional culture. People are able to truly inherit the ethnic culture once they pay significant attention to the tradition. In this way, the African Americans could identify themselves and not lose themselves in the white-dominant western society.

Key Words: Song of Solomon; Cultural Identity; Magic Realism; African American Literature

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Toni Morrison and Song of Solomon 1

1.2 An Introduction of Magic Realism 2

1.3 Literature Review 3

1.4 Structure and Significance 4

2 Milkman’s Journey to South----Seeking for Answer and Identity 5

2.1 Seeking for Answer----The Mythology of Flying Blacks 5

2.2 Seeking for Identity----The Journey to South 6

2.2.1 Cultural Identity in Song of Solomon 6

2.2.2 The Rootedness in African American Culture 7

3 Pilate: Representative of Afro-American Culture 8

3.1 Inheritor of African American Culture 8

3.2 The Supernatural Powers of Pilate 9

4 Conscious Experience and Dreamlike Reality 10

4.1 Conscious Experience: Employment of Memory 10

4.2 Dreamlike Reality: Magical Portrayal of Actuality 11

5 Conclusion 12

References 13

Acknowledgements 15

Magic Realistic Portrayal of Cultural Identity in Song of Solomon

1 Introduction

In African American literature, Song of Solomon is a milestone which received worldwide reputation. The book is known as a novel of initiation for American blacks in literary world. It remains a key novel in the collections of Morrison’s work and in the literary traditions of which it is a part. The book considerably explores the nature of family and cultural identity in a society still concerned with the legacy of slavery and its after-effects of racial violence. Song of Solomon imposes a profound influence both thematically and stylistically on Morrison’s later fiction. The novel has gained popular attention from a series of theoretical perspectives and is deeply rooted in the traditions of forming and shaping African American culture. (Smith, 1995)

1.1 Toni Morrison and Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison has earned plenty of literary accolades and honorary degrees, making herself the first African-American female to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her works are famous for exquisite language, richly detailed African-American culture and appealing and unconstrained style. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970, telling a story of a young black girl who wants blue eyes so that she could change her miserable life. So far, eleven novels written by Toni Morrison have been published and each of them has received sustained scholarly attention and enjoyed worldwide reputation. Among her most famous works are Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), A Mercy (2008).

The literary success of Morrison and her deep influence of race in other African American works can be traced back to her childhood experience and her love for literature. Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, an industrial town consisting of people from different cultural backgrounds. In order to leave racism behind, her parents moved from Ohio to South, and then from South to North for better work opportunities. Under the impact of her parents, Morrison was immersed in African American cultural rituals, the folklore, music, ghost stories. (Smith, 1995) All of these can be reflected in her later works. In her interview with Christina Davis (1988), Morrison says:

I grew up in a house in which people talked about their dreams with the same authority that they talked about what “really” happened. They had visitations and did not find that fact shocking and they had some sweet, intimate connection with things that were not empirically verifiable… Without that, I think I would have been quite bereft because I would have been dependent on so-called scientific data to explain hopelessly unscientific things and also I would have relied on information that even subsequent objectivity has proved to be fraudulent.

Song of Solomon is one of Morrison’s most widely received novels. The book won Morrison loads of awards, including the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Toni Morrison has become one of today’s most revered writers in American society. Since its publication, Song of Solomon has enjoyed extraordinary popularity among general people and scholars alike. As is showed, the book comprehensively explores the relationship between national identity and traditional culture.

Song of Solomon is about a young African American boy, Milkman Dead, searching for his ancestral identity. Milkman is born into a sheltered and privileged life. The values Milkman received from his father, Macon Dead, are rugged materialism and individualism. He believes in that money can solve anything and money can win him social status and sense of security. When Milkman leaves home for the gold in South, he starts a journey of discovery, both for the identity of himself and of the American blacks. During the trip, Milkman develops an intimate connection with his ancestral culture and grows to be a mature African American who is committed and responsible. The establishment of self-awareness, even the national identity allows Milkman to accept the familial past and better understand Pilate, his aunt, and other people of the African American community.

1.2 An Introduction of Magic Realism

Magic realism is generally considered to be derived from Latin America. Among the most well-known magic realistic writers are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. This genre of literature adopts folklores and mythic elements into contemporary settings. Magic realism was translated from the term Magischer Realismus and was first applied to describe a painterly style by the German art critic Franz Roh. In order to distinguish with surrealism, he identified it as a detailed portrayal of the “magical” nature of the rational world. Later, the term was adopted to describe the uncanny reality and imposed a profound influence on the Latin American literature after the Cuban revolution in 1959. Writers apply magic realism as a literary tool to reflect the real world. As the Argentine literary critic Enrique Anderson Imbert once put, “in magic realism, the author’s primary purpose is to express the reality in a magical way instead of making magic reality.”

When it comes to magical realism literature, J.A. Cuddon (1998) once defined that:

“some key features of this kind of fiction are the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable”.