Raza y géneroviolencia en The Bluest Eye (1970) de Toni Morrison

  1. Alicia Romero López 1
  1. 1 University of Münster
    info

    University of Münster

    Münster, Alemania

    ROR https://ror.org/00pd74e08

Revista:
Oceánide

ISSN: 1989-6328

Any de publicació: 2016

Número: 8

Tipus: Article

Altres publicacions en: Oceánide

Resum

Violence is one of the main themes in The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison. In this paper, I will analyze violence in some of its different forms: physical violence, social and racial violence, sexual and male against women violence, and verbal violence. I will show that the violence in this work revolves around two kinds, namely racial and gender-based questions, given that much of the violence is committed against African-Americans, and especially women of colour. To discuss this, a historical perspective of racism in the USA is considered, paying particular attention to the 1940s, the period in which the novel takes place, and to the 1970s, when the text itself was published. This historical context will offer a specific perspective that is essential for understanding the concept of violence, in many of its forms, in some of the most symbolic characters in Morrison’s novel. I will show how violence, in nearly all of the forms here mentioned, destroys the young Pecola - she suffers sexual, racial and verbal attacks – and how the ideal of white beauty is also a form of racial violence. This paper also considers the character of Claudia, a young girl who rebels against the imposed social constructions (both racial and patriarchal), so functioning in the novel as a figure or resistance or dissent. I will show that Toni Morrison’s work is both a clear criticism of racism against African-Americans and the imposed patriarchal system, as well as an analysis of how this affects women of colour.

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