Imad Guemmah

Toni Morrison's novel "Sula". Identity and Subalternity: Sula as a Subaltern Other Imad Guemmah

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Cultural Studies - Black Studies, , language: English, abstract: This paper approaches an exploration of two major themes in Sula: social identity and gender subalternity. I would begin with a general presentation of the major points that mark this Oscar-winning novel, and then shift to violently serious disagreements that bear reference to the submissive, subaltern position that Sula, on behalf of every woman of color, has to embrace. As the novel, as well as a bundle of essays and articles explain, the protagonist is weary of all that binds her to submission, and has thus decided to follow her own way of life. The analysis is held from a Postmodern perspective. I would therefore attempt to build a bridge between the discourse of Morrison, who is addressing her message in the name of Sula, and that of postmodernism, which is a deviation from representation and a turn towards self-reflexiveness. I am eventually describing the societal tension between Sula and her fellow denizens, who are caught up in an arena of contest the ground of which is experience and circumstances.