Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Sula and A Mercy: Rethinking (M)Othering

Autores/as

  • Natália Fontes de Oliveira Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.25.3.67-84

Palabras clave:

Motherhood, black mothers, Sula, A Mercy, Toni Morrison

Resumen

Motherhood tends to elicit strong feelings in women as well as a passionate rhetoric in our cultural discourse. Daughters have extensively been the focus of studies about mother-daughter bonds. Surprisingly, much less attention has been given to mother figures. By tracing the theme of motherhood in Sula (1973) and A Mercy (2009), I investigate how Toni Morrison rewrites the experiences of black mothers during slavery and its aftermath in the United States. Drawing mainly on feminist and black feminist theories, I explore, through literary analysis, how motherhood assumes various forms in both novels. The comparative analysis of Sula and A Mercy challenges distorted views commonly associated with the black mother and extends notions of mothering beyond biological determinants.

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Biografía del autor/a

Natália Fontes de Oliveira, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul

Docente do Departamento de Letras da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). Atua nas áreas de Línguas e Literaturas Estrangeiras Modernas com pesquisas temáticas envolvendo estudos de gênero, raça e diáspora.

Citas

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Publicado

2016-04-28

Cómo citar

Oliveira, N. F. de. (2016). Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Sula and A Mercy: Rethinking (M)Othering. Aletria: Revista De Estudos De Literatura, 25(3), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.25.3.67-84