Black Women’s Quest for Subjectivity: Identity Politics in Toni Morrison’s Novels’: Song of Solomon and Beloved

Abstract

Identity politics is a dominant theme in Black feminist fiction. Black Woman’s quest for cultivating a positive identity is often being complicated by the intersecting oppression of race, class and gender. Morrison’s novels describe the secret stories of violence and aggression and capture the lives of abuse survivors and ex-slaves who are trying their best to render their lives normal. In her novels, Morrison presents her female characters as subjects not as marginalized others. Morrison’s women emerge as powerful characters, brave abuse-survivors who try to live under the shadow of oppression but do not lose their identity as human beings. They learn how to heal their emotional and psychological wounds and celebrate their womanhood. Thus through her novels Morrison tries to record the histories of those countless ‘Subaltern’ subjects whose voices and stories have been missing in history. Her novels record the lives of all those female subjects who are left out of the colourful discussion of life.