Author(s)

He Qian ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Department of Foreign Language, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, China

Corresponding Author

He Qian

ABSTRACT

Toni•Morrison's new work, "God Help the Child" focuses on contemporary American society for the first time, depicting the process of identity construction of the middle-class African-American woman, Bride, from confusion to clarity. Based on Homi Bhabha's theory of the Third Space, this article aims to provoke readers' reflections on colorism and the commodification of black women in post-racial America through an analysis of the "negation," "mimesis," and "hybridity" stages in Bride's identity construction process. It also provides enlightenment to assist middle-class African American women in breaking free from the predicament of survival in a white society.

KEYWORDS

God Help the Child; Toni Morrison; Hybridity; Third Space; Identity

CITE THIS PAPER

He Qian, Bride's Identity Construction—Middle Class African-American Women's Identity Struggle. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2023) Vol. 6: 25-29. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2023.061604.

REFERENCES

[1] Du, L. (2022). God Help the Child: Childhood Trauma and Healing Methods of African-American Children. Famous Works Appreciation, 26, 158-160.
[2] Sun, L., & Wang, X. (2022). On the "Puppetization" Emotion of African-American Middle-Class Women in God Help the Child. Fudan Journal of Foreign Languages and Literature, 01, 64-69.
[3] Sheng, A. (2004). Research on Homi Bhabha's Postcolonial Theory. Beijing Language and Culture University (Master's thesis).
[4] Li, L. (2021). The Erosion of Colonial Hegemony in the Third Space. Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Master's thesis).
[5] Bhabha, H. (1994). Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
[6] Morrison, T. (2015). God Help the Child. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[7] Peng, Y. (2018). New Racism under the "Post-Race" Mask: God Help the Child. Anhui Literature, 11, 158-160.
[8] Zha, R. (2011). Spatial Turn, Cultural Negotiation, and Identity Reconstruction: A Review of Homi Bhabha's Postcolonial Cultural Criticism. Foreign Theoretical Trends, 03, 74-80.
[9] Fa, X. (2011). Construction of Ethnic Minority Identity in the Third Space: Interpreting Yoko Tawada's "Obasan" from the Perspective of Postcolonialism. Shandong Social Sciences, 08, 96-99.

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