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Morrison's archeological dig : Beloved and the toxic stereotypes surrounding black motherhood

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Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION::Aesthetic subjects::Literature
 Morrison, Toni -- Criticism and interpretation
 Morrison, Toni Beloved
 Mother and child in literature
 African American mothers
 Mothers in literature
 Slavery in literature
 African American women in literature
 Race in literature
 Infanticide in literature
 Women authors
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2020-05
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SUNY New Paltz Masters Theses Collection
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Winters_Thesis.pdf
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/668
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The first aspect that this thesis will cover is the background of Beloved. This will include the historical restoration of black history, especially the figure of Margaret Garner, a mother who escaped from the plantation she was enslaved on, and who murdered her one child to save them from the grips of Slavery. I will further this discussion by using foundational studies in critical race theory to explain Morrison’s motivations for writing the novel. After this explanation of the history and theoretical conversation that Morrison engages with, I will explore Beloved’s maternal figures: Nan, the woman who raised Sethe in the absence of her own mother working in the fields on the plantation, and Baby Suggs, another surrogate mother to Sethe. I will examine Baby’s healing qualities and the powerful love she projects on to her community, along with her strong bond with Sethe. I will then analyze the maternal gothic space of the novel through the domestic sphere of 124 that is haunted by the baby ghost, and represents an expansive look at the female gothic that includes the black experience. After the black gothic domestic sphere is analyzed, the thesis will conclude with Sethe, who is loosely based on Margaret Garner.
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