Sula and Feminism

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that among the many themes that are woven so interestingly by Toni Morrison in her novel 'Sula', feminist themes are necessarily the pivotal focus of this paper. The writer points out that among the female themes so wonderfully presented in brush-strokes of humanity, ethnicity, culture and gender, the human body emerges again and again against a backdrop of what is happening to the body, within the body, and because of the body and its place in the culture of families and man-woman dynamics. Following a series of analyses of Sula, the paper reviews several aspects of modern feminist theory through the positions taken by respected authors and feminists. The writer concludes that nothing is overshadowed by the characters and themes of Morrison's Sula, except the lesser talent of other authors and the stumbling attempts of would-be scholars to figure it all out.

Outline:
Modern Feminist Viewpoints and Theory
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As for Sula, readers are not jerked suddenly into any heart-wrenching pathos or morbidity in Sula - nor are they coaxed into identifying with the underdog woman Eva and the other females in this cast of characters in Ohio (somewhere) in a pandering way through overpowering descriptive narrative. There is an intrinsic empathetic element to any believable character who has faced life-altering challenges, and that dynamic is certainly here as well."
"Meanwhile, after Eva is abandoned by her husband BoyBoy, she is left with no identity and little else save her health, her heart and spirit, and her three children which she must now raise on her own. The empathetic part of this opening to Morrison's book is not just that Eva has been left to fend for herself, but that she believed - as women do in her culture - that that being married meant that the husband would provide for all those things a woman needed. The women in her society have only one means of self-realization, and that is marriage."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Basu, Biman. (1996). The Black voice and the language of the text: Toni Morrison's "Sula." College Literature, 23(3), 88-104.
• Bordo, Susan. (1992). Does Size Matter? In N. Tuana, W. Cowling, M. Hamington, G. Johnson, & T. MacMullan (Eds.), Revealing Male Bodies (pp. 19-37). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Bordo, Susan R. (1986). The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity: A Feminist Appropriation of Foucault. In A. M. Jaggar & S. R. Bordo (Eds.), Gender/Body/Knowledge (pp. 13-33). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Bordo, Susan. (1997). Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to OJ. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Bryannan, Laura. (1991). The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Homestar. Retrieved 29 Nov. 2006 from http://homestar.org/bryannan/wolf.html.

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