토니 모리슨의 소설에 나타난 자본주의 비판 = A Critique of Capitalism in Toni Morrison's Fiction

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A Critique of Capitalism in Toni Morrison’s Fiction A dissertation submitted to the Council of the Graduate School of Kyungpook National University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph. D. in December 2016.


Kwon, Shinae

Department of English Language and Literature
Graduate School, Kyungpook National University
Daegu, Korea
(Supervised by Professor Han, Jaehwan)


(Abstract)

Toni Morrison illuminates the existence of oppressed and excluded African Americans in American history and literature. In this way, she has contributed to exposing the struggles of African Americans for survival in American society and helped them to recover their identity through her novels. Morrison’s fiction includes important subjects for African Americans, such as slavery, racism, the survival of black community, the crisis of black identity, black poverty and many others, as has been well appreciated by critics and readers alike.
While many critics focus on particular aspects of black people’s predicament, this dissertation will instead focus on one of main causes for this predicament, capitalism, from the perspectives of race, class and ideology through her four novels, A Mercy, The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, and Love.
Chapter Ⅱ investigates the entanglement between capitalism and racism in A Mercy. The novel is set in the 17th century, when Africans were sold as slaves in the New World. Black people in the U.S. are a direct product of the massive economic and social forces set in motion during this period by the Western powers. Through the lens of the slave trade, which was one of the foundations of capitalism, it can be seen how capitalism became entangled with racism, and how that has affected black people’s lives. Following the Middle Passage, it is possible to capture the very moment when black slaves became victims of capitalism and racism. Quite a transformation has taken place since then, as black people in the U.S. have been reduced to mere cogs in the accumulation of capital.
Meanwhile, Jacob Vaark, a white capitalist who had at first resisted trading slaves, changes his attitude and eventually gets into the slave trade. He takes advantage of the reality of racism to make himself rich. Capitalistic exploitation and racial oppression become complementary, and that is still the case today. On the other hand, Florens’ journey of self-making shows how she recovered and managed to become free while still a slave. Even with all her challenges as a slave, she still doesn't surrender herself to the capitalistic system but instead becomes ‘a free slave’ as an existential being.
Chapter Ⅲ explores the lives of African Americans under the capitalist ideology within the United States as depicted in The Bluest Eye. Black people had to survive in a white-dominated capitalist society during the 1940s, and yet were also highly susceptible to the capitalist ideology. The absence of father figure in the black family has been a feature of black life since the Emancipation Proclamation because black men couldn’t find opportunities to get started in business. They are excluded and oppressed by whites, and this provokes the disruption of black families. In addition, under the capitalist ideology, school education, movies, and commodity fetishism also threatens the lives of black people by forcing them to give up their identities to comply with the values and standards of the white-dominated capitalist society.
However, Morrison introduces Claudia MacTeer to the readers as an alternative plan to survive. Unlike Pecola Breedlove and some other black characters, Claudia is suspicious about white standards of beauty and their commodities and attempts to deconstruct that ideal. This is very significant because in that way black people can demystify the capitalist ideology and recover their identity. Furthermore, Claudia and her sister in solidarity try to help strengthen Pecola and give her more self-confidence, although they fail with her in the end.
Chapter Ⅳ discusses race and class contentions in Tar Baby. There are several types of contentions in the novel, but I focus on a black and white interracial class conflict and a black on black intraracial class conflict among them. The setting of the novel may remind readers of a sugarcane plantation in the West Indies in the 18th century when the slave trade prevailed. The first class conflict found in the novel, therefore, is that between a white master and black servants. Ever since the time of slavery, most of the black people have suffered from poverty and they still have to depend on their white master to survive in a capitalist society. This gives rise to a perpetual tension in their relationship because although they hate each other one must continually be submissive to the other’s power, which degrades black people to slaves again.
The second conflict is one within the black community. Comparatively wealthier, educated blacks think they are superior to poorer, uneducated ones. This mechanism simply reflects that of the white capitalist society. It must be emphasized that these wealthier, educated middle-class blacks have internalized the capitalist hierarchy system from whites, and distinguished themselves from lower-class blacks, and this is what has caused the intraracial class conflict. Son, however, who is from the South, tries to call a white master and capitalist to account for his reckless racism and exploitation. In addition, by advising Jadine not to accept her white master’s money, and by educating black servants as to their rights, he contributes to the black community’s harmony and its survival.
Chapter Ⅴ examines the birth of a black capitalist and the disruption of the black community in Love. I point out the obstacles of being a black capitalist in white-dominated American society, illuminating the difference between a white capitalist and a black one. Once Bill Cosey becomes a capitalist, he acquires “symbolic power” from his capital and exercises his power over his family, his servants, and lower-class blacks in the community. He does this just the way middle-class whites do it to blacks, including him; he reproduces the racism, violence and exploitation that he internalized from whites. As a result, the power derives from his capital destroys all the relationships among members of the black community and ends up disrupting the entire community.
Fortunately, however, the victims get a chance to look squarely at the reality of Bill Cosey and try to attack all the phantoms of his capital and its power. They expose mythical beliefs about the capitalist and destroy his “symbolic power.” In that way, people in the community are able to recover their love and concern for one another and free themselves from the control of capital and its power.
In conclusion, we’ve seen that from the era of the slave trade to the capitalist society of the 20th century it has been capitalism that has made African Americans economically and socially vulnerable. A Mercy shows the beginnings of modern racism intertwined with capitalism. The Bluest Eye reveals the helplessness of black people under the white-dominated capitalist ideology. Serious class conflicts between races and within race can be seen in Tar Baby. And finally, we learn that power amplified by capital could demolish an entire black community in Love. It seems that finding ways for blacks to survive is quite difficult but that relying on the suggestions presented in these novels could be effective. Since the problems are caused by capitalism, it is essential to find anti-capitalist ways of living to survive in a capitalist society. White people consider blacks as mere commodities or cogs not as human. Hence, it is more necessary for blacks to break the myth, and try to love one another in solidarity to recover their black identity.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 목 차
• Ⅰ. 서론…………………………………………………………………… 1
• Ⅱ. 자본주의와 인종차별의 착종: 『자비』…………………………… 16
• Ⅲ. 자본주의 이데올로기와 인종: 『가장 푸른 눈』 ……………… 61
• Ⅳ. 인종과 계급 분쟁: 『타르 베이비』……………………………… 91
• Ⅴ. 흑인 자본가와 흑인 공동체: 『러브』…………………………… 132
• Ⅵ. 결론………………………………………………………………… 171
• *인용 문헌 ……………………………………………………………… 178
• *영문 초록 ……………………………………………………………… 192

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