Black Feminism in Morrison’s Sula

Abstract

This research is an effort to explore the issue of Black Feminism in Sula. The protagonist, Sula, is a unique Black woman, completely different from other women of her community not only because of her unique experience in sex but also because of her own cultural definition of womanhood and self identity. Due to her opposition of pre- existed social values and norms, she is nominated as a devil in the Bottom. However, being a radical Black feminist, she explores her emotions, feelings and experiences, and rejects the male hegemony over Black women. Other Black female characters like Hannah and Eva are also seemed dominant because of their sexual liberation and quest for their identity within the patriarchal Black community. In this novel, Morrison creates valiant Black female characters who have full of revolutionary visions and explores the issue of the Black women’s personal, sexual and racial liberation. In spite of the negligence of Sula’s revolutionary visions and deeds in the Bottom community, her new ideology is dominant at last, and her intimate friend Nel vows to follow it. That is why she is successful to raise the issue of Black women in the Afro-American society. She wants to explore the world led by Black women with their own identity and autonomy without the support of men. The novelist herself has protest feelings towards the Black community and its patriarchal social values and norms. Because of unique technique and writing style, Morrison is absolutely successful to explore the Black feminist issues in her novel.