Basements, Bars, and Burials: Exploring Exceptionalist Fantasy and Violence in Toni Morrison's Home

IF 0.5 2区文学 0 LITERATURE STUDIES IN THE NOVEL Pub Date : 2023-03-01 DOI:10.1353/sdn.2023.0002

Lauren M. Brown

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Abstract

Abstract:In an interview, Toni Morrison explains her choice to set the novel Home (2012) in 1950s America; often thought of as a "golden age," Morrison asserts, "I think we forgot what was really going on in the [19]50s," a comment which evokes the dual notions of state—that is, national and psychological—at work in national and cultural memory. In this vein, using Donald E. Pease's theoretical discussion of state fantasy from The New American Exceptionalism (2009) as a point of departure, this article situates close readings of violence in Home within philosophical discussions of "bare life" and "ungrievability" as advanced by Giorgio Agamben and Judith Butler, respectively, and unites these with historical research on eugenic sterilization practices in the US to explore various destructions of life perpetrated within the legitimating context of American exceptionalism domestically and internationally. Finally, through analysis of various sites that exist at a remove from the dominant exceptionalist landscape such as basements, the jazz bar, burial plots, and the community of Lotus, the essay explores alternative figurations to nation and community that Home presents.

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地下室、酒吧和墓地：探索托尼·莫里森家中的另类幻想和暴力

摘要:在一次采访中，托妮·莫里森解释了她将小说《家》(2012)的背景设定在20世纪50年代的美国;经常被认为是“黄金时代”的莫里森断言，“我认为我们忘记了50年代到底发生了什么”，这一评论唤起了国家的双重概念——即国家的和心理的——在国家和文化记忆中起作用。在这种情况下，本文以唐纳德·e·皮斯在《新美国例外论》(2009)中对国家幻想的理论讨论为出发点，将《家园》中的暴力置于乔治·阿甘本和朱迪思·巴特勒分别提出的“赤裸的生命”和“不可悲伤”的哲学讨论中。并将这些与美国优生绝育实践的历史研究结合起来，探索在美国国内和国际例外论的合法背景下犯下的各种对生命的破坏。最后，通过对地下室、爵士酒吧、墓地和莲花社区等不同地点的分析，本文探索了“家园”所呈现的国家和社区的另类形象。

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来源期刊

STUDIES IN THE NOVEL LITERATURE-

CiteScore

0.40

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0.00%

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期刊介绍： From its inception, Studies in the Novel has been dedicated to building a scholarly community around the world-making potentialities of the novel. Studies in the Novel started as an idea among several members of the English Department of the University of North Texas during the summer of 1965. They determined that there was a need for a journal “devoted to publishing critical and scholarly articles on the novel with no restrictions on either chronology or nationality of the novelists studied.” The founding editor, University of North Texas professor of contemporary literature James W. Lee, envisioned a journal of international scope and influence. Since then, Studies in the Novel has staked its reputation upon publishing incisive scholarship on the canon-forming and cutting-edge novelists that have shaped the genre’s rich history. The journal continues to break new ground by promoting new theoretical approaches, a broader international scope, and an engagement with the contemporary novel as a form of social critique.