Toni Morrison’s Politics of Feminist Mothering and European Literary Tradition: Discerning Feminist Matricentric Streaks in Morrison’s Work

Abstract

This research investigates Morrison’s novels, Sula and The Bluest Eye and challenges the patriarchal definition of motherhood presented in the dominant European literature. The article deals with the Morrison theory on mothering to explore the experiences of black marginalized mothers that were absent in the white European patriarchal narratives on the motherhood. Drawing on Patricia Hills Collin’s concept of Black feminist Motherhood and Andrea O’Reilly’s theories on feminist mothering, the study will investigate the impact of Morrison’s works that deconstruct the patriarchal discourse in western writings. Morrison’s novels playing a viable role in liberating mothering experience from suppression to rather intellectual and emotional development. This kind of mothering empowerment became a political and social act. The research follows the narrative approach and techniques of content analysis.