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THE CONSTRUCTION OF WOMAN IDENTITY IN BELOVEDBY TONI MORRISON

KONSEP IDENTITAS PEREMPUAN DALAM NOVELBELOVED OLEH TONI MORRISON

A THESIS BY:

PRIAJENG KURNIANINGTYAS SUSANTO

P0600215008

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY

2017

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF WOMEN IDENTITY IN BELOVEDBY TONI MORRISON

Thesisas a partial fulfillment to achieve Master Degree

ProgramEnglish Language Studies

Arranged and Proposed by

PRIAJENG KURNIANINGTYAS SUSANTO

To

POST GRADUATE PROGRAMHASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY

MAKASSAR2017

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A STATEMENT OF THESIS AUTHENCITY

The undersigned:

Name : Priajeng Kurnianingtyas Susanto

Register Number : P0600215008

Study program : English Language Study

State truthfully this thesis was the result of my own work. If it is

proven later that some parts or entire parts of this thesis is the work of

others, I am willing to accept any sanctions for my dishonesty.

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Makassar, 15 Agustus 2017

Priajeng Kurnianingtyas. S

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, the researcher would like to express her great praise to

the almighty Allah SWT, who has given chances, spirits, helath, and

patience in finishing her thesis and everything she does. Peace and

Blessings of Allah upon to noblest Messegers and Prophets, Prophet

Muhammad SAW, who has brought human being from darknesss to

lightness.

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Unlimited and unbounded thanks are dedicated to the researcher’s

parents: Muhammad Yoyok Priyo Dwi Susanto, M.Pd the researcher’s

father who has given so many helpfulness, spirit, and suggestions for the

researcher. Also the researcher’s mother, Sitti Nurhani, M.Pd who always

gives her love, support and spirit for her to fnish this thesis.

The researcher also expresses his deep appreciation and grateful

to her first consultant Prof. Drs. H. Burhanuddin Arafah, M.Hum., Ph.D.

and second consultant Dr. H. Mustafa Makka, M.S who have given helpful

suggestions and ideas for the researcher, and spent their time to help the

researcher corrected and finished her thesis.

High appreciation are extended to Dr. H. Fathu Rahman, M.Hum as

the head of English Language Studies of Post Graduate Program

Hasanuddin University, and all the lectures in English Language Studies

for advice, motivation, and useful knowledge. Her deepest thanks also go

to her examiners Dr. H. Fathu Rahman, M.Hum, Dra. Herawaty, M.Hum,

M.A., Ph.D., and Dr. M. Amir P., M.Hum. for their valuable corrections and

suggestions, also for all staffs at Faculty of Cultural Sciences who have

helped the researcher in managing all formal deeds during her thesis

arrangement.

Special grateful also due to her brothers and sisters Yoan Putri

Praditia Susanto, M.Keb, Bagus Susilo Pramuwicaksono Susanto S.T,

Widi Pangestu Wilujeng Susanto, and Rahayu Dyah Pitaloka Susanto who

always give support and spirit for the researcher..

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The researcher realizes that this thesis needs to be improved,

therefore she appreciates for critics and suggestions. She expects that this

thesis give benefits for all readers. Thank you very much and may Allah

always bless us. Aamiin.

Makassar, August 2017

The researcher

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE.......................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL SHEET .................................................................................. iiCERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP............................................................ iiiAKCNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................... ivABSTRACT ............................................................................................... vABSTRAK ................................................................................................ viTABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1A. Background..................................................................... 1

B. Research Questions ....................................................... 7

C. Objectives of the Research............................................. 7

D. Significant of the Research............................................. 7

E. Scope of the Research ................................................... 8

F. Sequences of Chapter .................................................... 9

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................... 10A. Previous Study ............................................................ 10

B. Theoretical Background............................................... 14

1. Genetic Structuralism ............................................. 14

2. Postfeminism Theory ............................................. 16

3. Afro American Women In Literature ....................... 22

C. The Conceptual Framework ....................................... 25

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................. 26A. Type of the Research................................................. 26

B. Source of Data ........................................................... 27

C. Method of Collecting Data.......................................... 27

D. Data Analysis ............................................................. 28

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CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND DISCUSSION .......................................... 29A. Finding ....................................................................... 29

1. Plot of the story ....................................................... 29

2. Characters .............................................................. 31

3. Theme in Beloved story ......................................... 33

4. The impact of Slavery for the main character ........ 34

5. The Construction of women identity ....................... 40

B. Discussion.................................................................. 46

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ................................ 55A. Conclusion ................................................................. 55

B. Suggestion ................................................................. 56

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………….58

APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………...60

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of six parts. They are background, research

questions, objectives of the research, significance of the research, scope

of the research and the last is sequences of chapter.

A. BACKGROUND

The middle of nineteenth century often referred as a progressive

era, marked by the emergence of a new image of women in society.

Women who are from another ethnic background such as Afro American

women who have lived differently, try to struggle their roles as mother,

wife, and also their identity as women.

Back to the history Afro American women that slavery was a major

problem, affecting their identity in social life. Collins states the majority

Afro American women were bought to the United States to work as slaves

in a situation of oppression. Oppression is described an unjust situation

where one group denies another group access to the resources of society

(2000: 2). Despite of all this oppression are covered by slavery, the system

of oppression also works to suppress Afro American women moved by

white people. The impact of slavery for Afro American women is losing

their identity as woman and became less feminine.

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According to Collins in Black Feminist Thought Knowledge

Consciousness and The politics Empowerment, there are two elements

that become problematic for African of American women. First, under

slavery Afro American women worked without wage in the allegedly public

sphere of southern agriculture and they had routinely violated. Second,

they were separated from workingin family household suffer from deficient

idea of gender ideology (2000: 47). In conclusion, Afro American women

become less ‘feminine’, because they work outside from home, work for

wage and compete with men, and their occupation take them away from

their children.

As one of the consequences of the phenomena, Afro American

women experienced as mothers who have been shaped by the dominant,

especially since children followed the condition of their mother. Any

children who were born in such condition must be seen as the product of

rape. In this problem, one of author such as Toni Morrison presented

literary works which concerned on the identityof Afro American women and

alsoas part of Morrison’s project to call attention onthe way of whiteness

was constructed and Morrison showed this construction though typically by

critics in text by writing the novels.

According to Brooks, postfeminism is the way of concept to look for

the construction of woman related to their historical problems, and refers

to a shift in understanding construction of identity like woman, man, and

feminist. The use of concept postfeminism is emerged by initiative in

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government industry, is marked by man and women equality (1997).

Basically, it tends to debate about the issues of victimization, because of

critical of any definition of women as victims who are unable to control

their own lives, and body, also it can be said that postfeminism is a flexible

theory which can be adapted to see individual needs and desires by

considering position within feminist histories.

In this study, the researcher chooses Beloved, a novel’s by Afro

American author, Toni Morrison. From the previous studies, there is none

of the researches which lifted up the construction of woman identity as a

subject from the novel itself. Most of the researcher who were actually

studying about Morrison’s Beloved focused on the Morrison motives and

psychological analysis. For the research which lifted up the concept of Afro

American women subjectivity lack in number. In addition, this concept is

not only relatedto the literature but also is focused on habitual and attitude

instead after slavery for Afro American women.

Morison the author tries to call people in her novel’s Beloved by

describing a history of black people in the perspective of historical fiction

which also is focused on the condition of society. The novel contains the

epic depictions of situations of Afro American women after slavery era and

the impact including maternal discourse, a process of healing a trauma

and recovery by forcing the main character to confront and remember the

past.

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In fact,Beloved tells about Sethe and her daughter Denver who

lived in 124, a house in a rural area close to Cincinatti. Eighteen years

have passed since she escaped from slavery at a farm called Sweet

Home. Sweet Home was run by a cruel man known as schoolteacher, who

allowed his nephews to brutalize Sethe while he took notes for his

scientific studies of blacks. When Sethe was pregnant, she fled and

delivered her child along the way with helping from a white woman name

Amy. Meanwhile, Sethe's husband, who was supposed to accompany her,

disappeared.

After that, she escaped to Cincinatti with her four children, Sethe

enjoyed only twenty-eight days of freedom before she was tracked down

by her old master. Rather than allowed her children to be returned to

slavery, she attempted to kill all of them, succeeding only in killing the

baby girl. Then, she was rejected to kill her children by her master, who

saw that she was no longer fit to serve, Sethe was also saved from

hanging and was released to raise her remaining three children at

Cincinatti.

Furthermore, the researcher attempts to analyze the construction of

women identity as a subject by using postfeminism perspective that

focuses on the main characters in the novel. Thus, the researcher

suggests by investigating and analyzing the main characters, it can give a

comprehension about what the impact of slavery in historical trauma that

makes Afro American women loss the identity. Additionally, it is also to

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know how the main character constructed the identity as women in healing

process after slavery era that occurs in the story. This is the reason why

the researcher tries to analyze and usesBeloved by Toni Morrison as the

object of study.

B. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the explanation above, here the researcher decides the

research questions as followed:

1. Whatthe impacts of Slavery that are experienced by the main

character in Beloved by Toni Morrison?

2. How does the main characters construct the "identity" as woman?

C. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

Based on the research questions above, there are some objectives

which are hoped to be achieved as follow:

1. To describe the impacts of Slavery that are experienced bythe main

characters in Beloved by Toni Morrison

2. To show how the main characters in the novel construct the identity as

a woman

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D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The significance of this research are divided into two categories as

followed:

The analysis of this research is to provide significance for the readers

in case of the information about the impact of slavery for Afro American

women after slavery era. In practical way, this research goal is to offer

some important insights to the readers about the value to role the life as a

human being and especially to give the lesson about the way Afro

American women who are trying to construct the identity as a mother and

wife.

The analysis of this research provides a lesson to the readers related

to the human being adjustment to the new place with the new matter and

how to react and face the new condition without losing the grip. In addition,

this research encourages the reader to search more about Postfeminism

in literature and reveal more about the identity ofAfro American women in

literature.

E. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

The researcher focuses on the analysis of the impact in the novel

and how the main characters construct the identity as woman by focus on

analyzing the main characters in Beloved by Toni Morrison. Therefore, the

scope of this research is focused on 2 research questions: first, what the

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impacts of Slavery for main characters on the novel, and the second, how

the main characters construct the "identity" as woman.

F. SEQUENCES OF CHAPTER

The sequence of chapters in this writing is divided into five chapters

as follows:

Chapter one provides a general introduction. It includes the

background of the study, research questions, objective of the research,

significance of the research and sequence of the chapter.

Chapter two provides a literature review which consists of previous

studies, theoretical background, genetic structuralism approach,

Postfeminism theory, African of American Women in literature, and

conceptual framework.

Chapter three deals with the type of the research, sources of the

data, the method of collecting data, and data analysis.

Chapter four reveals findings and discussions related to the subject

matter of the research. It contains the analysis of the impact of slavery and

the way of main characters in the novel construct the identity as women

through postfeminism perspective.

Chapter five includes the conclusions and suggestions, which

contains of significant ideas that solves for the research questions.

Furthermore, this part offers suggestions. The last are bibliography and

appendix.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter reveals the previous study related to the subject

matter of this research, the theory used in this research and the

conceptual framework.

A. PREVIOUS STUDY

The following part deals with the previous studies of literature which

undertaken the construction of women identity to be analyzed and another

studies which used the Morrison’s Beloved as object of the study of the

analysis.

First, previous researcher is Gang Xu (2014) from Foreign School

Inner Mongolian University for Nationalities China, Under the title, ‘The

new History’ in Toni Morrison Beloved and the Construction of the Black’s

Subjectivity. Xu examines the new history to depict blacks experience

which focus on reveals the pathetic history reconstructing Afro American

subjectivity and Culture that change in society. Moreover learned about

Morrison’s motive to reconstruct Afro American slave.

Joodaki and Vadji (A Reading of Beloved by Toni Morrison Based on

Homi K. Bhabha’s Theories, 2014) It was attempted to examine the novel

by Morrison based on theory of poststructuralist, Homi K. Bhabha, who

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challenges the notions of fixed identities, undermines the binary opposition

between oppressed and oppressor and emphasizes the role of language,

and the main focus has been on the unhomely nature of the colonial world

and the ambivalent nature of colonial relationships, which leads to

resistance on the part of the colonized.

Babamiri, Dahstpeyma, and Jamali (2014) from Departement of

English Collage of Persian Literature and Foreign Language Tabriz

Branch Islamic Azad University with the title Masculinity and Feminity in

Toni Morrison Beloved: A Womanist Approach. They examined the

masculinity in Beloved written by a womanist writer. The study showed the

negative and problematic influence of white men over their black slaves as

the dominance, and study the reflection of masculinity impact and also

acting masculine being strong among female protagonist in Beloved

novels this research done through womanist approach findings more light

on how try to entrap and domesticate women under their own dominance.

Shin Tai (2016) under the title Mapping Postmodern in Toni Morrison’s

Beloved. This report seeks to present Beloved as a postmodern novel.

The paper analyzes Morrison’s achievement in subverting the literary

conventions of the Euro-American tradition. This report applied the

concepts of the postmodern to the novel, Beloved. In doing so, Shin Tai

distinguished the postmodern in terms of the narrative strategies, the

diverse experience of African culture, a critique of representation, an

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awareness of intertextuality, and open ended interpretations. Thus, in this

report aimed to illustrate how Beloved shares in postmodern features.

Shaheen from University of Faisalabad Pakistan, under thesis title is

about The Study of Gender in Toni Morrison’s Beloved (2014), examined

the literature through focus on gender politics to women caused

oppression. Gynocentric perspective renders a special help to give insight

in to the lives of women characters and trace the prospects that intersect

the ways of oppression where women are trivialized as commodities, a

property with a price tag in Morrison’s Beloved.

Farshid in Reclamation of the Exploited Body in Toni Morrison Beloved

(2012), classified the main character (ex-slaves) behavior in order to see

how they ‘claim’ their body in the free life after being exploited by

Schoolteacher as property.

Khaleghi (2012), in Reclaiming Identity Through the Community: A

Study of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and A Mercy, analyzed Morrison’s novel

and motives showing pre-slavery and post-slavery African-American

community in which people suffer physically and psychologically from the

dominant culture in the story, also exposed the dangers of manhood that

relies on violence and oppression. Slavery, class and gender inequity,

betrayal, and brutality are described through the lives of the novel’s

characters.

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Based on the previous studies those researcher investigated

Morrison’s Beloved by concern in social culture that change in black

people life history that illustrated in blacks experience, examined the novel

by using poststructuralist theory which is approve by some relation

between oppressed and oppressor role of language and colonial

relationship.

Moreover they examined masculinity written by womanist writer such

as Morrison problematic influences, distinguished Morrison’s Beloved as a

postmodern novel by analyzed Morrison achievement in literary

conventions a critique of representation African culture, examined the

literature focus on gender politics to women caused operation using

Gynocentric perspective, classified the main character behavior in manage

their body after being slaves (pre-slavery and post-slavery) which is

slavery, class, and inequity, betrayal, brutality are described trough the

lives of the novels characters.

Therefore, this research identifies the main characters situation in the

free life, for example the life of the main character as mothers, wife, cyber

intimate, and how the impact of slavery influences the Afro American

women for losing the identity and how the women character try to get out

from ‘slaves’ and construct the identity as woman in Morrison’s Beloved

trough postfeminism perspective.

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B. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Theory is the main basic grip in every research or any scientific writing

in order to organize the scope of the research, either the role of the

research analysis. Every existing research should have a theory or even

more to support the analysis. Furthermore to convince people most by

changing people’s common sense views which the research is worth

studies.

1. Genetic Structuralism

Theoretical reference used in this research is Genetic structuralism

developed by Lucien Goldmann.Genetic structuralism was emerged as a

reaction from classic structuralism that literary research only analyzes the

intrinsic elements and disregards other elements such as the author’s

background and historical background. These intrinsic structures are

homologous to the mental structure of the group of authors. Therefore, by

understanding literary text and disregarding author as the meaning will be

incomplete the identity, and values that have been used by the author.

Genetic structuralist analysis in the History of Literature is merely the

application to the particular general method that believing the only valid

one only in human science which is relate to all the sector human behavior

analyzing fundamental principles applied in human science in general and

to literary criticism in particular (Goldmann, 1975). From this point of view,

genetic structuralism is the scientific study of human facts, whether

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economic, social, political, or cultural involves in some research to come

up against a whole series of problems.

Lucian Goldmann a Romanian theorist based in France rejected the

idea that text are creations of individual and argued that they are based

upon trans-individual mental structures belonging to particular groups or

classes. Despite of sustain his theory, Goldmann develop set of categories

that connect each other which are human fact, collective subject, and

worldview.

a. Human Fact

Human fact or the fact of humanity is all of the result of activity or

human behavior, both of verbal or physical which seeks understood by

science (Faruk: 1994).

In concluding that, human fact can be some important issues that

researcher analyzes in Morrison’s Beloved because the story tells

about the history of slavery that shows about the problematic situation

face by Afro American Women.

b. Collective Subject

According to Goldmann (1975) text are not creation merely of an

individual consciousness but that literary works have their origins in a

trans-individual subject of cultural creation.

Collective subject a social group or class whose ideas and activities

to create a complete and united view of their social life in order to make

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the ideas is more plural than just focus on the text. Goldmann specifies

collective subject as social class because these social class is the

collectivity that create a complete and coherent structure of society.

c. World Views

Through worldview it is possible the literature is reflected the

authentic values which embrace life. Authentic values are values that

implied in a novel. Values that organize form completely. Goldmann

believe there is homology between literary structures with the society

structure, because both are product are the same structure activity.

The relation between society and literary structure cannot be

understood as direct determinative relation but trough by what he

called worldview.

The worldview is a term suitable for the overall complex of ideas,aspirations, and feelings that connect together members of one socialgroup to another. As a collective consciousness that worldview isevolving as a result of specific economic and social situation faced bycollective subject who has it (Faruk, 1994).

So, worldview is a united ideas that develop in the collective subject

that has been created social reaction in certain community. This

research uses genetic structuralism to seek the intrinsic elements of

the story but also concern about the idea of the author illustrated by the

main characters.

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2. Post-feminism Theory

The origin of Postfeminism was marked by the following event

international women day in Paris 1968, but first came to be used as an

actual term in the 1980s. The prefix ‘post-’ in the term ‘postfeminism’

indicates that postfeminism came after the feminist movement. Back to the

history that feminism are divided into three waves. The first wave of

feminism has been revealed in 1792 until1960. The ideas for fighting the

development of the rational side of women, which is focused on individuals

autonomy practice, but still do not eliminate discrimination against women

(Sanders, 1999).

The second wave of feminism was revealed in 1960-1980. This wave

appears as a reaction to the dissatisfaction of women in various

discriminations they are experienced. The third wave well known as Post-

feminism movement, it emerges as the result of varieties criticism of

feminism universalism, which is postfeminism still tend to debate around

feminist issues as the object.

According to Genz and Brabon (2009: 1) Postfeminism is a concept

fraught with contradictions, it emerged in the late twentieth century in a

number of cultural, academic and political contexts, from popular

journalism and media to feminist analyses, postmodern theories and neo-

liberal rhetoric. This essentially pointed to the birth of postfeminism as

having caused the death of the original ideas surrounding early feminist

movements. In popular culture, it has been associated with female

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characters Madonna and Helen Fielding’s chick heroine Bridget Jones,

who has been criticized as the poster child of postfeminism. In ideal of

republican womanhood is Michelle Obama represent of Black women (Gill

and Scharf, 2011:68).

In academic writings, it sits alongside other ‘post-’ discourses including

postmodernism, poststructuralist, and postcolonialism, it refers to a shift in

the understanding and construction of identity and gender categories (like

‘Woman’, ‘Man’ and ‘Feminist’) as a consequence of wanting women to

band together collectively, feminists neglected the critique of apositive and

stable identity. They relied on a stable concept of what a woman was,

which led to ‘essentialist’ dilemmas, instead of subjecting ‘woman’ to

critical analysis.

For the case of Postfeminism in academic is about represents

feminism’s maturity into a confident body of theory, representing pluralism

and deference and reflecting position in relation to other philosophical and

political movements. For Brooks in Postfeminism Feminism Cultural

Theory and Cultural Forms (1997: 99) she point out analysis feminism is

becomes the subject of postfeminist critiques that gives on a singular and

uniform conception of the feminist movement, emphasizing instead the

multiple and varied ways of being ‘feminist’ and understanding ‘feminism’.

In this sense, postfeminism can be considered as a movement of feminist

pluralization. It is not about what comes but it is about the conceptual

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shifts within feminism, and opens up the feminist realm for the articulation

of ‘other’ voices and identities.

The construction of ' post-feminism' has emphasized the differences

between women. Instead women are blamed, or blame themselves and

one another, for their feelingsof dissatisfaction and the underlying causes

remain ignored or refuted. The majority of women seek to make sense of

their lives and accommodate theoften conflicting desires of autonomy and

alliance. If women feel they are tobe judged, or placed on a hierarchy of

oppression by other women, they will cease to express their views or

discuss the significant and inherentcontradictions in their lives (Coppock,

Hayden, and Richter, 1995: 7)

In many ways, postfeminism can be said as the respond to the

theoretical and political challenges facing feminists in a post-second wave

environment of moving feminism, yet the understanding of postfeminism

as feminist pluralism also highlights a fact that came up with the advent of

the modern era that depict in the textual representations of women. The

implications of the postfeminist literary theory have been influential on the

way women’s is written. In analyzing the characters, the media that used

by the researcher to identify the character is the language and the

character behavior itself. Also postfeminism expresses the intersection of

feminism with postmodernism,represents a dynamic movement capable of

challenging modernist frameworks.This stage also firmly said by Brooks as

followed:

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The postfeminist movement insists that feminism has to be viewedpluralistically, and in this way, it establish a dynamic and vigorous areaof intellectual debate, shaping the issues and intellectual climate thathas characterized the move from modernity in the contemporary world(1997: 210).

From the quotation above, it clearly shows that postfeminism can act in

theoretically engaging and challenging ways thatpresuppose the end of

critical production in politics such as women as workers in slavery era. It is

most constructive sense, offers a different conceptual to understand bycritical practice.it is not so much a trivialization of feminism as an active

reinterpretation of contemporary forms of critique and politics that take into

account the diverse agency positions of individuals today. As it has now

become essential to rethink political or feminist agency in the context of

identity categories

a. Subjectivity and Women identity

The issues of subjectivity and identity within feminist theorizing are

closely related to issues of epistemology within feminist theoretical

analysis and the relationship between feminist knowledge and women’s

experience. Sandra Harding’s in Reinventing Ourselves as Others: More

New Agents of History and Knowledge(1993) in Brooks (1997: 18)points

out that reflects between the relationship between experience and

knowledge, her latest writing examines the kinds of subjects or agents of

history and knowledge and the kinds of projects that are generated by the

“logic” of standpoint theory.

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Waugh’s critique (in Brooks: 98) of feminism’s intersection with

postmodernism.

1) The first is that she conflates the categories of feminist and women

writers and subsumes both categories of writer within an

essentialist model of experience, assuming that feminism can be

equated with women’s experience.

2) Second, her theorization the concept of subjectivity and agency

draws heavily on the modernist liberal humanist conception of ‘the

subject’. She argues that ‘women’ have always experienced

themselves in a ‘postmodern fashion’, lacking agency, and claims

that this was one of the reasons why women felt they had to occupy

the centre (and a totalizing they position) in the early 1970s.

Waugh maintains this was why women began to seek ‘a subjective

sense of agency’ and collective identity. She suggests women writers may

have needed to formulate a sense of identity, history and agency before

they could consider deconstructing them.Feminism has displayed

casualness about the specific historical context of its claims. She argues

that feminism can produce better and politically stronger theory by moving

more clearly in a postmodern direction.

Post-civil-rights discourse similarly provides an important context for

the anthology as it seeks to draw out the racialized marking of postfeminist

culture. Kimberly Springer’s essay explores the articulation of black

women, in terms both new and familiar, within postfeminist media culture.

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Such analysis of gendered and racial types is staged within a developing

media context.

The ten years between 1980 and 1990 proved to be much more than a

decade in terms of the historical development of feminism as a body of

theoretical and critical practice. The gulf between second wave feminism

and what is described here as postfeminism became more clearly defined

and focused around the issues of feminist theory and theorizing (Brooks:

1997)

Based on the quotation the identity of women cannot be separated

with what happened in their past or history. The relation between

postfeminism and the subjectivity around the issues that had been

debated in feminism is the modernization and political history including the

oppression that shape the identity of women, thus postfeminism

perspective is transforming the subjectivity of women in modernization

society. The subject positioning constructed by different texts clearly relate

to whether the text is produced for male or female.

In the context of this research, the researcher analyzing the spirit of

Afro American woman to get out from the identity as a slaves and concern

with their past and how the main character especially the women face the

problem doing that by using postfeminism lens. Therefore, the researcher

interpret the act, and behavior of the main character, also the situation of

the story.

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3. Afro American women in Literature

This research concern with Afro American women literature, especially

because the main issues that tend to debate always about slavery and

identity. According to Warren in What was African American Literature?

states that African of American literary texts are distinguished by the way

black authors, consciously and unconsciously have worked and reworked

rhetorical practices, myths, folklore, and traditions that derive from the

African continent. Others have maintained that African of American literary

texts are defined by a prolonged engagement with the problem of slavery,

a system of labor exploitation that was central to the development of not

only the United States but the whole of the Western world making the

writing against under the influences of the slave regime has defined not

only the literature written prior to abolition but also subsequent black

literary practice, because black literary practice as a whole has been

indelibly marked by the ways that enslaved blacks coped with the

brutalities of the Middle Passage, when millions of Africans were

transported from Africa to the Americas, and chattel slavery (2011: 2).

In addition that, this study attempt to analyze some issues relate to

situation in Afro American women in pre and pra slavery era by interprets

the text. One of the author that always written about slavery in the history

is Toni Morrison. Morrison also concern with Afro American women and

their identity.

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Part of Morrison’s project is to call attention to how women identity is

constructed, as Morrison shows this construction is still evident, though

typically neglected by critics, in texts such as Cather’s novel (Reames,

2007). In concluding that, the identity of Afro American women are

describing by Morrison in order to show the story behind it and the reason

why they are losing their identity by memorizing way and presents the

situation of it.

That is situation answered by the setting of Beloved, in which Morrison

explores how the historical context of women’s interracial relationships

situates the interplay of race, class, and bodies.Primarily the story of an

escaped slave’s recovery of her sense of self, Beloved is also very much a

story of mothers and daughters. Morrison’s Belovedindicates the story by

underlying the historical paradigm of Afro American women.

35

C. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

Identity

The ConstructionOf Woman Identity

Morrison’sBeloved

PostfeminismGenetic

Structuralism

Characters

Theme

Plot