As a result of enslavement, African American people have suffered identity dismemberment across generations. Toni Morrison’s novels Sula, Beloved and A Mercy display the complexities of naming and misnaming in a people who seek to create a rooted identity in the face of a violent and dehumanising past. Using intersectionality as an analytical tool, Morrison highlights the intrinsic role that a name holds as a functioning part of an individual’s identity. This article begins by providing a contextualisation of naming practices during slavery. Paying particular attention to female characters, I discuss Morrison’s use of over-naming and under-naming, merged identities and trinities of characters. The focus then moves to an analysis of characters’ struggles to own themselves and their identities, after which I examine representations of bodily fragmentation and mutability as a metaphor for the breakdown of culture within the Black community as a result of slavery. The article concludes with an examination of characters’ quest for identity and security through attachment to a godlike other.

中文翻译：

---

托尼·莫里森 (Toni Morrison) 的《亲爱的与怜悯》中的命名、身份和交叉性

作为奴役的结果，非裔美国人经历了几代人的身份分裂。托妮·莫里森 (Toni Morrison) 的小说《苏拉》、《挚爱》和《仁慈》展示了在面对暴力和非人性化的过去时寻求建立根深蒂固身份的民族中命名和错误命名的复杂性。使用交叉性作为分析工具，Morrison 强调了名字作为个人身份的一个功能部分所具有的内在作用。本文首先提供奴隶制期间命名实践的上下文。我特别关注女性角色，讨论了莫里森对过度命名和命名不足、合并身份和角色三位一体的使用。然后重点转向分析角色为拥有自己和身份而进行的斗争，之后，我将身体分裂和可变性的表现作为奴隶制导致黑人社区内文化崩溃的隐喻。文章最后考察了人物通过依恋神一样的他人来寻求身份和安全的情况。