ABSTRACT

In ‘The Site of Memory,’ Toni Morrison suggests that ‘the act of imagination is bound up with memory’ (98). She goes on to compare the Mississippi River to writers, ‘remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like’ (99). As I demonstrate in this article, it would be a mistake to think of this comparison as a mere metaphor. In this essay, I examine how the characters in Sula rely on and struggle with their communal memories and trauma as they are tied to the river that runs through the Bottom. I argue that Morrison uses the river as a focal point to express the intersection of memory, history, and trauma, both for the individual characters in the book and the Black community at large. Furthermore, I argue that Morrison responds to this violent past by integrating popular folktales and signifying on them in order to help us, and the characters, understand the perils of both the social and natural landscape. Ultimately, I conclude that the presence of the rivers and popular folktales are sites of memory that invoke the histories of oppression that have shaped the lives of the characters in Sula.

摘要

托尼·莫里森（Toni Morrison）在“记忆的地点”一书中提出“想象力与记忆息息相关”（98）。她接着将密西西比河与作家进行了比较，“记住我们在哪里，我们穿过哪个山谷，河岸是什么样子”（99）。正如我在本文中论证的那样，将这种比较视为单纯的隐喻是错误的。在本文中，我将探讨《苏拉》中的人物他们依赖于与流经河底的河流相连的社区记忆和创伤，并与之抗争。我认为，莫里森以河流为中心来表达记忆，历史和创伤的交集，无论是书中的人物还是整个黑人社区。此外，我认为，莫里森通过整合流行的民间故事并对其进行暗示来回应这种暴力的过去，以帮助我们和人物理解社会和自然景观的危险。归根结底，我得出的结论是，河流的存在和流行的民间故事是记忆的场所，它们唤起了压迫历史，这些压迫历史塑造了苏拉角色的生活。