From the Same Tree: Gender and Iconography in Representations of Violence in Beloved
Name
Alexandre_From the_Summer 2012.pdf
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261.9 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Alexandre, Sandy
Date Issued
2011
Journal
Signs
Publisher
University of Chicago Press, The
Citation
Alexandre, Sandy. “From the Same Tree: Gender and Iconography in Representations of Violence in Beloved.” Signs 36.4 (2011): 915–940. Web. 28 Aug. 2012.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved capitalizes on the simultaneous gender neutrality and semantic multiplicity of tree images associated with rape and lynching in order to eschew any hierarchy of black oppression, which might privilege riveting instances of male victimization (lynching) as the emblem of that oppression over instances of female victimization often viewed as less than noteworthy. My claim in this essay is that in Beloved Morrison piggybacks on the power and currency of lynching iconography—particularly tree imagery—as a way to demonstrate continuity between violence committed against black men and violence committed against black women and as a way to interpolate black women’s sexually violated bodies into the publicity that black men have mostly benefited from through antilynching efforts organized as legislative campaigns and even art exhibitions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. Literature Section
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1086/658505
