MIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

From the Same Tree: Gender and Iconography in Representations of Violence in Beloved

Author(s)
Alexandre, Sandy
Thumbnail
DownloadAlexandre_From the_Summer 2012.pdf (261.8Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY

Publisher Policy

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.

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.
Metadata
Show full item record
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.
Date issued
2011
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72362
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. Literature Section
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
ISSN
0097-9740
1545-6943

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibilityContact us
MIT
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.