Strategic Madness:

To deconstruct the cultural perversion of the African-American ethnicity, Toni Morrison deploys “madness” as grand metaphor in The Bluest Eye. The “mad-self” metaphorically liberates the hidden oppressed self to be expressed which can be explained as a resistance. In comparison to black male charac...

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Main Author: Ms. Sharifa Akter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ULAB Press 2015-08-01
Series:Crossings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.ulab.edu.bd/index.php/crossings/article/view/207
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author Ms. Sharifa Akter
author_facet Ms. Sharifa Akter
author_sort Ms. Sharifa Akter
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description To deconstruct the cultural perversion of the African-American ethnicity, Toni Morrison deploys “madness” as grand metaphor in The Bluest Eye. The “mad-self” metaphorically liberates the hidden oppressed self to be expressed which can be explained as a resistance. In comparison to black male characters in The Bluest Eye, the ideologically problematic stereotyping of female characters ‘triple nonentities – that is, “being black,”“being woman,” and “being mad” will be criticized in this study. Toni Morrison’s strategy in using madness to argue if and how female madness questions or strengthens patriarchal and racial representational politics is also examined. In The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar imply that a woman writer must examine, assimilate, and transcend the images of male authors generated for her. Women must deconstruct the aesthetic ideal that patriarchy has trapped them in art. From this perspective, despite the use of madness as a liberating agent,“madness” in The Bluest Eye appears to be an extension of the female characters’ marginality, patriarchal domination, intra-racial status, and being the “other” among the others.
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spelling doaj.art-1b0afce2ab00417f999a4bad856127bb2023-10-16T04:22:44ZengULAB PressCrossings2071-11072958-31792015-08-016110.59817/cjes.v6i.207Strategic Madness:Ms. Sharifa Akter0Lecturer, Department of English, University of Asia Pacific To deconstruct the cultural perversion of the African-American ethnicity, Toni Morrison deploys “madness” as grand metaphor in The Bluest Eye. The “mad-self” metaphorically liberates the hidden oppressed self to be expressed which can be explained as a resistance. In comparison to black male characters in The Bluest Eye, the ideologically problematic stereotyping of female characters ‘triple nonentities – that is, “being black,”“being woman,” and “being mad” will be criticized in this study. Toni Morrison’s strategy in using madness to argue if and how female madness questions or strengthens patriarchal and racial representational politics is also examined. In The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar imply that a woman writer must examine, assimilate, and transcend the images of male authors generated for her. Women must deconstruct the aesthetic ideal that patriarchy has trapped them in art. From this perspective, despite the use of madness as a liberating agent,“madness” in The Bluest Eye appears to be an extension of the female characters’ marginality, patriarchal domination, intra-racial status, and being the “other” among the others. https://journals.ulab.edu.bd/index.php/crossings/article/view/207Patriarchyracismmadnessstereotype
spellingShingle Ms. Sharifa Akter
Strategic Madness:
Crossings
Patriarchy
racism
madness
stereotype
title Strategic Madness:
title_full Strategic Madness:
title_fullStr Strategic Madness:
title_full_unstemmed Strategic Madness:
title_short Strategic Madness:
title_sort strategic madness
topic Patriarchy
racism
madness
stereotype
url https://journals.ulab.edu.bd/index.php/crossings/article/view/207
work_keys_str_mv AT mssharifaakter strategicmadness