미국 기원서사의 다시 쓰기: 토니 모리슨(Toni Morrison)의 『자비』(A Mercy)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how Toni Morrison attempts to disintegrate the American origins narrative such as American Exceptionalism and rewrite it from the minority narratives, focusing on her ninth novel, A Mercy. In A Mercy set in 'pre-racial' 1690, the author exposes the white male Christian-centeredness of the American origins narrative by describing the lives of the late 17th century colonial society. Unlike the public origins narrative, in the colonies created by Morrison the settlers come from a variety of races and classes. It is shown that the dominant narrative erased the multiracial heritage of the colonial society and set up the white supremacy nation. The process of strengthening the white male hegemony is revealed in how Jacob Vaark accumulates wealth by investing into the sugar industry in Barbados, which inevitably leads him to be involved in slave trade. Morrison's much more severe criticism on the origins narrative is given in the way the slavery system is gradually combined with racialization by the dominant elites of colonial society. This racialization of slavery is critically described in the significance of Bacon's Rebellion and the personal experiences of Florence and her mother. In particular, the destructiveness of racialized slavery is vividly revealed through Florence's sense of being betrayed by her mother who gives up her daughter in order to save her from the terrible sexual abuses she is sure to undergo. Morrison's attempts to revise the origins narrative are also shown not only in the narratives of colored female slaves such as Florence, Lena and Sorrow in which each restores the broken sense of self, but in the community in which the Vaarks and their slaves and servants form their mutual relationships across the boundaries of race, gender, and class. The significance of A Mercy lies in that it disintegrates the white male-centered American origins narrative and suggests the alternative narrative of the beginnings of America.