Response to Sula
The opening description of Medallion provides a description of power relations in clear contrast with what we had been discussing during our last class; the physical representation is reversed, since the black residents of Medallion (on a hill) look down on the white residents of the valley below them. When this reverse physical representation is paired with the ending scene, it seems that marching down into the valley might have been their way of “rising up” to meet their dominating force on an equal playing field, which sadly fails.
Recognition appeared in Sula, reinforcing this theme’s reoccurrence throughout the novels we have been reading. It is most pronounced in section of the novel about Shadrack. He searches for a mirror because he has “no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book, no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket handkerchief, no rug, no bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key no tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to do…” (12). The lack of these things leaves Shadrack feeling a lack of his own identity (not unrelated to his lost identity as a solider) and he hopes that if he could only recognize his own face in a mirror, he could regain that identity. There is also an early scene where Nel looks in the mirror and recognizes herself, saying “I’m me…me. I’m me. I’m not their daughter. I’m not Nel. I’m me.” (28).
One of Foucault’s strategic unities – the pedagogization of sex – was strongly present throughout the novel. Sula is taught by the example of her mother that sex is pleasant and frequent, but unremarkable. This lesson shapes her future so strongly – it defines her relationship with men, with her friend Nel, with the community – that it is easy to see why there is such a debate about children’s sexual knowledge
Finally, back to the ever pressing question of liberation: In Toni Morrison’s forward she claims “female freedom always means sexual freedom, even when – especially when – it is seen through the prism of economic freedom” (xiii). This idea struck me as very non-Foucauldian, implying the “truth in sex, truth of sex” that he warned against. I think before I read Foucault’s History of Sexuality I would have agreed with and believed in Morrison’s statement, now, I am not so sure. What I do know is that while Morrison can no longer answer the question of liberation, neither can Foucault, or any other document we have read thus far. Perhaps it the key to the general population’s liberation will only become know once it appears and/or is successfully used, though I think it is probably naïve to think that there is a simple “key”.
Tags: identity, liberation, power, recognition
