The Other Side to the Genre of Resistance: Toni Morrison’s Beloved

This work is set out to analyse the variant of resistance as projected in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The discourse is developed from an African American critical perspective towards examining the different ways in which resistance is represented in other situations and in this work. The argument in the first part is that to competently illustrate resistance in Beloved, it is imperative to scrutinize the physical, psychological, socio-cultural and even supernatural dimensions to the concept. It was deducted that resistance could be violent, civil, verbal, psychological and supernatural. Secondly, resistance as generic category is objectively represented when its limitations are outlined. This brought to the exploration of the efficiency of the various genres of resistance in Morison’s Beloved. So, while the psychological, civil and verbal aspects of resistance are presented as efficient, the violent forms of resistance are presented as auto-destructive, hence inadequate for the liberation of the oppressed.

Keywords: Resistance Oppression Violence Slavery Culture Freedom

Author

• NGANTU JUDITH GO’OH, Ph.D
  English Department, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
  Tel: 670700453/691109550
  drjudithngantu@gmail.com