浅析《所罗门之歌》中的非洲传统文化

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摘 要

在当代美国社会，黑人文化是不可或缺的存在，与白人文化形成鲜明对比。两种文化同时存在必然产生冲突和融合。莫里森在《所罗门之歌》中通过描写黑人青年奶娃的寻根之旅，极力倡导黑人文化的发展，呼吁美国黑人不要忘却自己的祖先和传统文化。本文首先介绍非洲传统文化的发展进程以及包含的内容，主体部分简要表明莫里森的文化立场并从命名的重要性、非洲神话故事以及人与自然的关系三个方面分析小说中折射的非洲传统文化。最后总结得出继承和发展非洲文化对于黑人来说意义重大。

关键词：《所罗门之歌》；非洲文化；命名的重要性；神话故事; 人与自然

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2.Literature Review 2

3. An Introduction to Traditional African Culture 3

4. An Interpretation of the Traditional African Culture in the Novel 4

4.1 The Importance of Naming 5

4.2 The Myths and “Song of Solomon” 7

4.3 The Relationship Between Human and Nature 9

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

Afro-Americans had been through quite a struggling time in twentieth century. In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance gave rise to the explosion of black culture and meanwhile aroused the blacks’ consciousness of dignity. In the 1950s and 60s, a more famed and far-reaching black movement had been witnessed by Americans—The Civil Rights Movement. With the enormous cultural and social impacts brought by these movements, a big amount of black writers sprung up and found their voices in the 1970s. Toni Morrison is the representative among them who especially emphasizes on the reconstruction of traditional African culture and cultural identity of Afro-Americans.

Toni Morrison is the first black woman to receive Nobel Prize for Literature, one of the most celebrated novelists in contemporary American society. Morrison powerfully evokes the historical legacies of displacement and slavery in her fictions that have been bequeathed to the African-American community. This outstanding black woman has published 9 novels since 1970, including The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Tar Baby (1981), Jazz（1992）etc. As the third book written by Morrison, Song of Solomon was published in 1977 and was awarded the National Book Critic’s Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. There is an epigraph: “The fathers may soar, and the children may know their names.” (Morrison, 2005: 1) It preliminarily unfolds the myths of flight and naming which imply the cultural and mythological elements running through the story. The novel mainly tells about how a black young man eventually finds his root. It is generally divided into two parts, firstly it portrays Milkman’s urban life in Michigan while the second part emphasizes on his search for the family history. Raised in an African-American upper-class family, Milkman knows nothing about his family history or culture and has been always living in confusion. On his first trip to Danville, Pennsylvania, where his father and Pilate were born, he figures out the meaning of the song “Song of Solomon” and finally realizes his dream of “flight” which brings the novel a full circle from the suicidal “flight” of Smith. By embracing the traditional culture and his ancestral roots, Milkman finally finds his identity.

2. Literature Review

In foreign academic circles, much research has been done on Song of Solomon. Black Feminist critic Barbara Christian persists that the significance of naming is the theme of the novel while Joyce Irene Middleton considers the oral tradition as core cultural values. Reynolds Price pays more attention to the Black family history emphasized in the book. Ann E.Imbrie views the novel as a pastoral work.

When it comes to the studies in domestic academic circles, Wang Shouren and Wu Xinyun are bound to be mentioned. They study Morrison’s works almost in three aspects: gender, race and culture. In their point of view, Song of Solomon is more like a Bildungsroman, “narrating the ideal growth of a young black man in Morrison’s mind.” (Wang Shouren amp; Wu Xinyun, 1999: 73) As for the aspect of culture, they mainly analyze the meaning of “name” and “flight” in the connection with Milkman’s growth. “Milkman’s comprehension to ‘name’ and ‘flight’ enables him to realize ancestral and national culture, which contributes to his growth” (Wang Shouren amp; Wu Xinyun, 1999: 97) From that perspective, they consider that the African culture in Song of Solomon is inseparable from the growing process of Milkman rather than discussing it separately. Besides, other domestic studies on Song of Solomon mainly focus on the racial discrimination, feminism, cultural identity, the growth of Milkman and so on. This thesis mainly studies the African traditional culture reflected in Song of Solomon and its meaning to Afro-Americans.

Though a melting pot the American society is famous for, black culture is somewhat subordinate when confronting the mainstream white culture. They are two different communities that possess disparate cultural values and histories in contemporary era. Specifically, white Euro-American values consist of industrial capitalism, constitutional democracy, and pursuit of property and happiness while African Americans are prone to seek for justice and liberation after they have experienced southern plantation, emancipation, reconstruction and racial discrimination. Shocked strongly by white culture, the black culture seems to be dominated and controlled and is less influential. Thus the black culture is facing a fierce crisis just as what Toni Morrison worries about in her “Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation”: “We don’t live in places where we can hear those stories anymore; parents don’t sit around and tell their children those classical, archetypal stories that we heard years ago.” (2008: 58) What Morrison worries is exactly the fact that the traditional myths are wearing off in modern society. Those folktales which are full of family history, mystery and supernatural power are not diffused extensively among modern Afro-Americans.

The significance of the author’s researching on traditional African culture exists in the restoration of African culture and attracting people’s attention to inherit, develop and enrich the valuable black culture. Just as the story that Morrison told in her speech for the Nobel Price, the destiny of black culture is in Africans’ hands. Regress or progress, the future of black culture all depends on Africans’ will.

3. An Introduction to Traditional African Culture

Traditional African culture is almost as the same age as the development of human evolution. The cultural history of Africa is enriched with mysterious art like early Neolithic rock carvings and petroglyphs, music, folktales, unique tribal life which includes group hunting and dancing, etc. However, nowadays many of the original African-Americans’ beliefs and values, which have been in existence for a long time, have been modified or partly blended with the overwhelming white culture.

After the emancipation from slavery, African culture began to flourish, as distinctive innovations in literature, music, art, and many other fields. Gunnar Myrdal, a noted sociologist of 20^th century, considered that African Americans had lost most of their cultural ties with Africa. However, Melville Herskovits, a famous anthropologist, proved that there has been a continuum of African culture among scattered Africans. The greatest effect of African cultural traditions on European culture is found in the South America. Thus, African culture still blossom in some districts among Afro-American communities. For the past several years, black culture has developed separately from white culture mainly because of the presence of slavery and racial discrimination in American society. During the Harlem Renaissance, black culture received extensive public recognition for the first time. At that time, Afro-American literature, art and music obtained worldwide attention. Ethnic cohesion and racial pride had been provoked by the movement instead of the hostility to racism. At present, black culture has become a significant part in American culture with its distinct features.

During the slavery, the formal education of African Americans was highly limited by slaveholders and government for the fear of the motivation of slaves’ emancipatory ambitions. On the bright side, it to some degree contributed to the development of African oral traditions, a precious treasure in African culture. Highly prized in African society, oral traditions became a fundamental means of preserving African history and other cultural elements among the Africans. Oral tradition manifests in various forms, often songs, verses and folktales, many of which have found their places in American popular culture and even become top topics all over the world.

Music is a form of communication in African culture and it plays a functional role in African society. Songs often accompany marriage, birth, rites of passage, hunting and even political activities. Music is also used in different African cultures in order to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits and ancestors. In Song of Solomon, songs also play a crucial part to express people’s emotions. Although music and dance are extremely prevalent in African traditions as forms of communication, many African people also express themselves in other art forms like intricate beadworks and sculpture, etc. A tale often recording the history of one’s family or nation in Africa has been passed down from generation to generation. The folktale about Solomon recomposed by Morrison in Song of Solomon originates from a famous Gullah tale about a group of African slaves flying back to Africa. The Uncle Remus stories adapted and edited by Joel Chandler Harris brought African-American folktales into mainstream. Other stories like the “Signifying Monkey” and the legend of Stagger Lee act as important motifs in Afro-American culture. Apart from oral traditions like songs and folktales, names are also highly reflected in Song of Solomon. Naming is viewed as a holy thing in a traditional African family and there is usually a special ceremony for naming an infant. Even in modern society, many black people still maintain the immemorial customs like group hunting and dancing somewhere in the world. The freedom and ease that Africans desire to have can only be obtained from nature. Besides, nature provides people with the flow of inspiration of artistic field, which considerably enriches the culture.

4. An Interpretation of the Traditional African Culture in the Novel

Traditional cultural elements are prevailed in this novel, but this paper mainly discusses the theme from three perspectives: naming, myths and the relationship between human and nature. Morrison expects the return of African culture and the awakening of Afro-Americans’ black consciousness through her novels. In Song of Solomon Morrison shows her attitude: a black should always keep his or her culture identity and family history in mind.

4.1 The Importance of Naming

All the names in this story are full of emblems and suggestions. Made up of letters, names do not merely owe lexical meanings. Naming is very sacred in traditional African culture for they view names as a symbol of identity as well as the connection to the ancestors. Except for identification, names are also reflected in culture. As Bateson mentions, “The naming system is indeed a theoretical image of the whole culture and in it every formulated aspect of the culture is reflected.” (1980: 228) As to names, Morrison once said:

I never knew the real names of my father’s friends. Still don’t. They used other names. A part of that had to do with cultural orphanage, part or it with the rejection of the name given to them under circumstances not of their choosing. If you come from Africa your name is gone. It is particularly problematic because it is not just your name but your family, your tribe. When you die, how can you connect with your ancestors if you have lost your name? That’s a huge psychological scar. (LeClair, 1981: 28)

Thus, names are vital to Africans, without one’s name he would have no sense of belonging and lose himself. Wagner talks about 3 names that one person should be given in his book: “one is chosen by the mother while she is confined to her hut; the second one is chosen by his age-mates. The most important name is the ancestral name. It is ceremonially given and its choice has to be carefully considered.” (1970: 98) To have an ancestral name is to achieve an adult status to some extent in African community.

Names in Song of Solomon show the influences of both oppression and liberation. Morrison writes a lot in this novel about names: Pilate, Macon Dead, and Milkman with each name including its naming process, stories and meanings, etc. Milkman’s grandfather was known by his off-springs as Macon Dead instead of his real name Jake Solomon.

Papa was in his teens and went to sign up, but the man behind the desk was drunk. He asked Papa where he was born. Papa said Macon. Then he asked him who his father was. Papa said, “He’s dead.” Asked him who owned him, Papa said, “I’m free.” Well, the Yankee wrote it all own, but in the wrong spaces…and in the space for his name the fool wrote, “Dead” comma “Macon”. (Morrison, 2005: 53)

In short, the drunk American official made a mistake by noting down a wrong name of Milkman’s grandfather when he checked in the information of the slaves of past so that papa and his off-springs lost their family name. Because of losing their real names, the Dead family had no sense of ancestral root and was completely lack of the knowledge of family history. Just as Philip Page observes: “Without their name (Solomon) and the wisdom it implies, the Deads are ignorant of their ancestry, and hence of themselves, and they are alienated from their community, each other, and themselves.” (1996: 86) Thus name is considerably meaningful to each African to inherit his culture and blend in the community. Without knowing his true name, one may lose his culture identity, leave his own culture behind and feel rootless. On the other hand, Macon Dead I’s losing his true name after the manumission can be seen as a sign of the blacks’ losing the domination of their destiny and another form of culture colonization. When Pilate was born, illiterate Macon Dead picked a word from the bible for her name because the “group of letters that seemed to him strong and handsome; saw in them a large figure that looked like a tree hanging in some princely but protective way over a row of smaller trees” (Morrison, 2005: 18) even though Pilate is “the name of the man that killed Jesus”. (Morrison, 2005: 19) The naming ritual that the father picks a name for the infant and writes it down reveals the familial bonding between the father and his child. The name copied by her father contained in Pilate’s earring endowed Pilate with a transcendent spirit as she loved people like a strong tree. “I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved’em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.” (Morrison, 2005: 336) The last words that Pilate said indicate her eternal and boundless love for her compatriots.

The common use of oral names is a distinguishing feature in black culture. The fact that Milkman’s nickname represents him better than his written name shows that oral names are often more reliable and popular in black culture. Milkman got his nickname because Freddie happened to see him pulling “the thin, faintly sweet milk” (Morrison, 2005: 13) from his mother’s flesh. The nickname completely took place of his original name in the novel and accurately portrayed his character: immature and dependent. The nickname also humiliated Milkman’s father. “Macon Dead never knew how it came about—how his only son acquire the nickname that stuck in spite of his own refusal to use it or acknowledge it. It was a matter that…for the giving of names in his family was always surrounded by what he believed to be monumental foolishness.” (Morrison, 2005: 15) Macon Dead II expressed his dissatisfaction with his family name given by the drunk American when complaining about his son’s nickname. Oral names are also used for places in Song of Solomon. For instance, Mains Avenue used to be known as Dr. Foster’s street. But after Dr. Foster’s death, it was generally called “Not Doctor Street.” (Morrison, 2005: 2) Although the official name was accurate, Blacks were more accustomed to using the popular name as it was more descriptive. Thus it can be seen that Africans have a particular preference for oral names.

Names are considered as the link to the ancestors to Africans, and that’s what makes names so meaningful in traditional culture. Ancestors are well respected in African community as many Africans believe that spirits exist after death and they come out at night. In other words, those ancestors never leave them away in the conventional African point of view. That naming process is deeply rooted in cultural practices and religious beliefs and many elements have to be taken into consideration when it comes to naming a new-born.

4.2 The Myths and “Song of Solomon”

The legend of flight first appears in the Song’s epigraph telling the story of those fathers who flied away, discarding their wives and children. The motif of flight is throughout the novel which presents the picture that men fly off, leaving women and kids behind. People may be confused in such a situation. On the one hand, it is a tremendous triumph for those black slaves who already have embraced freedom by flying away, but on the other hand, it also brings much heartache and pain to the women and children abandoned by men. When Solomon regained freedom, his wife, Ryna had to stay in Virginia and raise their children alone. But the legend of flight in this novel seems to pay more attention to its cultural heritage. The story is spread mainly in the form of the song “Song of Solomon”. The first time it turned up when the insurance man, Robert Smith, leaped from the building.

O Sugarman done fly away

Sugarman done gone

Sugarman cut across the sky

Sugarman gone home

(Morrison, 2005: 6）

Pilate, younger sister of Macon Dead II, kept singing this mysterious and weird song filled with worship when the crowds were in a panic. As Milkman was a child, he had always been longing for the capacity to fly. “Mr. Smith’s blue silk wings must have left their mark, because when the little boy discovered, at four, the same thing Mr. Smith had learned earlier —that only birds and airplanes could fly—he lost all interesting in himself.” (Morrison, 2005: 9) Living with the truth that he could not fly, Milkman often felt confused and was short of spirit. In the south, he heard many times the local black children singing a song concerning a certain person called Jake Solomon. The folk song soon aroused his interest and led him to discover his family history. At the end of the novel, when Pilate was shot by Guitar and dying, Milkman sang the song in his own version at the request of Pilate. Not many times dose this song appear in the novel, but it plays an important role to make the story coherent .When Milkman got to know that his great-grandfather could fly, he jumped right out of his skin and was so proud of it. That Milkman was crazy about the spectacular fact he discovered absolutely presents his worship to the ancestors. Mythology to some extent mystifies the ancestors and makes people idolize them. So one effect that folktales have on people is the construction of the sense of family pride. The broad dissemination of myths contributes a lot to the blossom of traditional culture.

Folktales and songs are bound tight in the novel as well as in African culture. Songs with folktales are a vital part of oral traditions in Africa. They enrich each other and promote each other so that these African culture elements can be inherited by the next generation. Except for the function of culture dissemination, the legend of flight gives a lot of comfort to people who are suffering from pain and yearn for lifetime freedom. In the hardest times those fictitious stories gave blacks plenty of power to confront and overcome all difficulties. Morrison explained the flight in her novel in the interview with LeClair, “But my meaning is specific: it is about Black people who could fly. That was always part of the folklore of my life; flying is one of our gifts.…It is everywhere—people used to talk about it, it’s in the spirituals and gospels.” (LeClair, 1981: 22) The myth of flight has become a belief deeply rooted in those slaves’ spirit which gives them hope to escape the dilemma and fly home.

That Pilate preserving her father’s bones also stems from the African legend of Bingo. In African myth Nzame is one of the gods who created the world. One day, he came to the world and fell in love with a girl Mboya, and then Bingo, their son, was born. When Bingo was a child, he once exasperated Nzame for stealing a fish in the place dominated by Nzame. Bingo was then thrown down from a high altitude by his father but fortunately saved by a wizard who raised Bingo secretly in the next few years. After the wizard’s death Bingo stored his skull in the house and he believed that the wizard remained with him in this way. Africans are strongly convinced that those noble ancestors would never fade away if their skulls are well preserved. By this way they could show the greatest worship and respect to the ancestors.

There are many other folktales in African culture being passed down from one generation to the next. Those folktales full of mystery often contain people’s beliefs which help them out of tough situations. Various folktales to a large extent contribute to the preservation and development of African culture.

4.3 The Relationship Between Human and Nature

Because of the unique geographical environment Africans live in, they have a completely different way of living and thinking from those Euro-Americans. In Africa, people think human and nature are harmonious, so they live with nature and live on nature harmoniously. It is probably because of the natural life they or their ancestors live for ages that a unique African lifestyle and the special emotions Africans have for nature have been formed.

In the novel, Pilate was tall and strong, brave, optimistic, full of power and energy, just representing a traditional African woman. She was a classical African woman as well as the daughter of nature. “Pilate swayed like a willow over her stirring.” (Morrison, 2005: 30) and “looked like a tall black tree”. (Morrison, 2005: 38) Pilate always looked like a woman coming from wild area— “the berry-black lips” (Morrison, 2005: 37), tall-black-tree shape, all letting her give off a natural atmosphere which attracted Milkman and Guitar extremely. Her strange habit of chewing things all the time was also related to the natural environment she lived in when she was a child. What’s more, Pilate and her girls often had no fixed menu for each meal, which meant they ate what they had or wanted for meal, even it seemed quite odd. “No meal is ever planned or balanced or served.…If one of them bought a gallon of milk they drank it until it was gone. They ate what they had or came across or had a craving for.” (Morrison, 2005: 29) Doing whatever they like, putting away those rigid rules, Pilate and her girls just pursued pure happiness and freedom instead of money. The money they had earned was mostly used for fun. “Profits from their wine-selling evaporated like sea water in a hot wind—going for junk jewelry for Hagar, Reba’s gifts to men…”(Morrison, 2005: 33) Singing was not a formal activity but an ordinary lifestyle for the Pilate family as they sang whenever they wanted. That her casual and natural lifestyle including chewing things, singing freely and eating anything they had indicates that the woman came from nature. Just like Macon told his son “If you ever have a doubt we from Africa, look at Pilate. She look just like Papa and he looked like all them pictures you ever see of Africans.” (Morrison, 2005: 54)

According to all the analysis of Pilate and her families above, it can be inferred that Africans often are not bound by the regulations in daily life but advocate a sort of spontaneous lifestyle as they are accustomed to the wild life. Nature offers Africans a comfortable life so they are indifferent to fame or gain; moreover, what they look like or act like always evokes the images of natural world. The relationship between Africans and nature is hard to be summarized in one word as the two mingle together and influence each other.

5. Conclusion

African culture is mysterious, various and much more valuable to modern Afro-Americans. And the necessity of promoting African culture should be brought to the forefront. Culture is the soul to a nation as it explains what the nation is all about, keeps a record of its history, passes on the values, and holds people with the same cultural background together to form a community. Thus the aspiration to promote traditional culture voiced by Morrison is meritorious. A name contains a lot to Africans as it always reminds them of their cultural identity and family history and solves the problems of who they are and where they are from. Losing a name is equivalent to losing one’s identity and his tie to Africa, just like the Dead family in Song of Solomon. If names in the novel emphasize the sense of belonging, folktales put the stress on the culture inheritance. Apart from names and folktales, a kind of spontaneous lifestyle originating from nature is also highly reflected in the novel. Except for the cultural elements the thesis primarily discusses, abundant African cultural resources are to be reconstructed and developed. The future of traditional African culture is in Africans’ own hands. How to survive and boom the African culture is a tough issue waiting to be tackled by the contemporary Africans in America.

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