Toni Morrison\u27s Sula As a Radical Female Subject in African American Women\u27s Literature

This essay explores the construction of black, female identity in insular African American community in Toni Morrison\u27s novel Sula. Published in 1973, the female-centered narrative is concerned with the topics of black female sexuality, self-actualization, female friendship and rebellion against repressive, sexist society. The novel was widely read as a feminist text and it helped to advance black feminist literary criticism in the 1970s. Thus, the novel is analyzed from the perspective of black feminist theory with the intention to show how the policy of race, class and sexuality affect the formation of black female identity. Since the titular character defies the binary oppositions of male/female features and defies social constraints and gender expectations, she therefore becomes the radical female subject in African American literature