Introduction 1
Ⅰ．Biographical and Critical Contexts of Toni Morrison's Literary Texts 2
Ⅱ．The Guiding Principle and Structure of This Book 18
Chapter One The Concept of Identity and Its Significance in African American Literary Works 24
Ⅰ．The Concept of Identity and Identity-Building 24
Ⅱ．The Quest for Identity in African American Literature 35
Ⅲ．The Quest for Identity in Toni Morrison's Works 47
Chapter Two Identity-Building through"Rememory"of the Unspoken History in Beloved 53
Ⅰ．Objectification and Othering of Black People in Slavery Discourse 55
Ⅱ．Black(Ex-)Slaves' Counter-Discourse in"Claiming Ownership of that Freed Self" 65
Ⅲ．Beloved as a Trope of Identity-Building for African Americans 77
Chapter Three Identity-Building through Jazzified Musical/Narrative Discourse in Jazz 85
Ⅰ．Fragmented Stories of Displaced People:Profound Cultural Dislocations the Great Migration Entailed 86
Ⅱ．Jazzified Negotiations of Identity 99
Chapter Four Identity-Building through Cultural Hybridity in Paradise 114
Ⅰ．Paradise:a Critique of Essentialism and Manichaeism in Communal Historiography and Identity-Building 114
Ⅱ．Paradise:Towards Building a Hybrid Identity 127
Ⅲ．Reimagining Paradise 138
Chapter Five Toni Morrison's Identity-Building as an African American Woman Writer 142
Ⅰ．Toni Morrison's Racial Identity 143
Ⅱ．Toni Morrison's Gendered Identity 145
Ⅲ．Toni Morrison's Aesthetic Identity 147
Conclusion 155
Ⅰ．From Being Imagined"Other"to Being"Choices":Toni Morrison's Identity-Building for African American People 155
Ⅱ．Toni Morrison's Exploration of the Relationship between Identity-Building and Rememory,History,and Storytelling 158
Ⅲ．Toni Morrison's Liminality 159
Ⅳ．Toni Morrison's Paradoxical Authoritative Position in the American Literary and Cultural World 162
Works Cited 165
Primary Sources 165
Secondary Sources 168
Acknowledgements 180