I'd like us to think about how The Bluest Eye is a postmodern narrative. One way that is probably pretty obvious to a lot of you is that, as Powell writes, po-mo art/literature included a lot of voices who had formerly not had a platform from which to speak. Although there is a more traditional 3rd person omniscient voice in the novel, we also have the voice of Claudia, the young African American girl from the novel. What is she like? Why can't she love the doll she's been given? (20-21) What does her story have to do w/ the opening section of the novel? In 1970, when this novel was published, what part of society is she speaking for?
Another aspect of po-mo lit is fragmentation. Think about the earlier work of Dick and Kafka: All of their work is told from a central location, a single narrator. This novel is not. Not only is narration fragmented, but also time is. The novel is not told in chronological order. Po-mo writers felt that traditional forms of literature were limiting and they tried to create their own way of telling stories. Can you see other ways that this novel is fragmented or innovative? How is it different from other novels you've read? Why does it open the way it does? What do you expect to happen next in the novel?
Claudia is one of the narrator’s of the story. In the introduction, Claudia is the narrator but she is a different type of herself than the rest of the story. In the introduction, Claudia has an adult and mature tone. As we progress into the book, we learn that she is speaking from her childhood, as a young African girl. During one scene of her childhood, she explains that she hates and even mutilates a blue-eyed, blonde hair, baby doll. I think this has a lot to do with the time period and racism. In my opinion, the doll is almost like a symbol of what Claudia wishes/hopes to be, but never can become. The “perfect little girl” with “blonde hair” and “blue eyes” that is “loved and accepted” by everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe novel is fragmented, making it postmodern. The story is fragmented through the narrators — Dick and Jane, young Claudia vs. old Claudia, and a omniscient narrator from pages 33-37. The speed/time of the book is also fragmented; the book’s introduction is about Dick and Jane, repeating the story and eventually losing all punctuation marks, making the speed an extremely fast read. Also, the book is not set in chronological order. After the introduction, Claudia is speaking from an adult POV and in chapter 1, we learn that Claudia is speaking as a child, constantly changing the time period of the novel.