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rsality among the characters in TarBaby.Some scholars combine space theory with identity in order to explore the black’spursuit for identification.Du Lanlan(2008)in her essay“Space strategy and CulturalIdentity:A Postcolonial Reading of Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby”contends the spacestrategy adopted in the novel is conducive to understand conflicts between the black andthe white,then to help black characters construct a fluid cultural identity.

Chapter 2 Theoretical Foundation

2.1 The Development of Post-colonialism

In Ashcroft’s definition,“post-colonialism(or often postcolonialism)deals withthe effects of colonization on cultures and societies”(Ashcroft,Griffiths&Tiffin,2007:168),concentrates on the bilateral relation of power in tension and explores the clashand interaction of different ethnic groups’politics,economy,cultures,language,andreligious beliefs.

Chronologically,the terminology of“post-colonialism”emerged first during thepost-WWII period.The word“post”refers to the era after colonialism.Due to thehidden chronological meaning of post-colonialism,the term is at first adopted as aterminology for periodization of history,mainly in political field,involvingpost-colonial states,“namely those former colonial countries in Asia and Africa thathave obtained political independence during the course of the disintegration ofcolonialism.The independence of India in 1947 marks the veer from colonialism topost-colonialism”(Wan Xuefei,2014:69).Since the 1970s,post-colonialism proceedsfrom political context to the literary and cultural scenarios with a chain of culturaleffects motivated by the discussions from literary critics,among which the publicationof Edward Said’s Orientalism inaugurates the boom of post-colonial criticism.Althoughit is well-recognized that this masterpiece is the origin of post-colonial theory,andpromotes Bhabha’s and Spivak’s expansion on this field,the African Americanideologist W.E.B.Du Bois and Southern African scholar Sol Plaatje would be theprecursors for the incipient mention of post-colonialism in terms of the criticismpractice in the early 1900s.The succeeding arguments on colonialism,nationalism andanti-colonialism from Franz Fanon also inspired Said’s theoretical formation.

2.2 Major Concerns

2.2.1 Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity Theory

The review of the research in relation to cultural identity reveals the century-longexploration on this issue which can be dated back to the early colonial activities ofEuropean countries to Asian and African continents.A speck of friction and conflict outof cultural differences will present the issue of cultural identity.In this field,Stuart Hallis an authoritative figure.

Hall precedes his research voyaging of cultural identity with his firstautobiographical essay Minimal Selves.From his authentic experience of a JamaicanBritish,Hall discusses the modern black British’s identity myth.At that point,heobserves“the fact that young black people in London today are marginalized,fragmented,unenfranchised,disadvantaged and dispersed”(Hall,1987:44),andpreliminarily realizes“the impossibility of‘identity’in its fully unified meaning”(Hall,1987:45).In 1989,Hall composes a paper entitled Cultural Identity and CinematicRepresentation本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。