REIMAGINING SELFHOOD: ARTISTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY IN TONI MORRISON'S NOVELS

This thesis explores the artistic representation of African-American identity in the novels of Toni Morrison, focusing on how notions of selfhood, memory, and cultural trauma are reimagined through narrative style, symbolism, and characterization. The study examines Morrison’s aesthetic strategies for depicting Black selfhood as a dynamic process shaped by history, collective memory, gender experience and intergenerational trauma. The findings demonstrate that Morrison’s artistic interpretation of African-American identity contributes to a deeper understanding of Black subjectivity, moral resilience, and the transformative power of storytelling.