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Out in Toni Morrison's God Help the Child AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 4, Number2. May 2020 Pp. 263-275 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no2.20 Reconstructing Identity through Voyages in/ out in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child: A Psychogeographical Analysis Hana Bougherira Department of Foreign Languages Skikda University, Algeria Abstract People’s voyages to different geographies may have diverse purposes. While some are just flâneurs taking routes aimlessly, others are stalkers with a preliminary idea about the significance of their derives. Aimless or not, the different geographies visited inevitably shape and reshape the walker’s character and psyche. This article analyzes Morrison’s latest novel, God Help the Child (2015), in the prism of the theory of psychogeography, which studies the correlative relation between psyche and geography. The article posits the question how does the novel’s protagonist, Bride, grows from a flâneur to a stalker in the light of the degrading capitalist American society and how do the different voyages out initiate her to some metaphorical voyages in, enabling her to reconstruct her identity as a black female and a future black mother. Bride’s wonderings about her identity, erased by a character called Booker, lead her to wandering to different territories (Decagon, the countryside and whisky) each of which dictates on her new ideologies and ethics, which, in turn, alter her behavior and outlook. The article evetually elucidates how the final station in Bride’s journey is a cathartic one through which she reclaims her freedom, recovers her identity and empowers herself and the black community. Keywords: female identity, God Help the Child, psychogeography, Toni Morrison, voyage in/ out, Cite as: Bougherira, H. .(2020). Reconstructing Identity through Voyages in/ out in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child: A Psychogeographical Analysis. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 4 (2) 263-275. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no2.20 Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 263 ISSN: 2550-1542 |www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 4 Number 2 May 2020 Reconstructing Identity through Voyages in/ out in Toni Morrison’s Bougherira Introduction No black literary work can be read and fully understood without contextualizing it within what is called Black Experience; a two-word expression that ironically needs a million words to tell about. Briefly, it has to do with a long, horrific and forced voyage of slaves from the mother continent Africa, across the Atlantic, to the Americas where they become not merely dehumanized but also socially marginalized, economically oppressed, psychologically traumatized and culturally and linguistically dispossessed. It has been said that what proves the humanity of a race is its literature; Toni Morrison is one of the authors who could successfully validate that, enriching the blacks’ literary heritage. She excels at what came to be known as writing glocal, a significant contrapuntal fusion between the local and the global, that aims at upgrading the blacks’ struggle to a larger post-colonial movement preventing it from dissolving into a mere existential rebellion. Morrison’s careful and critical re-assessment of the very fabric of the black community, especially what it means to be a black female in the United States, and her daring engagement with the voicing of all the lacunas in history and literature makes her a well appreciated author whose literature appealed and still appeal to a worldwide audience. Morrison’s latest novel, God Help the Child (2015), is simply the story of black female’s sustained movement from victimhood into victorhood in a merciless, racist and unforgiving community. She recounts the story of Bride, who is othered by so many because of her color. Morrison’s novel is set in a postmodern capitalist American society and culture that poses many challenges. While it has opened many doors of acceptance and plurality, it has put some pressure on others. The requirements of a postmodern age can be very stressful and high in rhythm that not everyone can easily cope with them. Prison-like lifestyle that traps people in an infinite cycle of routine. Running continuously to cope with its exigencies can relatively culminate in psychological malaise, identity crisis, divorce and escape just to name a few. The oppressive capitalist system has always been part of a conspiracy that entrapped people in a widening gyre of an everlasting sense of alienation and materialism. Starting from modernity up to the post-postmodern times, people wake up to pursue the needs of world of objects. Such a tempting lifestyle generally results in a number of psychologically troubled individuals who are torn between what they actually need and what they should have. Consequently, those who fail to decipher the riddle can fall in a furnace of constant doubts while those who are awakened to the urge of resistance can succeed in overcoming it, each in their specific, personal ways. Travel is one of the countless means of such resistance that has been the groundwork for so many theorists who could develop their own theories on it. Psychogeography is one of the fields that could study the influence of places, spaces and new geographies on the psyches of the individuals. This article approaches the selected novel of Morrison, God Help the Child, using the theory of psychogeography. It first sheds light on the conceptual/theoretical framework of what is meant by psycho-geography and the main elements that concern this analysis. Second, it reviews the body of literature written on Morrison’s novel to identify the gap in the literary discussion highlighting the significance of this study. The latter lies in the fact that the reading of this novel from a psychogeographical perspective has meagerly been treated before. It moves to read Bride’s experience through the lens of these elements, demonstrating how she grows to be a postmodern female stalker who could successfully reconstruct her identity through a number of physical and metaphorical voyages. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 264 ISSN: 2550-1542 | www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 4 Number 2 May 2020 Reconstructing Identity through Voyages in/ out in Toni Morrison’s Bougherira Psychogeography Approach As its name implies, psychogeography can be defined as the marriage between the two fields of psychology and geography, which brings about a new space that studies the impact of geography on the human psyche. As a concept, it owes origin to the early nineteenth century British and French novelists and to the early writings of Guy Debord. The latter defines the term as, “the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and the behavior of individuals”i (as cited in Muis, 2015, p. 2). Debord’s definition emphasizes the essence of psychogeography, which lies in the effect of a being in or to a place intentionally or unintentionally chosen. Coverley (2018) defines it rather as, “the point at which psychology and geography collide, as a means of exploring the behavioral impact of an urban space” (p. 10). Contemporary psychogeographers could bring the term to the surface again adding more elements and deeper explanations of what the concept implies. In her article entitled “Walking Inside out”, Richardson (2015) actually finds that psychogeography does not have to be complicated, “anyone can do it, you do not need a map, Gore Tex, rucksack or companion, all you need is a curious nature and comfortable pair of shoes” (p.1). Richardson’s definition is so simple that it reduces the essence of psychogeography to a mere planned journey. The latter should entail more than a depiction; it has to bring forth a sense of criticism that can be constructive. Believing that psychological conditions can inevitably be provoked by certain places and that every location has its own personality that it dictates on individuals, psychogeographers become more than simple passengers. Their mission of creating both geographical and psychological maps can be empowering and transformative at the same time. What is worth noting, however, is the relativity of the impact of the diverse places on the different individuals. In other words, while some places can be a site of growth and change for some, for some others they are the source of all chaos. Accordingly, the task of psychogeographer is not an aimless one. In the same vein, Richardson gives another dimension to the concept giving it more inclusivity. Richardson (2015) argues that, “psychogeography is about crossing established boundaries, whether metaphorically or physically, locally or globally” (p. 2). Richardson’s argument broadens the scope of what a psychogeographer can be and minimizes the simplicity of the first definition. Abdelatif Khatib (2015) describes the dérive, “at the same time as being a form of action, it is a means of knowledge” (as cited in Richardson, 2015, p. 2). Since the concept and the theory of psychogeography resists an accurate definition, Richardson (2015) maintains that she encourages readers to “define their own form of psychogeography or use one of the many definitions […]to debate the merits of psychogeography and how we might put it to use in the twenty-first century (p.6). Sinclair (2015), one of the names who could contribute to the conception of psychogeography, sheds light on the significance of the stalker. In his own terms, “the ‘concept of ‘strolling’, aimless urban wandering, the flâneur, had been superceded (p. 149). He adds, “we had moved into the age of the stalker; journeys made with intent’. Stalking the city meant ‘walking with a thesis’ and with ‘a prey’” (p. 149). The stalker is more of a reporter and an examiner of the walking space.
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