DISCURSIVE ETHNOCENTRISM IN MORRISON’S SULA: A STUDY OFRACIAL SPEECH ACTS

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to investigate the role of discursive ethnocentric practices of the white used to exploit the black community in Toni Morrison’s Sula(1973), which presents tragic condition of marginalized black living in postcolonial context.The applied theoretical model is based on Judith Butler’s postulates about racial speech acts presented in her famous book, Excitable Speech (1997). For the purpose of analysis, relevant excerpts are taken through purposive sampling technique from the selected novel. In the light of the analysis it is found thatthe racial acts, which are the aftermaths of socio-political determinations, become discursive practices and nurture hostility among different groups in a society. The people, who foresee their benefits and interests in highlighting these differences, try to coin specific terms which help create an environment of ethnocentrism in which the identity is formed or deformed in binaries. The study also underlined some relational speech acts with racial speech.