Politics of Difference, Sisterhood and Transformation: Study of Partial Identificatory Relationship(s) in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

The study of identificatory relationships among women have acquired tremendous
significance in recent times to comprehend the ways in which culture and racism impact the
varying modes in which women relate to each other. In this context, this study attempts to
explore the transformative potential of identificatory politics through the use of Lacanian
registers—namely, the imaginary, the symbolic and the real—to enable a reading of
identification that negates its assimilative and hegemonic tendency in the feminist discourses of
women of colour. For this purpose, Toni Morrison’s Beloved has been focused upon to unravel
the modalities of symbolic sisterhood based upon partial identification that does not assimilate
or negate differences in pursuit of the elusive ideal of universal monolith notions of sisterhood,
rather it treasures the differences to arrive at a better epistemic understanding of these
differences—material and racial—without the assimilation or usurpation of the other’s self and
individuality. The framework employed for this purpose includes Jean Wyatt’s notion of ‘partial
identification’ and Max Scheler’s ‘transcendence of self’ juxtaposed with Lacanian registers.
The interracial and communal patterns of identification depicted by Morrison open a space
where difference(s) can be employed as a bridge to negotiate cultural conflicts and can act as a
site of creative solidarity and empowerment for women from different as well as same racial
backgrounds.