本研究一反非裔美籍女性(Afor-American women)在美國社會中慣常扮演的她者(the Other)角色，將此一族群作為研究的主體，力圖呈現其未經相對主體(the relative subjects)矯飾的原貌－亦即力圖還原該族群成員間愛欲情恨糾葛的她我關係。

小說中兩位女主角的關係可分為三個階段來探討；以語言和主體的互動來看，這三個階段約略構成一螺旋圖形(spiral form)。本文分別以巴赫汀、沙特和拉崗的主客體理論架構來詮釋蘇拉與奈爾的青少年時期、蘇拉重返小鎮與蘇拉死後奈爾的頓悟(epiphany)三個階段。最初，小說中的兩位主角訴諸語言的實踐成功地建構彼此的完整性；後來卻脫離語言的領域，向著不同的其他主體移動、靠攏，企圖找尋脫離語言存在的主體；最後，主體又回歸語言的領域，但因為一切客觀條件已然改變，主體再也不能獲致當初與語言完美的結合狀態。在語言與主體的無窮辯證過程中，本文藉由凸顯「他／她者」豐富的存在內涵，鬆動既有的主客位置成見，增進族群對話的空間。

Toni Morrison has created in Sula a narrative which is untraditional in terms of Black female portraiture, subjectification, and self-identification. This study, focusing on the two heroines--Sula and Nel, attempts to provide a trinary interpretation of the self-Other relationship between them in order to present the inner contradictions and complexities among the Black female community.

Bakhtinian Dialogism is adopted to examine Sula and Nel's adolescent intimacy. Language as an ideal media provides both of them opportunities to know themselves and the Other better in their numerous dialogues. By making good use of their situational differences, inherently or ideologically, they achieve a complementary inter-subjectivities. However, at the end of this section the study challenges the effectiveness of Bakhtinian dialogism because of the fragile dialogic premises.

Sula's return to Medallion inaugurates a different stage of their relationship. Sartrean Subject-Other paradigm is used to scrutinize this stage of their mutual objectification. After normal communicative language is abandoned, they appeal to means of invalidating, mystificating, and isolating the Other while they desperately try to protect their own subjectivity.

Pretending to ignore each other does not prevent them from facing the paradox of their self-Other contradictions. Lacanian psychoanalytic approach is taken to explain Nel's epiphany after Sula's death. Their identifications can be traced back to the linguistic context they are placed in; and the issues of language and female subjectivity are re-defined.

Applying theories concerning self-Other relations from Bakhtin, Sartre, and Lacan to study a text focusing on the Black female community, this thesismanifests how unlikely the balance between self and the Other is to be achieved However, at the same time the study presents the richness of a marginal group's existence and advocates an open and pluralized society by visualizing a space for"the Other."