International J. Soc. Sci. & Education 2012 Vol. 3 Issue 1, ISSN: 2223-4934 E and 2227-393X Print 188 Morrison’s Black Women’s Quest for love: Politics of Heart in Song of Solomon. By Khamsa Qasim and Uzma Asmat Lecturers (English), Govt. College University Faisalabad, Pakistan Abstract This paper explores the theme of love in Morrison’s Novel, Song of Solomon. Love is the central issue Morrison refers to time and time again in her fiction. She gives her own unique definition of love that also provides insight into her social and political stance on black womanhood. Her Philosophy of love is absolutely different from the traditionally cherished stereotypical concept of love which is commonly worshiped in the dominant culture. In her Novel, Song of Solomon, she does not describe love as a pure, selfless passion but explores its different political dimensions with its all sort of cultural manifestations. Morrison explores the other side of reality and provides an alternative definition of love in her novel. Her Concept of love enables black women to resist ‘matrix of oppression’ (a term coined by Patricia Hill Collins to denote the intersecting oppression of race, class and Gender). Stereotypical concept of love as a selfless and self-sacrificing passion is used to oppress women and deny them subjectivity. Patriarchal society demands that women must love their children and family at the expense of their own individuality. Most of her black female characters are influenced by traditional concept of love, which stands for possession, distortion and self-annihilation. These women are incapable of developing a distinctive black female standpoint. Thus her Novel Song of Solomon deals with the theme of love with all its terrible consequences. Keywor ds: Love, Matrix of Oppression, Black Womanhood. Morrison says that she always wants to explore the theme of “femal e love” in her fiction and she often writes about it. As she says in an interview with Margaret Reynolds, “I was really writing about the way in which women love things, the kind of female love there are: the love of children, and displacement, how one can displace love of self for love of something else. And it’s one of the virtues, I think, that women have - also one of the dangers ” (Joyce 2003, p.18). Excessive love with its terrible consequences is one of the dominant themes in Morrison’s fiction. Morrison creates various helpless female characters like Ruth and Hagar, who abuse and neglect themselves in search of true love. Their fragile social and cultural identities add confusion to their lives. They are unable to unchain themselves from the failed and crippling relationships. Morrison narrates their painful stories and depicts the possible consequences of such a dangerous choice. Keith Byreman(2005) writes in ‘A short History of Desire’ that Morrison and Gloria Naylor both explore the theme of desire in their fiction. Both novelists write about “the ways female desire is distorted and violated within African American communities .” Some of Morrison‘s bl ack female characters only see themselves from the gaze of dominant culture. They are unable to recognize their true selves but just “re- invent themselves in the images of the existing popular culture ” and perform “roles found in romance narratives.” Morris on depicts in most of her novels that how fragile one’s social and cultural identity is. She writes about “the stories of survivors unable to recover from the traumas of personal, gendered, and racial history ” (p.76-77). Morrison destroys the concept of pure, selfless and unconquerable love in her novels. She believes that every passion has a political dimension. Thus she shatters the myth of true love in her fiction. She does do