Toni Morrison's Subversion Of Traditional Narrative Features In Paradise

As a postmodernist writer, Toni Morrison creates many great works which are full of postmodernist features, such as Beloved, Sula and so on. This paper will research her subversion of the traditional narrative features in her novel Paradise through analyzing the postmodern narrative features.This paper is constituted by the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.In the part of introduction, the focus will be on the brief introduction of Toni Morrison and the novel Paradise, the previous studies on Paradise, the research method, and the research purpose.The main body of this paper consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, Morrison's subversion of the traditional narrative techniques is analyzed from two aspects. Morrison employs the techniques of parody and magical realism that are both frequently used by postmodernist writers. She mainly parodies the American history, and especially the American racialism through which she gives a clever satire on the American society and expresses her beautiful wish to get rid of the racial discrimination, besides, she presents the artistic effect of employing the technique of magical realism by juxtaposing the realistic and the magic elements together, using the Biblical archetypes, and employing the symbols.In the second chapter, this paper studies Morrison's subversion of traditional narrative structure. In Paradise, Morrison makes a non-linear structure by creating fragmentary plots and employing the displacement of time and space. On the one hand, the novel as a whole is fragmentary and it is formed by nine pieces of fragments. As far as each chapter is concerned, the plot is also fragmentary. On the other hand, the time sequence and spatial locations are thoroughly in disorder. So finally the readers see a non-linear structure which is a quite contrast to the orderly and logical structures of the traditional novels.In the third chapter, the paper gives a careful analysis of the subversion of the traditional characterization in Paradise. Indeterminacy, as the principle of the postmodern characterization, is well embodied in this novel. The indeterminate characters in the novel thoroughly subvert the determinate characters in traditional novels. This chapter analyzes the indeterminacy of the characters in Paradise from three aspects: the discontinuity of relationships, the disorder of mentality and the obscurity of identities. Firstly, the convent women always keep provisional relationships with others. Secondly, the most characters in the novel suffer the mental disorder. Thirdly, the identities of many characters in the novel are obscure to the readers all the time. All the three aspects above show the indeterminacy of the characters perfectly. Just in this way Toni Morrison vigorously subverts the features of traditional characterization.In the part of conclusion, this paper points out that Toni Morrison succeeds in subverting the traditional narrative features and analyzing her novel has great significance for the study of postmodernism and the deep understanding of the racial problems.