African-American Quilting Techniques And Aesthetics In Toni Morrison's Paradise

Toni Morrison is one of best known female novelists in American literature, who won the Nobel Prize in 1993, as the first black woman awarded this laurel. And Paradise is her first novel after the Nobel Prize, which receives the attention of American critics as well as the Chinese scholars. As a black female novelist in America, Toni Morrison has done great job in telling stories of black people, especially the women and girls. Her special attention on the fate of black female is gradually transferred to the development of the whole community in Paradise, even though she still begins with the conflicts between men and women.As the representative of African-Americans, Morrison shows her responsibility in narrating the experiences of the blacks through the history of America. Rooted in her cultural background, Morrison also employs the traditional symbols of African Americans in her works. African-American quilt is one of them. This thesis will introduce the history of African-American quilts, and their meanings apart from being artistic crafts. Morrison's storytelling also shares some similarities with the quilt-making process. This thesis will discuss the similarities, or in another word, the impact of African-American quilts on her writing, in three aspects.Morrison prefers fragments in her storytelling as well. Her narration in achronological order, beginning in medias res or flashback makes the whole text a jointed one with pieces of fragments. And she employs the multiple points of view, developing the story by several narrators and their perspectives, which not only displays the disunity of the community, but reminds us that history can not be re-written from a single perspective.Morrison utilizes these techniques, showing charm of the story of Paradise, which is even though hard to read, pretty attractive; as well as the aesthetics of her arrangement not only in time and space, but also in characters and themes.