Toni Morrison’s Feminist Magical Realism in Paradise
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Reading Toni Morrison’s Paradise (1998) as a magical realist text is overdue, for the novel intervenes into a patriarchal tradition within magical realism: using women as bridges to the “beyond” of everyday reality. This essay first explains this tradition by examining Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The essay then explicates how Paradise represents a feminist subversion of this tradition. While in the earlier novel magical women use their power mainly to serve others, in Paradise women’s magic serves not men but the women themselves. Featuring a woman protagonist using her magic to first heal from the trauma of being abandoned by her male lover and then teach other women how to heal from gender-based violence, the novel portrays female development and solidarity while problematizing gender-based violence. In particular, Paradise highlights how, in a patriarchal society, men can be violently threatened by women who seem to be “beyond” what men perceive as normal.
Abstract
Reading Toni Morrison’s Paradise (1998) as a magical realist text is overdue, for the novel intervenes into a patriarchal tradition within magical realism: using women as bridges to the “beyond” of everyday reality. This essay first explains this tradition by examining Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The essay then explicates how Paradise represents a feminist subversion of this tradition. While in the earlier novel magical women use their power mainly to serve others, in Paradise women’s magic serves not men but the women themselves. Featuring a woman protagonist using her magic to first heal from the trauma of being abandoned by her male lover and then teach other women how to heal from gender-based violence, the novel portrays female development and solidarity while problematizing gender-based violence. In particular, Paradise highlights how, in a patriarchal society, men can be violently threatened by women who seem to be “beyond” what men perceive as normal.