The Black Heroine’s Femininity Through Contemporary Looking Glass In Toni Morrison’s Paradise

Abstract

This article examines the re-writing of contemporary black femininity as being attributed to masculine codes in Paradise (1997), by Toni Morrison. The writer’s reconceptualization of black femininity is rooted in Judith Butler’s revolutionary understanding of gender and identity constructivism, which are determined within limited agendas of social and cultural restrictions. In discussing the mechanism of re-appropriation, Butler claims that the subject is required to reenact preexisting gender norms and performances as revolting means of deliverance and emancipation; affirming that gender renegotiation is meant to subvert power discourse. Drawing on these assumptions, this paper argues that Morrison’s novel revokes a reversing visualization of black femininity to criticize identity and gender formation as social and cultural constructs. It also discusses the black women social performances that correspond to the subversive power and gender dimensions. It concludes that Paradise subverts the alleged continuity of gender identity, and challenged the matrix of power relations.