Multiple Historical Narratives In Paradise

History and its reconstruction, as one of the important themes in Toni Morrison's works, are fully reflected in her seventh novel, Paradise. The present study investigates multiple historical narratives of Paradise by adopting some literary theories, like metahistory, feminism and close reading of the text, aiming at exploring Morrison's reflections on history.The thesis consists of introduction, the body and conclusion. In the introductory part, the focus will be on the previous studies made on Paradise, research objective, and research methods of the thesis.The body includes four chapters. The first chapter discusses the reason why Toni Morrison is concerned about history, particularly, African American history, and examines her view of history by drawing on the theory of metahistory.In the second chapter, Ruby patriarchs' narratives of history will be discussed. By emphasizing the ancestors' heroic struggle in the course of building an earthly paradise, the patriarchs attempt to manipulate Ruby's history, which reflects men's authority in history-reconstruction.The third chapter makes an analysis of Ruby women's counternarratives. Even if the women are subordinate in the town, they refuse to accept the patriarchs' version of Ruby's history. Patricia Best's genealogical research on Ruby's history complements and amends men's narratives. Women's counternarratives, to a certain extent, resist the authoritative history reconstructed by Ruby Patriarchs.The fourth chapter investigates the Convent women's articulation of their individual histories. Under the leadership of Consolata, their spiritual leader, the Convent women speak out their traumatized histories by reconstructing feminine subjectivity, and ultimately free themselves from the patriarchal system. Through the Convent women's articulation, Morrison deconstructs the History with a capital H, and transfers her attention to the small-case histories of ordinary people.The conclusion points out that multiple historical narratives in Paradise shows Toni Morrison's rejection of universalized and totalized history, which reflects her peculiar thinking of history.