Uncanny Characterization, Magical Narrative

The Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison is widely acclaimed for her refined writingstyle informed by a distinctly black sensitivity and her literary creation to amalgamatethe traumatic past and the perplexed present. Blacks’ love and loss, struggle andstriving as well as physical suffering and psychic trauma are illustrated in her writing.Jazz, as the second volume of her phenomenal trilogy succeeds in bridging the storybeginning with Beloved and ending with Paradise. In Jazz, uncanny characterizationand magical narrative are utilized to establish the affinity between the past and thepresent. This thesis attempts to analyze Jazz from magical realist perspective aspiringto shed some light on this field.The analysis consists of two parts. The first part elaborates the uncannyelements of major characters who juxtapose rational behaviors with eccentric actionsand exposes Morrison’s resolution to make the uncanniness imperceptible bypenetrating into their psychic trauma due to motherlessness. The second part focusesupon magical narrative with the amalgamation of western elements and indigenoustraits to arouse unfamiliar atmosphere surrounding the story and to rearticulate theblack history grounded on black culture from black perspective.