A Narratological Study Of Toni Morrison's Paradise

Toni Morrison is the only American female writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the history of America.So far she has released ten novels in total and all of them have exerted a great effect on the development of American history,American literature and world literature.The influences of her works are so profound and comprehensive that each of them has been highly valued and appreciated by readers and critics.She devotes herself to presenting American history objectively,showing the social status quo of America factually,and analyzing the feminist issues rationally.The history of black American culture and its future development,the survival of black women are particularly emphasized by Morrison in a very serious and deliberate way.Morrison's Paradise(1997)was published after she won the Nobel Prize for Literature and was also the last work of her trilogy,as well as Beloved(1987)and Jazz(1992).Paradise mainly focuses on the history and development of the black town Ruby and the Convent.In Paradise,Ruby can be treated as a miniature society where the development of the Black history and Black culture is retrospected and represented.The Convent can be regarded as the birthplace where the feminist thoughts,especially the consciousness of freedom,are sprouted.Therefore,the history of black people and the feminism are the most important themes of Paradise.Morrison skillfully presents the themes of the Paradise and the rich characterization with the benefits of narrative technipues.The use of narrative techniques shows not only the rich meaning of the text and the round characters in Paradise,but the unique writing style of Morriosn.Therefore,this paper mainly discusses the narrative techniques of the novel in order to argue that the narrative skills and the themes,the characterzation are complentary to each other.The whole paper is made up of three parts.The introduction part mainly reviews the background information about Toni Morrison and Paradise,the major studies on Morrison and her works from at home and abroad are also discussed.Then the key terms of narratology are also introducted.The body part expands from chapter one to chapter three.The narrative time,the techniques of spatial narrative and the multiple focalisations of Paradise are respectively discussed in detail.By analyzing the methods such as analepsis and prolepsis;juxtaposition and montage and multiple points of view in Paradise,the paper finally concludes that there is a very close relationship between narrative techniques and thematic presentation;between narrative techniques and the portrait of characters.They influence each other profoundly and share mutual goodness.The use of narrative skills not only strengths the full rhythm and unique aesthetic effect of text,but reinforces the themes deeply and portrays the characterization vividly.