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Publication Date
8-2017
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
4-21-2017
Type of Culminating Activity
Thesis - Boise State University Access Only
Degree Title
Master of Arts in English Literature
Department
English
Supervisory Committee Chair
Reshmi Mukherjee, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Jeffrey W. Westover, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Dora Alicia Ramirez, Ph.D.
Abstract
By maintaining an “I”/“other” dynamic through the dehumanizing of the economically disadvantaged African American population, unequal distribution of wealth, lack of education and employment opportunity, and mass violence, the government creates an environment that leads to systemic violence within African American communities. This thesis asserts that Toni Morrison addresses this violence through a post-colonial theoretical lens, which incorporates both sexism and racism as a catalyst for destructive behavior by African Americans; a behavior which is established through imitation of dominant white violent actions. It does this through a study of the historical platform that Morrison’s Paradise (1997) is based upon and relates this historical violence to the novel’s moment of crisis, the massacre at the convent. Doing so develops the theory that the novel’s violence is the mimicry of colonial action. Supporting texts by Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and Aimé Césaire assist in connecting violence to patriarchal sexism, racism, and post-colonial theory while Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) and Morrison’s Jazz (1992) assist in the illustration of post-colonial movements and cycles of violence through comparative study with Paradise. Careful consideration is given to the role both Christian and Western African religions play in the formation of violence based on difference. Scholarship by Alfred J. Rabetau and La Vinia Delois Jennings establishes a Christian and African religious presence in African American history as well as it’s connection to Morrison’s novels.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18122/B2D42G
Recommended Citation
McBride, Heather, "The “Other” and “I”: Patriarchal and Racial Violence via Postcolonial Theory in Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Paradise" (2017). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 1326.
https://doi.org/10.18122/B2D42G