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Monstrous Utopia in Toni Morrison’s Paradise

Grattan, Sean (2013) Monstrous Utopia in Toni Morrison’s Paradise. Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture, 46 (3). pp. 367-392. ISSN 0016-6928. E-ISSN 2160-0228. (doi:10.1215/00166928-2345551) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:55256)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00166928-2345551

Abstract

Contemporary US literature appears to have shied away from considerations of utopia. “Monstrous Utopia in Toni Morrison's Paradise” argues that Morrison creates two utopian communities to explore the ambiguous relationship between utopia and political imagination. The importance of communication in the small, unplanned utopian community of the Convent starkly exposes the danger of closing narrative possibilities as represented by the planned utopian community of Ruby. Utopian narratives, more than any other genre, create an argument for alternatives to the status quo. By examining intersections between utopian theory, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's concept of the multitude, and Morrison's Paradise, a space opens up for reconsidering ambiguous narratives of utopia in contemporary US fiction

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1215/00166928-2345551
Subjects: P Language and Literature
P Language and Literature > PE English philology and language
P Language and Literature > PS American literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Kate Smith
Date Deposited: 05 May 2016 08:35 UTC
Last Modified: 29 May 2019 17:18 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/55256 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Grattan, Sean.

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