The Haunted House in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

In A Mercy Toni Morrison tackles the multilayered and strikingly powerful Gothic “haunted” house metaphor from a female perspective. Her revenants and hauntings are not just individual, but also historical, political and cultural manifestations. Through the Gothic dwelling, Morrison explores the fragmented personal and familial identities, conventional gender arrangements, failed domestic ideology, racist and colonial past, etc., in a patriarchal society dominated by whites. Her transgressive rewriting draws attention to the impact of slavery and racism and, consequently, to the othering of ethnic females, especially blacks. Morrison not only depicts the unspeakable horrors of American history, but also provides ways for its regeneration, such as women’s empowerment and their struggle for self-definition. Morrison’s revisitation of the “haunted” house formula offers an alternative female perspective on American identity and history.En A Mercy Toni Morrison aborda la poderosa y compleja metáfora de la casa gótica “encantada” desde una perspectiva femenina. Sus fantasmas no son exclusivamente individuales, sino manifestaciones históricas, políticas y culturales. Mediante la mansión gótica, Morrison analiza la fragmentada identidad personal y familiar, las convenciones de género, la fallida ideología doméstica, el pasado racista y colonial, etc., en una sociedad patriarcal dominada por blancos. Su reescritura transgresora destaca el impacto de la esclavitud y el racismo y, consecuentemente, la alterización de la mujer étnica, especialmente las negras. Morrison no sólo describe los inefables horrores góticos de la historia americana, sino que también proporciona formas de regeneración, tales como el empoderamiento de la mujer y su lucha por autodefinición. La revisitación de Morrison de la fórmula de la casa “encantada” ofrece una perspectiva femenina alternativa de la identidad e historia americanas

Sula, una mujer oscura.

Through Sula (the main character of Toni Morrison’s eponymous novel), Morrison reinterprets the concept of the Dark Lady of the traditional Gothic romance. She is a demonic female, who de fies the Law of the Father in her search for identity. As the embodiment of subversion, she becomes the “village witch”, the symbolic expression of the African community’s confrontation with evil. In fact, through Sula, Morrison reflects intensively on evil. The demonic female comes to be a scapegoat, the target of the black community’s social frustrations. Sula is a modern Dark Lady with a radical power of self-creation and self-af firmation

The pattern of severed mother-daughter bond in Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and "A Mercy"

In Beloved and A Mercy Toni Morrison revisits the mother-daughter plot, focusing on the feminine. She explores the female black slave’s appalling oppression through the traumatic separation of a slave mother from her daughter, which destroys the emotional ties between them and causes terrible effects on both their psyches. Morrison describes her heroines’ identity journey from “desertion” to wholeness. The black female slave’s unspeakable ordeal unveils her humanity and courage, convulsing the patriarchal slave system.En Beloved y A Mercy Toni Morrison revisita el argumento de la madre e hija, centrando su atención en lo femenino. Ella explora la atroz opresión de la esclava negra a través de la traumática separación entre la madre esclava y su hija, que destruye los vínculos emocionales que las unen y causa terribles efectos en sus psiques. Morrison narra el viaje de identidad de sus heroínas desde el “abandono” a la integridad emocional. El auténtico calvario de la esclava negra desvela su humanidad y coraje, convulsionando el sistema patriarcal de la esclavitud

“Childhood Cuts Festered and Never Scabbed Over”: Child Abuse in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child

Toni Morrison revisits one of the main thematic concerns, child abuse and trauma, of her premier novel, The Bluest Eye, in her latest book God Help the Child. She has actually dealt profusely with all sorts of child maltreatment in her oeuvre. In her recent narrative, Morrison weaves a tangled web of childhood trauma stories, in which all of the characters have suffered some kind of abuse: neglect, witnessing domestic violence, emotional and psychological abuse, molestation, sexual abuse, etc. She shows how the child’s exposure to traumatic experiences has dramatic far-reaching effects into adulthood, such as psychological, emotional, behavioral and social problems. Morrison explores the curse of the past, the legacy of slavery and its aftermath, and its hold on the present, through the phenomenon of colorism. Racism and intra-racial discrimination based on the skin color result in childhood trauma. Children may adopt coping strategies to resist maltreatment or they may internalize oppression and accept self-loathing. Violence generates violence, a vicious cycle which will eventually make the victims future victimizers. Nonetheless, God Help the Child is not only about childhood abuse and trauma, but it is also about transformation and healing. Morrison describes the characters’ restorative journeys towards redemption

“Completar el círculo”: el proceso de auto-realización e individuación de las mujeres en The Robber Bride y “I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth”, de Margaret Atwood

In The Robber Bride and its sequel, “I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth,” Margaret Atwood underscores the complex feminine identity through the femme fatale, who is depicted using mythic Gothic figures, such as the vampire. Atwood contradicts socially-sanctioned roles for women. She shapes newer and more complete social and personal female identities, questioning how inadequately the patriarchal system represents their multiplicity. The author describes how the protagonists challenge the patriarchal definition of the feminine Self on their Jungian journey towards individuation, for which the fatal woman, as the Shadow Self, acts as a catalyst.En The Robber Bride y su secuela, “I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth,” Margaret Atwood enfatiza la compleja identidad femenina a través de la femme fatale, descrita a través de figuras míticas góticas, como el vampiro. Atwood contradice los roles sociales asignados a las mujeres. Ella crea nuevas y más complejas identidades femeninas, tanto sociales como personales, cuestionando cómo el sistema patriarcal representa de forma inadecuada su multiplicidad. La autora describe cómo las protagonistas desafían la definición patriarcal de la identidad femenina en un viaje junguiano hacia el desarrollo personal, para el cual la mujer fatal, la Sombra, actúa de catalizador

La primigenia arquetípica y mítica anciana/bruja en las representaciones de Toni Morrison sobre la mujer mayor

Morrison’s portrayals of the elderly woman resonate with images of the wise mythical Crone, a universal image embedded in our consciousness. In pre-patriarchal societies, elder women, Crones, were associated with both life and death. The advent of patriarchy changed how aging females were perceived and their societal roles. They were diabolized, disempowered, and regarded as useless and invisible. However, Morrison’s Crones are strong life forces, and an active valuable part of their communities. Morrison revalues their traditional maternal domestic roles, and motherhood and household become, respectively, a transgressive act and a site of resistance and power. With their ancestral spiritual/supernatural/healing properties, her Crones are ancestor figures and moral beacons for their communities. In her oeuvre, Morrison reassesses and reclaims the primordial pre-patriarchal crone archetype to empower and honor old black women and their contributions to the black community.Las representaciones de Morrison sobre la mujer vieja resuenan con imágenes de la sabia y mítica Anciana, una imagen universal grabada en nuestra conciencia. En las sociedades pre-patriarcales, las Ancianas estaban asociadas tanto a la vida como a la muerte. El advenimiento del patriarcado cambió la forma en que se percibía a las ancianas, y sus roles sociales. Fueron demonizadas, su poder arrebatado, y consideradas inútiles e invisibles. Sin embargo, las Ancianas de Morrison son fuerzas vitales y una parte activa y valiosa de la comunidad. Morrison revaloriza sus roles domésticos maternales tradicionales, y la maternidad y el hogar se transforman, respectivamente, en acto y lugar transgresores de resistencia y poder. Con sus propiedades espirituales/sobrenaturales/curativas ancestrales, las Ancianas de Morrison son faros morales para sus comunidades. En su obra, Morrison reevalúa y reivindica el arquetipo primordial pre-patriarcal de la Anciana para empoderar y honrar a las mujeres negras ancianas y sus contribuciones a la comunidad negra

Margaret Atwood´s Grace Marks as an Outcast: Rewriting Nathaniel Hawthorne´s Hester Prynne

Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace rewrites Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Both Grace Marks and Hester Prynne epitomize women’s oppression by the patriarchal system, and demonstrate how they challenge and defy it. They are both “criminals,” outcasts that cannot fit in the ideal of True Womanhood of their times because deviant females were shunned from “respectable society.” In the Victorian era, they were denied agency in their transgression, or deemed as monsters. Murderesses inspired fascination and stupor. Hester and Grace gain some empowerment and redemption when they confront their communities, in some measure, through their feminine skills, sewing and quilting.</div

Gothic tropes in Toni Morrison’s Home: The scientist-villain figure and the maiden in distress

Toni Morrison recurre a tropos góticos para tratar la relación de la víctima y el victimizador entre las figuras góticas del científico villano y la doncella inocente y vulnerable, que simboliza la opresión racial del sistema público de sanidad americano, así como el desprecio y la baja autoestima que la sociedad racista inculca en los individuos negros. Morrison desvela los procedimientos eugenésicos de doctores blancos en mujeres negras, que fueron objeto de experimentación sin su consentimiento. A la perspectiva inhumana eugenésica hacia los “indeseables” afro-americanos, ella contrapone su lucha por mantener su humanidad y conseguir una identidad plena en un mundo occidental patriarcal, dominado por blancos, lleno de violencia y de horrores góticos.Toni Morrison resorts to Gothic tropes to depict the victim-victimizer relationship between the Gothic scientist-villain figure and the vulnerable innocent maiden, who epitomizes the racial oppression of the U.S. Public Health System, as well as the self-loathing and low selfesteem the racist society instills in black individuals. Morrison unveils the eugenic procedures of white doctors on black women, who were experimented on without their consent. To the eugenicists’ inhumane approach to “undesirable” African Americans, she opposes their struggle to keep their humanity and achieve wholeness in a white-dominated patriarchal Western world full of violence and Gothic horrors

THE PATTERN OF SEVERED MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOND IN TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED AND A MERCY

In Beloved and A Mercy Toni Morrison revisits the mother-daughter plot, focusing on the feminine. She explores the female black slave’s appalling oppression through the traumatic separation of a slave mother from her daughter, which destroys the emotional ties between them and causes terrible effects on both their psyches. Morrison describes her heroines’ identity journey from “desertion” to wholeness. The black female slave’s unspeakable ordeal unveils her humanity and courage, convulsing the patriarchal slave system.En Beloved y A Mercy Toni Morrison revisita el argumento de la madre e hija, centrando su atención en lo femenino. Ella explora la atroz opresión de la esclava negra a través de la traumática separación entre la madre esclava y su hija, que destruye los vínculos emocionales que las unen y causa terribles efectos en sus psiques. Morrison narra el viaje de identidad de sus heroínas desde el “abandono” a la integridad emocional. El auténtico calvario de la esclava negra desvela su humanidad y coraje, convulsionando el sistema patriarcal de la esclavitud