POWER AND RESISTANCE IN TONI MORRISON'S SULA AND PARADISE: A FOUCAULDIAN STUDY

Authors

  • Rafia Sharmin Lecturer (Adjunct Faculty), Department of English, Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v10i9.4952

Keywords:

Michel Foucault, power, resistance, Toni Morrison

Abstract

Michel Foucault's notions of power and resistance are evocative as one attempt to explain the hitherto unexplained meaning of women's subjugation and resistance as represented in the patriarchal society in Toni Morrison's Sula and Paradise. The patriarchal agents in these novels enforce white beauty standards, dictate women's roles and behaviors, emphasize marriage and motherhood, and use sexual exploitation to control women. Research has shown that both novels have received widespread critical attention, exploring themes including the politics of maternal violence, counter-memory, biopower, internal racism, and colonialism. However, a comparative study of Sula and Paradise through Foucault's concepts of disciplinary power and constant surveillance may reveal the subtle ways power operates in patriarchal societies, and by analyzing the female characters' resistance strategies, the study may uncover how women challenge and resist patriarchal norms. Employing the textual analysis method and Foucault's ideas of power and resistance, this research aims to determine how the women of Morrison's Sula and Paradise suffer oppression due to patriarchal disciplinary power and constant surveillance in their community, which ultimately triggers their resistance.

 

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Author Biography

  • Rafia Sharmin, Lecturer (Adjunct Faculty), Department of English, Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh
    Rafia Sharmin is a Lecturer (Adjunct faculty) at the Department of English, Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh, and an M.Phil. Fellow in English (literature) at the National University, Bangladesh. Previously she worked as a Lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Science and Technology Chittagong, Bangladesh. She has over four years of university-level teaching experience and cherishes a keen interest in literary analysis, explicitly exploring power dynamics, feminism, and resistance in works by renowned authors.

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Published

2023-07-24

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 9 (2023)

Section

Articles

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