Reconstructing Nationhood in Selected Novels of Toni Morrison

This book explores Toni Morrison¿s strategy in reconstructing nationhood in her three novels: Paradise (1997), Love (2003), and A Mercy (2008). In these novels, Morrison discusses many dilemmas that concern the African Americans, and the larger American nation. In her discussion of the problem of nationhood, Morrison spans the historical period from the seventeenth century till the 1970s and 1980s. The past is one of the most important components that Morrison utilizes to build on her argument. She attempts to find good usage of the past in order to build the present and future. Therefore, the problem of history and its relation to nationhood is going to be one of the main arguments in this book. Critical theories related to the issue of history, such as the theories of the new historicists, are to be engaged in the discussion. Postcolonialism will be another theory to be used in the discussion of race, culture, and nation. Morrison¿s ultimate objective in revising the basics of the American community will be apparent in her strategy in finding ways in which whites and blacks may live in harmony in one nation.