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African American LiteratureArticle 1 · Vol. 1, Issue 5, September 2026 · pp. 1–9
A Study of Unresolved Masculinities in Toni Morrison’s Paradise and The Bluest Eye: The Impossibility of Exorcism
Dr. Shyaonti Talwar
Assistant Professor, Department of English, RNC Arts, JDB Commerce and NSC Science College, Nashik, Maharashtra, India
Abstract
All gendered behavior is after all a performance. Feminine and masculine manifestations of identities from communities are collective in nature and susceptible to stereotyping and typecasting by the judging gaze of the outsider. But there is a reason for them to be so. Newly emerging identities as a result of socio-political liberation with an evolving awareness of the self and a newfound consciousness undergo a sustained tension between the past trauma borne by their marginalized and oppressed position on the one hand and internalization and emulation of hegemonic behavior and ideology of the colonizing master on the other. The present paper attempts to trace this tension in the colonized self as ‘Other’ hinting at the impossibility of an exorcised consciousness. The paper looks closely at the performative masculinities in two of Toni Morrison’s novels The Bluest Eye and Paradise trying to go beyond gender stereotypes to the agonized, warped and claustrophobia ridden consciousness of the black man.
Keywords:
Toni MorrisonBlack MasculinitySpectralHegemonic MasculinityRacism
How to Cite
Talwar, S. (2026). A Study of Unresolved Masculinities in Toni Morrison’s Paradise and The Bluest Eye: The Impossibility of Exorcism. Veritas: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(5), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.67788/veritas.2026.1.5.001
DOI: https://doi.org/10.67788/veritas.2026.1.5.001
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