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Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise

This thesis analyzes identity in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise. I argue that identity is portrayed ... more This thesis analyzes identity in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise. I argue that identity is portrayed as informed by relationships of the self and the other. Relying on Lacan\u27s notion of the mirror phase I point out that the other is depicted as mirrored in the self. Employing Levinas\u27s notions of totality and infinity I highlight portrayals of the self mirrored in the other - as when the self views the other through the self\u27s self-conception or worldview. I conclude that Paradise challenges the universal individual to consider and respond to his or her co-constructed identity with the other person

Research paper thumbnail of A Necessary Ethics: Bakhtin and Dialogic Identity Construction in Four Morrison Novels

African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies, 2019

Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin rev... more Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin reveals identity construction as a dialogic endeavour. While this method may be necessary for character development, it serves the further purpose of making an ethical case for the self’s responsibility to others. This paper considers key theoretical instruments, as enabled by Bakhtin, in relation to Morrison’s treatment of naming and other character constructing elements. It is ultimately Morrison’s construction of identity as dialogical which enables the argument that Morrison’s fiction offers an ethics in the interest of the other. Writing about the marginalised, the abused and the voiceless reveals Morrison’s oeuvre is unmistakably an ongoing engagement with the injustice of slavery and its political, economic, social and psychological aftermath. The relevance of this article lies in its analysis of Morrison’s fiction as an antidote which challenges the self’s “self-interest”, which is ...

Research paper thumbnail of Emmanuel Levinas on Ethics as the First Truth

Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison's "Paradise

Research paper thumbnail of Identity as ethical responsibility: a amanifesto for social change in Toni Morrison's fiction

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosoph... more A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English

Research paper thumbnail of The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas

CITATION: Van Der Merwe, W. & De Voss, V. 2008. The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philos... more CITATION: Van Der Merwe, W. & De Voss, V. 2008. The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Acta Academica, 40(1):1-30.

Research paper thumbnail of A Necessary Ethics: Bakhtin and Dialogic Identity Construction in Four Morrison Novels

African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies

Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin rev... more Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin reveals identity construction as a dialogic endeavour. While this method may be necessary for character development, it serves the further purpose of making an ethical case for the self’s responsibility to others. This paper considers key theoretical instruments, as enabled by Bakhtin, in relation to Morrison’s treatment of naming and other character constructing elements. It is ultimately Morrison’s construction of identity as dialogical which enables the argument that Morrison’s fiction offers an ethics in the interest of the other. Writing about the marginalised, the abused and the voiceless reveals Morrison’s oeuvre is unmistakably an ongoing engagement with the injustice of slavery and its political, economic, social and psychological aftermath. The relevance of this article lies in its analysis of Morrison’s fiction as an antidote which challenges the self’s “self-interest”, which is ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison's "Paradise

Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise

This thesis analyzes identity in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise. I argue that identity is portrayed ... more This thesis analyzes identity in Toni Morrison\u27s Paradise. I argue that identity is portrayed as informed by relationships of the self and the other. Relying on Lacan\u27s notion of the mirror phase I point out that the other is depicted as mirrored in the self. Employing Levinas\u27s notions of totality and infinity I highlight portrayals of the self mirrored in the other - as when the self views the other through the self\u27s self-conception or worldview. I conclude that Paradise challenges the universal individual to consider and respond to his or her co-constructed identity with the other person

Research paper thumbnail of A Necessary Ethics: Bakhtin and Dialogic Identity Construction in Four Morrison Novels

African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies, 2019

Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin rev... more Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin reveals identity construction as a dialogic endeavour. While this method may be necessary for character development, it serves the further purpose of making an ethical case for the self’s responsibility to others. This paper considers key theoretical instruments, as enabled by Bakhtin, in relation to Morrison’s treatment of naming and other character constructing elements. It is ultimately Morrison’s construction of identity as dialogical which enables the argument that Morrison’s fiction offers an ethics in the interest of the other. Writing about the marginalised, the abused and the voiceless reveals Morrison’s oeuvre is unmistakably an ongoing engagement with the injustice of slavery and its political, economic, social and psychological aftermath. The relevance of this article lies in its analysis of Morrison’s fiction as an antidote which challenges the self’s “self-interest”, which is ...

Research paper thumbnail of Emmanuel Levinas on Ethics as the First Truth

Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison's "Paradise

Research paper thumbnail of Identity as ethical responsibility: a amanifesto for social change in Toni Morrison's fiction

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosoph... more A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English

Research paper thumbnail of The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas

CITATION: Van Der Merwe, W. & De Voss, V. 2008. The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philos... more CITATION: Van Der Merwe, W. & De Voss, V. 2008. The ethics of responsibility : the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Acta Academica, 40(1):1-30.

Research paper thumbnail of A Necessary Ethics: Bakhtin and Dialogic Identity Construction in Four Morrison Novels

African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies

Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin rev... more Reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Paradise and A Mercy through the lens of Bakhtin reveals identity construction as a dialogic endeavour. While this method may be necessary for character development, it serves the further purpose of making an ethical case for the self’s responsibility to others. This paper considers key theoretical instruments, as enabled by Bakhtin, in relation to Morrison’s treatment of naming and other character constructing elements. It is ultimately Morrison’s construction of identity as dialogical which enables the argument that Morrison’s fiction offers an ethics in the interest of the other. Writing about the marginalised, the abused and the voiceless reveals Morrison’s oeuvre is unmistakably an ongoing engagement with the injustice of slavery and its political, economic, social and psychological aftermath. The relevance of this article lies in its analysis of Morrison’s fiction as an antidote which challenges the self’s “self-interest”, which is ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Identity Challenge in Toni Morrison's "Paradise

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