토니 모리슨의 『파라다이스』에 나타난 여성성의 윤리와 타자의 주이상스

Abstract

This article analyzes Toni Morrison''s Paradise through Lacanian psychoanalytic lens to examine how the marginalized experience of a female community introduces an alternative vision to the totalitarian law in Ruby, an isolated all-black town. Despite its initial attempt to recreate an African American Utopia, Ruby is marked by its ultimate failure to move beyond racism since its ideal of paradise is actually built on the exclusion of different skin colors and gender identities. Meanwhile, it is the novel''s representation of a motley group of women living in a deserted convent that suggests a possible paradise regained. As the women search for their true femininity through affirming their bodily existence and singular way of enjoyment, they establish a unique culture that respects universal differences among individuals. I argue that their attempts to create an ethics of female desire are profoundly social and cannot be reduced to mere private morality as they offer a radical redefinition of “living together” against the masculine side that has often been associated with sexual differences of essentialism.