Polyphony of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Fugal Form

Abstract

This article aims to explore the representation of the fugal form in A Mercy (2008) by Toni Morrison as regards the non-linear complexity of the plot revealed in multiple story lines and multiple voices. The analysis of A Mercy is based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the polyphonic novel. The present paper places the focus of analysis on the musical polyphony, notably on the principle of counterpoint, according to which a literary text can be structured. The novel consists of twelve sections, some of which are written in the first person, and the others, in the third person. Nevertheless, in the sections written in the third person the characters appear to be independent from the author, and the reader hears their individualized voices as the third person pieces of narration are told from the characters’ perspectives. The same events and people enter the consciousnesses of eight different characters and are interpreted from their points of view. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy is viewed as a triple fugue in which eight individualized thematically related voices enter the novel successively and develop three subjects DIFFERENCE, LOSS, and MERCY contrapuntally. The cycling of three subjects through the intertwined voices, the modifications of the subjects, a great complexity of repetition, the juxtaposition of the figures and points of view, and the overlapping of the voices speaking of the same periods of time and the same events testify to the fact that the novel is polyphonic and reveals evident features of the fugue.