Transition in Toni Morrison’s “consolata” from paradise (1997)

In her novel Paradise (1997), Toni Morrison portrays one of her main characters, Consolata or “disconsolate”, through a constant journey in search for her African American identity as a complete woman. This journey engulfs Consolata in an eternal fluctuation between hope and hopelessness, which results from being caught up in the so-called liminal/diaspora space in hybridity (Bhabha, 1994; Brah, 1996). The present paper deals with location of culture and gender identity in the marginal, unhomely spaces between dominant social formations by analysing chapter 7 “Consolata”. Consolata may be seen as an illustrative example of the black female community struggling to overcome the hurdles of being victimised as hybrid diasporic women in a patriarchal archaic western [black] culture