مجلة جامعة الأمير عبد القادر للعلوم الإسلامية
Volume 39, Numéro 2, Pages 354-367
2025-12-18
A World Of Blurred Boundaries: Deconstructing Binary Oppositions In Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973)
Authors : Harrat Sara .
Abstract
Toni Morrison’s novel Sula (1973) blurs the boundaries between white/black, good/evil, and presence/absence. This paper offers a deconstructive reading of this novel, seeking to explore how it challenges the rigidity of this either/or logic that characterizes Western thinking. Derridean concepts like presence/absence, trace, and pharmakon, are used to demonstrate how Morrison deconstructs essentialist views of morality, race and even motherhood. The protagonist, Sula, is read as a trace, representing the absence of morality and also a necessary presence for the community’s moral self-definition. She is a pharmakon that both threatens and cures the community. Thus, this study shows how Derrida’s theory can shed light on the novel’s ontological and ethical ambiguities that challenge dominant narratives about identity and morality.
Keywords
Binary opposition ; deconstruction ; presence ; trace ; morality
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