Transmedial Narrativization as Critical Dystopian Strategy in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills and Toni Morrison’s Paradise

This essay presents a comparative analysis of the narratological technique used to articulate utopian visions in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills and Toni Morrison’s Paradise. Through acts of transmedial narrativization – the construction of a narrative based on a range of media which are themselves non-narrative in nature – two characters in particular (Willa Prescott in Linden Hills, Pat Best in Paradise) are able to construct narratives which serve both retrospective and prospective functions: retrospective insofar as they subvert dystopian masculinist histories and practices, and prospective because they provide the impetus for hope and a resurrection of utopian ideals.