Question

How would I paraphrase this paragraph?
There is also quite a bit of fetishization going on regarding the Africanist presence in the form of the nurse. First, Edna decides to take up painting; "The quadroon sat for hours before Edna's palette, patient as a savage" (57). Morrison says fetishization is often linked to savagery and is useful in "evoking erotic fears . . . establishing fixed and major differences where difference does not exist or is minimal . . . Blood . . . is a pervasive fetish" (Morrison 15). Certainly the idea of noble, patient savagery is here, and early in the novel the nar

Answer 1

There is also quite a bit of fetishization going on regarding the Africanist presence in the form of the nurse. First, Edna decides to take up painting; "The quadroon sat for hours before Edna's palette, patient as a savage" (57). Morrison says fetishization is often linked to savagery and is useful in "evoking erotic fears . . . establishing fixed and major differences where difference does not exist or is minimal . . . Blood . . . is a pervasive fetish" (Morrison 15). Certainly the idea of noble, patient savagery is here, and early in the novel the narrator establishes the idea of difference between Edna and the "quadroon," even though Edna is presumably four quarters white, and the quadroon three. In addition to these characteristics of fetishization, there is another in the novel. The "erotic fears" surface as Edna's "purity" comes into question as her husband leaves her.