The Fugitive Covenant: Reconstructing the Social Contract this Side of Paradise

Abstract:This essay examines Toni Morrison as a political theorist whose novel Paradise (1997) reconstructs the English social contract tradition. I show how Morrison conceptualizes "unmotivated respect"—an attitude of deep admiration for others without reason or motive—as an alternative to contractual agreements. Building on this ground, I establish a framework for what I call the "Fugitive Covenant," which works to restore the rights of personhood to those whom normative social contract theory excludes. Ultimately, I demonstrate how the Fugitive Covenant complicates and extends the pathbreaking critiques of social contractarianism advanced by political theorist Carole Pateman and philosopher Charles Mills.