Toni MorrisonToni Morrison

Toni Toni Morrison Noted for examination

of black experience (particularly black female experience)

Born February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio

Grandfather born a slave

Family lost their land: forced to work in mines and mills

OverviewOverview Attended Howard

University and later Cornell

Has taught at several universities

Mother of two sons 1988 Pulitzer Prize for

Fiction 1993 Novel Prize for

Literature

Toni Morrison 1931-Toni Morrison 1931-

Morrison made her debut as a novelist in 1970, soon gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and richly-expressive depictions of Black America.

Novels

The Bluest EyeThe Bluest Eye 1972 1972 SulaSula 1974 1974 Song Of SolomonSong Of Solomon 1977 1977 Tar BabyTar Baby 1981 1981 BelovedBeloved 1987 1987 JazzJazz 1992 1992 ParadiseParadise 1999 1999 LoveLove 2003 2003 A MercyA Mercy 2008 2008

Themes

Race Womanhood The effects of history Memory The contingencies of love Examining how all four intertwine to

affect the beliefs and actions of individuals.

Literary/Historical Literary/Historical Time PeriodTime Period

Discoveries: FM Radio Polio Vaccine Seat belt Cause of Down’s

Syndrome Test-tube baby

Major events: Civil right’s

movement Race Relations Elvis Presley The Beatles Kennedy

Assassination King Assassination

The Past: An Inexhaustible Resource

Living and Imagining the Historical—revising “the Same” slave-narrative tradition

Rememorying the Past: Configuring and Translation—Beloved and rememory as “the Other”

History Goes on: Repatterned and Re-enacted—storytelling as a process

Toni Morrison's way of addressing her reader has a compelling lustre, in a poetic direction. When she was very young, her family's landlord set fire to the house in which they lived when her parents fell behind with the rent. . . . Her family reacted to this absurd form of crudeness, monumental crudeness, not with resignation but with laughter. This, says Toni Morrison, is how you can distance yourself from the act and take your life back. You take your integrity back.  

““Recitatif” 1983Recitatif” 1983

“Recitatif” (1983) Morrison’s sole published short story

A “recitatif” or “recitative” = “a vocal style in which a text is declaimed in the rhythm of natural speech with slight melodic variation” (American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997). The story is Twyla’s recitatif.

DoublesDoubles

“Recitatif” a story of doubles: one black, one white● Unclear which is which

Similarities to Poe’s “William Wilson”● first-person narration● early institutional experience (school/orphanage)● meetings at intervals later in life● narrator is challenged and hurt by the double

But “Recitatif” ends with their reconciliation

More DoublingMore Doubling

Both girls misfits in the orphanage: don’t have “beautiful dead parents in the sky” (2255) ● Twyla’s mother dances late● Roberta’s is sick

Bad students: ● Twyla “couldn’t remember” things (2254)● Roberta can’t read

Racial Ambiguity Racial Ambiguity

Roberta “a girl from a whole other race” (but which?)

“like salt and pepper” “Everything is so easy for them. They

think they own the world” “how it was in those days: black—white” Busing (to integrate schools black &

white) ● Twyla’s son Joseph ● Roberta’s kids

Historical StructureHistorical Structure

Story of doubles suspended through recent American history:● Race relations● Busing (to integrate schools)● Computer industry● Changes in town of Newburgh, New

York: once “upstate paradise,” then half “on welfare,” with new wealthy tech class working for IBM

Pop CulturePop Culture

Klondike ice cream bars

Tab Yoo-Hoo Chiclets Elmer’s Glue IBM A&P

The Wizard of Oz The Price Is Right The Brady Bunch Jimi Hendrix

Impermanent SettingsImpermanent Settings

“Recitatif” transient settings.● Orphanage● Howard Johnson’s● New shopping mall/parking lot● Picket lines● Coffee house

Archetypal StructureArchetypal Structure

Easter, Christmas Maggie—a mute woman

● Story of primal guilt which (like the story of Adam and Eve) takes place in a garden, an apple orchard

● “Gar girls” Corruption of gargoyles, “the evil stone

faces”Associated with evil, like the gargoyles of

medieval Gothic cathedrals

Significance of Maggie

Shifting memories=shifting meanings:● Maggie fell ● Maggie didn’t fall, was knocked down ● Twyla and Roberta both kicked Maggie,

who was black ● Twyla didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to

(associated Maggie with her mother) ● Roberta didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to

(associated Maggie with her own mother)