TONI MORRISON’S

BELOVEDA Contextual Introduction

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• 1854-1874: last days of the Confederacy, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction

• Addresses the history and resultant deaths of slavery

• The story of Sethe is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner

• The Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 was reinforced by law enforcement acting under threat of severe financial punishment

• Despite the 13th and 14th amendments, many former Confederate states passed “Black Codes” to restrict newly freed black citizens

THE STORY

WHEN?

Set in 1854-1874

• Last days of the Confederacy, Civil War, and the Reconstruction

WHERE?

- Present – OHIO-Past – KENTUCKY

WHAT WAS HAPPENING DURING THIS TIME PERIOD?

• The Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 was reinforced by law enforcement acting under threat of severe financial punishment

•Despite the 13th and 14th amendments, many former Confederate states passed “Black Codes” to restrict newly freed black citizens

HISTORICAL CONTEXT CONT.

• 1860s & 1870s marked the age of lynching‘s, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and race riots

• Jim Crow laws ensured a de facto segregation causing black and white people to remain on different levels and reinforcing the negativity of slavery for years after Reconstruction

BUT THIS ISN’T YOUR AVERAGE NOVEL ABOUT SLAVERY…

MAGICAL REALISM

MAGIC REALISM ELEMENTS

WHAT IS MAGICAL REALISM?

• magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment

How does the book portray this genre?

• Hybridity—the juxtaposition of apparent opposites e.g. urban and rural, past and present, living and dead

• Author reticence

• The supernatural and natural

POSSIBLE MAGIC REALISM THEMES

• Terror produces renewal

• Time is cyclical instead of linear

• Themes related to the carnivalesque—a literary mode in which life is portrayed in terms of the humorous grotesque, and chaotic nature of a carnival