Unit 16 Toni Morrison (1931—)

Aims of Teaching

1.   Introduce the writer to students2. Familiarize students with ideas of th

e work and the language the writer used

3. Give them some knowledge of American black literature

Key Points to Teach:

Morrison’s life and artistic achievementsMorrison’s thematic concernMorrison’s artistic features employedA brief introduction of her major novelsA discussion of her short story: Recitatif

Her LifeWinner of 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, first African American to receive this prizeBorn in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, basis for some of her fictional settingsB.A. Howard Univ; M.A. Cornell, thesis on woolf and Faulkner, taught at Howard Univsince 1989, editor for Random House and given numerous public lectures, specializing in African-American literature. made her debut as a novelist in 1970, A member since 1981 of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Her Achievements

I'm just trying to look at something without blinking, to see what it is like, or it could have been like, and how that had something to do with the way we live now. Novels are always inquiries for me.

——Toni Morrison in Salon Magazine

American author, who has been awarded a number

of literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. And Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

In her work Toni Morrison has explored the experience and roles of black women in a racist and male dominated society.

In the center of her complex and multilayered narratives is the unique cultural inheritance of African-Americans.

Known For her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and richly-expressive depictions of Black America.

Her Major Novels

The Bluest Eyes (1970) In 1940s America, a little

black girl, unlovely and unloved, prays for blue eyes like those of her white schoolfellows She becomes the focus of the mingled love and hatred engendered by her family's frailty and the world's cruelty. ……

Sula (1973)Sula, Morrison’s second novel, focuses on a young black girl named Sula, who matures into a strong and determined woman in the face of adversity and the distrust, even hatred, of her by the black community in which she lives….

Song of Solomon (1977)• The story of a character

named Milkman Dead, who in his search for his family’s lost fortune discovers instead his family history….

Tar Baby (1981)

In a Caribbean mansion the millionaire, Valerian, and his younger wife, Margaret, live as if in a troubled sleep. Their comforts are supplied by a black servant couple. The fifth member of the household is a beautiful black protegee of Valerian…..

Beloved (1987)

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of the past. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved…

Jazz (1992)

Jazz is spellbinding for the haunting passion of its profound love story, and for the bittersweet lyricism and refined sensuality of its powerful and elegant style…

Recitatif (1983)

1. Plot: A story of the conflicted friendship between two girls—one black and one white—from the time they meet and bond at age eight while staying at an orphanage through their re-acquaintance as mothers on different sides of economic, political, and racial divides in a recently gentrified town in upstate New York.

Recitatif(1983)

2. Recitatif: or “recitative” is “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

Recitatif— A Story of doubles

One black and one white, but the reader can’t say for sure which is whichBoth are misfits in the orphanage: they don’t have “beautiful dead parents in the sky”; their mothers are aliveBad students:

1. Twyla “couldn’t remember” things2. Roberta can’t read

Historical Structure (age 8 is definite, later ages are estimates)

Twyla and Roberta meet at different ages, in different settingsAt 8 (orphanage, 4 months)At roughly 18-20 (Howard Johnson’s on thruway near Kingston, N.Y.) 1) Twyla’s a nightshift waitress 2)Roberta passing through with two men, going to see Jim Hendrix, whom Twyla calls “she 3) Roberta and men laugh at Twyla, don’t say goodbye”

Historical Structure

At roughly 30-32 (Food Emporium, Newburgh, NY, late June)At roughly 30-32 (Picket-lines, Fall)Later 30s (coffee shop, Christmas Eve);

Joseph in college (about 18)

Jimi Hendrix (1942—1970)

Historical Structure

This story of doubles is suspended through recent American history:Race relationsBussing(to integrate schools)Computer industryChanges in town of Newburgh, NY,once “upstate paradise”, then half “on welfare,” with new wealthy tech class working for IBM

The Significance of Maggie:

Shifting memories/shifting meanings:Maggie fellMaggie didn’t fall, was knocked downTwyla and Roberta both kicked Maggie, who was blackTwyla didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to associated Maggie with her motherRoberta didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to associated Maggie with her own mother

Consumer Culture: name-brand products, corporations, TV show, pop icons:

Klondike ice cream bars The Wizard of OzTab The Price is RightYoo-Hoo The Brady BunchChiclets Jimi HendrixElmer’s glueIBMA&P

Setting

“Recitatif” takes place in impermanent, transient settings. What effect or significance might this feature of setting have?OrphanageHoward JohnsonsNew shopping mall/parking lotPicket linesCoffee house

ConclusionAs double, Twyla and Roberta share an uncomfortable pastRoberta challenges Twyla to remember parts of her past Twyla prefers to forgetReality and repressed desire get mixed upIn the present ,they are one another’s racial and class “other”They collaborate to reconstruct their shared past and bridge their differences of class and race