Toni Morrison features a collection of ten new essays by noted Morrison scholars, including recipients of the Toni Morrison Society Book Award. Focusing upon Morrison's most recently published novels (Paradise, Love, A Mercy) the contributors to this volume revisit issues that continue to engage Morrison and are part of the currency of contemporary American literary and cultural history. These selections examine Morrison's ongoing "romance" with African Americans as they continue to battle the demons of race, gender, class, and poverty, to name a few. Together, these essays offer comprehensive and nuanced discussions of Morrison's latest novels and provide new directions for Morrison scholarship in the 21st century. This volume provides students of literature, cultural studies, and history with an overview of Morrison's examination of African American progress and leadership at key moments in American history and culture from the Colonial Period to the present. Through their thematic interconnectedness, the essays reveal Morrison at her most brilliant in her ability to reach into the past to comment on contemporary issues.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition explores Toni Morrison's construction of alternative and oppositional narratives of history and places her work as central to the imagining and re-imagining of American and diasporic identities. Covering the Nobel Prize-winning author's novels (up to Home), as well as her essays, dramatic works and short stories, this book situates Morrison's writings within both African-American and American writing traditions and examines them in terms of her continuous dialogue with the politics, philosophy and literary forms of these traditions. Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition provides a comprehensive analysis of Morrison's entire oeuvre, from her early interrogation of Black Power to her engagement with fin de siècle postcolonial critiques of nationalism and twenty-first century considerations of ecology. Justine Baillie goes on to argue that Morrison's aesthetic should be understood in relation to the historical, political and cultural contexts in which it, and the African-American and American literary traditions upon which she draws, have been created and developed.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition explores Toni Morrison's construction of alternative and oppositional narratives of history and places her work as central to the imagining and re-imagining of American and diasporic identities. Covering the Nobel Prize-winning author's novels (up to Home), as well as her essays, dramatic works and short stories, this book situates Morrison's writings within both African-American and American writing traditions and examines them in terms of her continuous dialogue with the politics, philosophy and literary forms of these traditions. Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition provides a comprehensive analysis of Morrison's entire oeuvre, from her early interrogation of Black Power to her engagement with fin de siècle postcolonial critiques of nationalism and twenty-first century considerations of ecology. Justine Baillie goes on to argue that Morrison's aesthetic should be understood in relation to the historical, political and cultural contexts in which it, and the African-American and American literary traditions upon which she draws, have been created and developed.
The late Toni Morrison was the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. A powerful writer, she wove stories depicting the largely overlooked Black experience in America and exploring the intersection of gender and race through the lives of Black women. Morrison's writing continues to move people and push readers to reassess their beliefs about what it means to be Black in America. Synthesizing some 250 scholarly works about Morrison's writing, this book examines eight novels as well as the short story "Recitatif." They are analyzed for techniques used to deepen meaning and emotional weight, and reveal Morrison's mastery over prose.
Toni Morrison: Memory and Meaning boasts essays by well-known international scholars focusing on the author's literary production and including her very latest works--the theatrical production Desdemona and her tenth and latest novel, Home. These original contributions are among the first scholarly analyses of these latest additions to her oeuvre and make the volume a valuable addition to potential readers and teachers eager to understand the position of Desdemona and Homewithin the wider scope of Morrison's career. Indeed, in Home, we find a reworking of many of the tropes and themes that run throughout Morrison's fiction, prompting the editors to organize the essays as they relate to themes prevalent in Home.In many ways, Morrison has actually initiated paradigm shifts that permeate the essays. They consistently reflect, in approach and interpretation, the revolutionary change in the study of American literature represented by Morrison's focus on the interior lives of enslaved Africans. This collection assumes black subjectivity, rather than argues for it, in order to reread and revise the horror of slavery and its consequences into our time. The analyses presented in this volume also attest to the broad range of interdisciplinary specializations and interests in novels that have now become classics in world literature. The essays are divided into five sections, each entitled with a direct quotation from Home, and framed by two poems: Rita Dove's ""The Buckeye"" and Sonia Sanchez's ""Aaayeee Babo, Aaayeee Babo, Aaayeee Babo.""
Critics have routinely excluded African American literature from ecocritical inquiry despite the fact that the literary tradition has, from its inception, proved to be steeped in environmental concerns that address elements of the natural world and relate nature to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation labor, and nationhood. Toni Morrison's work is no exception. Toni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color is the first full-length ecocritical investigation of the Nobel Laureate's novels and brings to the fore an unequaled engagement between race and nature.Morrison's ecological consciousness holds that human geographies are enmeshed with nonhuman nature. It follows, then, that ecology, the branch of biology that studies how people relate to each other and their environment, is an apt framework for this book. The interrelationships and interactions between individuals and community, and between organisms and the biosphere are central to this analysis. They highlight that the human and nonhuman are part of a larger ecosystem of interfacings and transformations. Toni Morrison and the Natural World is organized by color, examining soil (brown) in The Bluest Eye and Paradise; plant life (green) in Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Home; bodies of water (blue) in Tar Baby and Love; and fire (orange) in Sula and God Help the Child. By providing a racially inflected reading of nature, Toni Morrison and the Natural World makes an important contribution to the field of environmental studies and provides a landmark for Morrison scholarship.
Critics have routinely excluded African American literature from ecocritical inquiry despite the fact that the literary tradition has, from its inception, proved to be steeped in environmental concerns that address elements of the natural world and relate nature to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation labor, and nationhood. Toni Morrison's work is no exception. Toni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color is the first full-length ecocritical investigation of the Nobel Laureate's novels and brings to the fore an unequaled engagement between race and nature.Morrison's ecological consciousness holds that human geographies are enmeshed with nonhuman nature. It follows, then, that ecology, the branch of biology that studies how people relate to each other and their environment, is an apt framework for this book. The interrelationships and interactions between individuals and community, and between organisms and the biosphere are central to this analysis. They highlight that the human and nonhuman are part of a larger ecosystem of interfacings and transformations. Toni Morrison and the Natural World is organized by color, examining soil (brown) in The Bluest Eye and Paradise; plant life (green) in Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Home; bodies of water (blue) in Tar Baby and Love; and fire (orange) in Sula and God Help the Child. By providing a racially inflected reading of nature, Toni Morrison and the Natural World makes an important contribution to the field of environmental studies and provides a landmark for Morrison scholarship.
When Toni Morrison died in August 2019, she was widely remembered for her contributions to literature as an African American woman, an identity she wore proudly. Morrison was clear that she wrote from a Black, female perspective and for others who shared her identity. But just as much as she was an African American writer, Toni Morrison was a woman of faith. Morrison filled her novels with biblical allusions, magic, folktales, and liberated women, largely because Christianity, African American folk magic, and powerful women defined her own life. She grew up with family members who could interpret dreams, predict the future, see ghosts, and go about their business. Her relatives, particularly her mother, were good storytellers, and her family's oral tradition included ghost stories and African American folktales. But her family was also Christian. As a child, Morrison converted to Catholicism and chose a baptismal name that truly became her own--Anthony, from St. Anthony of Padua--going from Chloe to Toni. Morrison embraced both Catholicism and the occult as a child and, later, as a writer. She was deeply religious, and her spirituality included the Bible, the paranormal, and the folktales she heard as a child. Toni Morrison's Spiritual Vision unpacks this oft-ignored, but essential, element of Toni Morrison's work--her religion--and in so doing, gives readers a deeper, richer understanding of her life and her writing. In its pages, Nadra Nittle remembers and understands Morrison for all of who she was: a writer, a Black woman, and a person of complex faith. As Nittle's wide-ranging, deep exploration of Morrison's oeuvre reveals, to fully understand the writing of Toni Morrison one must also understand the role of religion and spirituality in her life and literature.
Thucydides said "Both justice and decency require that we should bestow on our forefathers an honorable remembrance." This is a major purpose of this volume. The first two chapters are about the history of the Morrison Clan in in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Their 700 plus years in that bleak, windswept landscape shaped their physical and mental facilities in such a way to make them ideal for migration to a new wilderness. and Morrisons in America. Little is known of the history of the peoples of the Hebrides before the 6th century as they, like the rest of Scotland, was in the depths of what centuries later became known as the Dark Ages. Nathaniel Morrison, born 1707 in Scotland on the Isle of Lewis, was a product of that environment. This book is about him and his descendants. This Nathaniel was one of no doubt many Morrisons whose children sailed the stormy North Atlantic for a new life in America. Did our 1707 Nathaniel make the journey? That is unsure, but three of his sons, all born in Scotland, account for the 9550 descendants identified in this A Morrison Family. Most would have interesting stories to tell of their life, and where available they are recorded here. So what was the personality and character of this Morrison family that emerged from the west coast of Scotland whose founder was probably of Norwegian origin? After seeking and reading about members of this family the answer to that question become clear, at least about the early generations. Without a doubt they were strong, industrious, bright, thrifty, determined people, always seeking the moral high ground. It was their desire to make a good life by investing their God given traits for hard work. Check this out. John Wesley Morrison married Virginia Mary McCorkle, both born in Greenbrier County, VA died in Oxville, Scott Co., IL. First they moved from Virginia to Lawrence Co., OH in 1813, and about 1823 moved to Pike Co., OH. From there by by flat boat they came down the Ohio River, and then polled the boat up the Mississippi River to Grafton, then up the Illinois River to Naples, IL where they landed. John purchased a farm on and began farming. During the years he acquired considerable land (in excess of 2000 acres), later given to each of his children, 13 of 14 surviving.14. Were they strong, industrious, bright, thrift?The Morrisons may also have had a little more of their share of wanderlust. The first few generations were on the move, mostly west where there was ample and cheap land. This book is speckled with such stories, which records Morrison descendants living and/or dying in every state, frequently blended with a personal mandate for education.Chapter 3 chronicles some minor and major detail about the 9550 Morrison descendants and their families. An example, abbreviated notes about John Morrison, fifth generation; b. Mar 04 1804 in Greenbrier Co., VA, d. Dec 08 1884 in Braxton Co., VA, buried in Morrison UMC, Newville, Braxton Co., WV. John went from Greenbrier to Nicholas, now Braxton County, as a young man, marrying Mary Lough of Pendleton Co., VA. History of Braxton County says John "-- was a prominent and respected citizen from the early settlement of that section until his death. He lived and reared his family on his farm, filling several public offices at different times. Upon his death a friend reported "I think he was the most lovable man I ever knew. He always greeted you with a smile. I never saw him angry. He was a most pious man and one of the leaders of the Church." At the beginning of the Civil War, he chose the Union side, and some rangers (southern sympathizer) visited his place, burned his house with its contents, drove away the stock and abused and maltreated Mary, from which she never recovered, dying in 1863.. A complete and robust index simplifies finding your kin folks.
The novel opens after midnight on a hot summer night, when many of the residents of the Jago, likened to "great rats", prefer to sleep in the street to avoid the oppressive heat and stench of the closely packed houses. A man lured into a dwelling by a woman is brutally coshed, robbed and dragged unconscious into the street where others remove his boots. Dicky Perrott, 8 or 9 years old (the uncertainty is telling) makes his way home to the single room in which his family dwells, where he finds his mother, Hannah Perrott and flea-bitten baby sister, Looey, but only a crust of bread to eat. As dawn breaks his father, Josh Perrott, returns home with a club sticky with blood and hair, suggesting another robbery.
Jim Morrison's Clearwater Then and Now, is a pictorial history and collection of tales from the life of Clearwater's Rock Legend. Who was Jim Morrison before he became frontman of The Doors? The stories within these pages will tell stories of a young Jim Morrison from the people that knew him best."Writer and researcher, Bird Stevens, has located the places that probably always remained in Jim Morrison's heart. From conversation with Jim's early acquaintances, Stevens identified and visited many, and has written in detail about, the places that Jim enjoyed and the places where Jim experienced his early losses and disappointments. Journey with the writer from Jim's California banishment to a little frame house on the bank of Clearwater harbor, through his peccadillo adventures in and around Clearwater, Florida, and off to Tallahassee, Florida, where his homes included a typical neighborhood house, a small and dirty house trailer parked behind a rooming house, and an old hotel thought to have once been a house of ill repute.Bird Stevens has described these places in Jim's heart with a vividness that will take you there. So, off you go "
