25 pages • 50 minutes read
Toni MorrisonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Morrison expresses her desire to extend the study of American literature. Using the metaphor of a map, she writes that she wants to open this study to a “wider landscape” and cover a “critical geography” (3). She maintains that in her explorations, she will not function as a literary critic but instead as a writer. She is interested in examining the parts of a writer’s consciousness that remain out of touch to the writer. As a black woman, she also examines how free she and others can be in what she calls a “a highly and historically racialized society” (4).
Morrison investigates the claim, widely accepted among literary critics, that the presence of Africans and later African Americans did not affect American literature’s canon of works. Although the African and African-American presence shaped the Constitution as well as our history and culture, there is a commonly accepted idea that they did not shape white literature. However, Morrison believes that the central ideas of American literature—including individuality, social isolation, and innocence existing along with the idea of hell—are a response to the African and African-American presence in the US. In fact, she believes that this presence was crucial for the development of the uniqueness of American literature and the use of coded language it entails.
By Toni Morrison
A Mercy
A Mercy
Toni Morrison
Beloved
Beloved
Toni Morrison
God Help The Child
God Help The Child
Toni Morrison
Home
Home
Toni Morrison
Jazz
Jazz
Toni Morrison
Love
Love: A Novel
Toni Morrison
Paradise
Paradise
Toni Morrison
Recitatif
Recitatif
Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison
Sula
Sula
Toni Morrison
Sweetness
Sweetness
Toni Morrison
Tar Baby
Tar Baby
Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
The Origin of Others
The Origin of Others
Toni Morrison