[lith] HS: The Fiction of Toni Morrison (Nordamerikanische Literaturen und Kulturen) - Einzelansicht

This course embarks on an in-depth exploration of the writings of Toni Morrison. As the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (1988), the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993) – the first and only ever awarded to an African American woman – and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012), she is a major contemporary Black woman writer in the United States. Weaving together discourses and themes of memory, history, and identity, her novels call attention to the importance of remembering, or – as she writes in the foreword to Beloved – a “memory desperate to stay alive” (xix). Her novels have been alternately described as poetic, historic, folkloric, dream-like, and nightmarish, and are often labeled as demanding. She herself is quoted as having said, “My writing expects, demands participatory reading … It’s not just about telling the story; it’s about involving the reader” (qtd. in Wilentz 127). It is this act of participation that we will focus on in class as a means of coming to an appreciation of the complexity of her works. Texts discussed in class include The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1974), “Recitatif” (1983), Beloved (1987), Paradise (1997), and A Mercy (2008).

The goal of this course is to help students appreciate works by Toni Morrison in both their historical and contemporary contexts. Among other things, we will study discourses of identity (specifically race, class, gender, and sexuality), history, and memory which are expressed in the works under consideration. At the end of the semester, students should be able to identify common themes and concerns from the works studied as well as have learned to express a critical voice in literature studies.

Please purchase the following novels in the Vintage paperback edition: 

N.B.: This Hauptseminar will start in November and will be taught in a semi-block format on Thursday mornings (details to be announced).

Sources:

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Random House. 1987. Print.

Wilentz, Gay. “An African-Based Reading of Sula.” Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison. Eds. Nellie McKay and Kathryn Earle. New York: MLA.  127-134. Print.

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