Current Search:  Morrison, Toni (x) » Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters (x)

View All Items

  • CSV Spreadsheet
(1 - 6 of 6)
"Thick love" vs. "thin love": The maternal role in the African American attainment of individuation in Morrison's "Jazz" and "Beloved"
Title
"Thick love" vs. "thin love": The maternal role in the African American attainment of individuation in Morrison's "Jazz" and "Beloved".
Creator
Waite, Simone Lora., Florida Atlantic University, Furman, Andrew
Abstract/Description
In Jazz and Beloved Morrison explores the difficulties of the acquisition of selfhood for African Americans. In the novels, Morrison examines these difficulties focussing especially on the maternal role. Offering no facile solutions, these narratives do share characteristics common to individuals attaining individuation. A person's relationship with the mother and ability to confront his history, no matter how painful, are integral elements to any presence of self-worth. Although far from...
Show moreIn Jazz and Beloved Morrison explores the difficulties of the acquisition of selfhood for African Americans. In the novels, Morrison examines these difficulties focussing especially on the maternal role. Offering no facile solutions, these narratives do share characteristics common to individuals attaining individuation. A person's relationship with the mother and ability to confront his history, no matter how painful, are integral elements to any presence of self-worth. Although far from didactic, one truth examined in the novels is the need for Africans in America to create their own definitions of their history. African American figures, maternal and otherwise have been traditionally defined by the oppressive society, using stereotypes inherited from slavery. Jazz and Beloved are reclamations of these definitions. Reclamations Morrison has asserted are necessary for the posterity of her people. How do African Americans attain selfhood when they do not even own themselves? The solutions to this problem are multifaceted. Morrison's novels urge the African American to confront the history and redefine myths that have often undermined the process.
Show less
Date Issued
1999
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15662
Subject Headings
Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation, Morrison, Toni--Beloved, Morrison, Toni--Jazz, African American women in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
mythic quest for selfhood in Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," "Song of Solomon," and "Beloved"
Title
The mythic quest for selfhood in Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," "Song of Solomon," and "Beloved".
Creator
Golden, Diane M., Florida Atlantic University, Coyle, William
Abstract/Description
Toni Morrison's purpose in her novels is to encourage her readers to imitate her heroes' journey in their own lives. Through her protagonists' successes and failures on their monomythic quests (to use the term of Joseph Campbell), Morrison educates her readers. Campbell states that a successful hero must complete three phases: separation, initiation, and return. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove's poor choices cause failure; she stays in the separation phase. Milkman Dead from Song of...
Show moreToni Morrison's purpose in her novels is to encourage her readers to imitate her heroes' journey in their own lives. Through her protagonists' successes and failures on their monomythic quests (to use the term of Joseph Campbell), Morrison educates her readers. Campbell states that a successful hero must complete three phases: separation, initiation, and return. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove's poor choices cause failure; she stays in the separation phase. Milkman Dead from Song of Solomon reaches the initiation stage but fails to return with his boon. Denver of Beloved is the only successful heroine; she returns to the world with a treasure, providing Morrison's readers with a fully heroic model.
Show less
Date Issued
1994
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15053
Subject Headings
Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation., African Americans in literature., Morrison, Toni.--Bluest eye., Morrison, Toni.--Song of Solomon., Morrison, Toni.--Beloved.
Format
Document (PDF)
Toni Morrison's "Beloved": From the middle realm to apocalyptic visions
Title
Toni Morrison's "Beloved": From the middle realm to apocalyptic visions.
Creator
King, Natalie, Florida Atlantic University, Paton, Priscilla
Abstract/Description
Toni Morrison's black characters in her novel Beloved dwell in a middle realm between slavery and a life full of responsibility. This middle realm or "safe" haven enables them to "disremember" past injustices. However, it also renders them disabled when trying to resolve moral issues, and allows them to exist blindly within the confines of an isolated illusion of almost pubescent security. In this state, characters have the certainty of the horrors of slavery behind them, but they have the...
Show moreToni Morrison's black characters in her novel Beloved dwell in a middle realm between slavery and a life full of responsibility. This middle realm or "safe" haven enables them to "disremember" past injustices. However, it also renders them disabled when trying to resolve moral issues, and allows them to exist blindly within the confines of an isolated illusion of almost pubescent security. In this state, characters have the certainty of the horrors of slavery behind them, but they have the uncertainty of the future ahead. Morrison's characters require the motivation of an apocalyptic upheaval (revelation or unveiling) as a catalyst to move them from that area of stasis and emotional impasse to the next level of their development and finally toward a sense of community. This movement from the middle realm to the apocalypse is conveyed by Morrison through myths drawn from several cultures. Her ability to manipulate and meld these myths provides the link to humanity's quest for control in an illusory world, and growth initiated by apocalyptic awakenings.
Show less
Date Issued
1994
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15036
Subject Headings
Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation, Morrison, Toni--Beloved, African Americans in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
George Eliot, Toni Morrison and the question of difference
Title
George Eliot, Toni Morrison and the question of difference.
Creator
Klass, Traci Michele., Florida Atlantic University, McGuirk, Carol
Abstract/Description
Toni Morrison suggests that there is "an enormous difference in the writing of black and white women." Despite her blanket assertion, however, Morrison's second novel Sula (1973) employs structures, themes, characters, and plot developments similar to George Eliot's in The Mill on the Floss (1860). Though significant differences mark the societies and cultures from which Eliot and Morrison write, numerous similarities between Maggie Tulliver and Sula Peace suggest that the "differences"...
Show moreToni Morrison suggests that there is "an enormous difference in the writing of black and white women." Despite her blanket assertion, however, Morrison's second novel Sula (1973) employs structures, themes, characters, and plot developments similar to George Eliot's in The Mill on the Floss (1860). Though significant differences mark the societies and cultures from which Eliot and Morrison write, numerous similarities between Maggie Tulliver and Sula Peace suggest that the "differences" between black and white female writers do not preclude some shared and corresponding traits.
Show less
Date Issued
2000
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12686
Subject Headings
Eliot, George,--1819-1880--Mill on the Floss, Morrison, Toni--Sula, Feminist criticism
Format
Document (PDF)
Cultural suicides, island retreats, and diasporic revelations: A socio-historical approach to Paule Marshall's "Praisesong for the Widow" and Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby"
Title
Cultural suicides, island retreats, and diasporic revelations: A socio-historical approach to Paule Marshall's "Praisesong for the Widow" and Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby".
Creator
Minto, Deonne Nicole., Florida Atlantic University, King, Natalie
Abstract/Description
As reflected in Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow and Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, many black characters in literature with a Caribbean setting inhabit a realm of stasis. They negotiate two worlds---a white world with hierarchies of power and success and selective acceptance, and a black world, usually with restricted power. Caught between these two worlds, the exiled slowly begin to lose their sense of roots and to embrace cultural suicide. Some flee to the Caribbean, where they may...
Show moreAs reflected in Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow and Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, many black characters in literature with a Caribbean setting inhabit a realm of stasis. They negotiate two worlds---a white world with hierarchies of power and success and selective acceptance, and a black world, usually with restricted power. Caught between these two worlds, the exiled slowly begin to lose their sense of roots and to embrace cultural suicide. Some flee to the Caribbean, where they may regain what is lost. This paradise, with all its historical markers of the African diaspora, ultimately forces these characters either to confront their rootlessness and to reconnect with the community or to destroy any connections they once had. In dramatizing the journeys and choices of their protagonists, Marshall and Morrison reinvent the Caribbean not just as a retreat, but as a site for reclamation of black identity.
Show less
Date Issued
1999
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15752
Subject Headings
Marshall, Paule, 1929- Praisesong for the widow, Morrison, Toni. Tar baby., Blacks--Race identity, American fiction--20th century
Format
Document (PDF)
Reading, Writing, and Language: The Neo-Slave Novel and the Changing Definition of Literacy
Title
Reading, Writing, and Language: The Neo-Slave Novel and the Changing Definition of Literacy.
Creator
Segal, Pamela H., Dagbovie-Mullins, Sika A., Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description
After examining the neo-slave genre it becomes evident that the definition of the genre provided by AshrafRushdy is incomplete, because it does not include an important component of the narrative, literacy. By adding to Rushdy's definition, the narrative's dimensions change and the discussion of the genre is given a new perspective. Many neo-slave narratives' discussions of literacy correspond to the time of publication, not the time period or setting of the novels. Therefore, by interpreting...
Show moreAfter examining the neo-slave genre it becomes evident that the definition of the genre provided by AshrafRushdy is incomplete, because it does not include an important component of the narrative, literacy. By adding to Rushdy's definition, the narrative's dimensions change and the discussion of the genre is given a new perspective. Many neo-slave narratives' discussions of literacy correspond to the time of publication, not the time period or setting of the novels. Therefore, by interpreting the development of literacy alongside the neo-slave narrative, one is able to consider the significance of this connection. By examining three novels within the neo-slave genre, Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada (1976), Shirley Ann Williams's Dessa Rose (1986) and Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), I contend that Ashraf Rushdy' s definition of the narrative appears too limited. The cultural perspective and use of literacy within the neo-slave novel allows for further examination of this important component.
Show less
Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000961
Subject Headings
Slavery in literature, Influence (Literary, artistic, etc), American prose literature--African American authors--Criticism and interpretation, Reed, Ishmael,--1938---Flight to Canada--Criticism and interpretation, Williams, Shirley Ann--Dessa Rose--Criticism and interpretation, Morrison, Toni--Beloved--Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)