Synopses & Reviews
Throughout her novels, Toni Morrison explores the complex interaction of race, class, culture, and gender. This study takes into account both Western and Black traditions to show how Morrison not only denounces the constricting patterns of the dominant culture, but also, through the reversal or subversion of Western stereotypes, harnesses the rich potential for the significance they contain.
While most recent studies of Morrison examine individual works separately, this book concentrates on particular dimensions of Morrison's fiction and explores the continuities and developments from her first to most recent novel. And while other studies generally approach Morrison from a particular critical perspective, this book instead considers the interaction of multiple determinants such as race and gender, and gives special attention to the pressure exerted by dominant cultural forms. The authors demonstrate how in contradiction to the dominant culture's ideology of unity and homogeneity, Morrison makes a case for the value of difference in a diverse society.
Review
... should attract the attention of sophisticated readers of Toni Morrison, graduate students, and literary critics.Choice
Synopsis
Throughout her novels, Toni Morrison explores the complex interaction of race, class, culture, and gender. This study takes into account both Western and Black traditions to show how Morrison not only denounces the constricting patterns of the dominant culture, but also, through the reversal or subversion of Western stereotypes, harnesses the rich potential for the significance they contain.
Synopsis
Analyzes how Morrison denounces the constricting patterns of dominant culture through her use of Western and Black traditions.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-183) and index.
About the Author
WENDY HARDING is Maitre de Conferences at the Universite Paul Valery in France.JACKY MARTIN is Professor of English at the Universite Paul Valery in France.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Reading Morrison at the Cultural Interface
Projections of Self
The Character and Its Double
Gender and the Problem of Survival
Modes of Belonging in Community
Myths and Rituals Demystified
From Division to Sacrificial Reconciliation
Narration as the Past Remembered
A World of Difference
Bibliography
Index