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LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias
Toni Morrison’s Paradise (1997) |
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Toni Morrison (b. 1931), Paradise (1997)
The Convent" as feminine / feminist counterpart to patriarchal town of Haven / Ruby (founded by Big Papa and Big Daddy)
"Convent"--compare to monastery that may have modeled More's Utopia, but for women rather than men
Possible applications to utopian studies:
Compare journey from Haven to Ruby to Moses and chosen people on Exodus to Promised Land
(Recall that Dr. King made similar comparisons b/w himself and Moses)
compare Oven to Arc of the Covenant
In Indian and Oklahoma territories
Title page and list of books--who's familiar with what?
What is Morrison's reputation? Nationally and in schools?
1993 Nobel Prize for Literature--highest international award
First African American and American woman author to win
Experience reading, teaching?
Toni Morrison probably among handful of greatest American authors (such decisions take time)
Faulkner, Whitman, James plus or minus Melville, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, T. S. Eliot, Eugene O’Neill
How establish greatness?
Quality: genius, courage, brilliance, daring, learning—James: “Be one of the people on whom nothing is wasted.”
Development of tradition: great writers inherit and renew the work of previous great writers--e.g. Morrison did a master’s thesis on Faulkner; her style resembles and goes beyond Faulkner's
Influence on later writers, influenced by previous writers: great writers read their important predecessors, and they push to the next level beyond what their predecessors achieved—process repeats in influence on later writers (for Morrison, it’s too early to judge influence on other writers)
Quantity of quality: a number of writers have written a few great works, but comparative thinness of great works affects reputation: Hemingway, Twain, Hawthorne, Fitzgerald all wrote great works, but either didn’t write as much or repeated themselves instead of advancing
Another standard of greatness in fiction:
number & power of distinct characters
in lesser writers, the characters seem alike, similarly motivated, similar profiles and imaginations, fewer in number
Great writers almost god-like in creation of human characters--compare great musicians with creation of melodies (Bach, Mozart)
Shakespeare is the gold standard; next are Dickens and Faulkner--also Flannery O'Connor
Morrison: characters seem always to have been there, self-existent—like they were waiting in some reality to meet you
Power of invention
Not an easy read, though--very challenging--
Reader learns, discovers + experiences delight in putting parts together--participates in creative process (Aristotle: "To learn gives the liveliest pleasure")
What I discover in Morrison (esp. in Song of Solomon and Paradise):
Self-existent African American world
surprisingly whole unto itself, not defined strictly by reference to white world--white world is often kept at a distance or unremarked
Again a quality of great writers: to create a whole world, a microcosm or mirror: cf. Dickens's London, Dickens for Christmas
PBS interview of Toni Morrison