Welcome
The present plan is to combine materials authored by the site editor, Amardeep Singh (a professor of English at Lehigh University), with student-contributed materials. All student-contributed materials will be credited to the authors themselves, though essays may contain edits by the site editor.
Some planned materials might include:
- A biographical note on Morrison's life and career, drawing on books like Linda Wagner-Martin's Toni Morrison: A Literary Life and other biographical materials.
- Reception histories for each of Toni Morrison's novels, including major reviews published in literary journals and newspapers.
- Annotated scholarly bibliographies of criticism related Toni Morrison’s writings, possibly including criticism by Toni Morrison herself. First, there are hundreds of scholarly articles that have been published on Morrison. It might be helpful to have a guide to some of them, including a general sense of the topic and method, a brief summary of the main arguments with a couple of highlighted points, and a shortlist list of keywords. I’m also interested in having you read some of Morrison’s other critical essays, interviews, and other public statements.
- Maps and data relevant to Morrison’s novels. What does Toni Morrison’s map of the U.S. look like? What cities and states feature in her books, and what geographic patterns can we trace? Ohio is obviously important in The Bluest Eye and Sula; Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia in Song of Solomon; Kentucky, Georgia, Delaware, Ohio in Beloved; Virginia, Baltimore, and NYC in Jazz, and so on. I have been assembling digital ‘maps’ on the project that is in progress, but there is much more to be done.
- History: the East St. Louis Riot of 1917 (Jazz);
- History: tensions between Black and white workers in northern cities (Sula and Jazz)
- History: an account of the Great Migration and its representation in Morrison's fiction (The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Love, Home)
- Literary history: an account of how Morrison's work fits into the history of African American literature
- Literary / social theory: an account of Morrison as a pioneering figure in intersectional Black feminist thought
- Multimedia: Early (1920s) Jazz and “Race” music, especially musicians, record labels, and performers that are cited by name in Jazz and Love
- A close look at The Harlem Book of the Dead (which inspired the plot of Jazz)
- History: the story of the life and trial of Margaret Garner (1856)
- Critical deep dive: An overview of the opera Margaret Garner (2005), for which Morrison authored the libretto
- Critical deep dive: An overview of Morrison's adaptation of Othello, Desdemona (2011);
- An account of the participation of Toni Morrison in Oprah's Book Club
- A detailed overview of Morrison's "Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination"
- An account of the links between the 1934 film "Imitation of Life" and Morrison's "The Bluest Eye";
- An account of Black performers like Bill Robinson (Bojangles) in "The Bluest Eye";
- The lynching of Emmett Till and subsequent acquittal of his killers (Song of Solomon)
- An account of the "Dick and Jane" books, which are extensively referenced in "The Bluest Eye";
- The “Doll Test” (psychological study) (The Bluest Eye)
- Critical deep dive: Use “Nexis Academic” to look at original book reviews of Morrison’s novels when they were first published as printed in major newspapers and magazines. What did reviewers pick up on in her books? What did they value? What are some of the odd moments?
- Multimedia: annotated summaries of media appearances by Toni Morrison that are available online, including appearances on shows like ‘Oprah’ as well as other venues (i.e., Charlie Rose).
- Digital humanities: to what extent might quantitative text analysis help us understand Toni Morrison's fiction?