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Library | Material Type | Call Number | Child Count | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
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Searching... Science | Book | 813.54 M8345WZ YKO, 1997 | 1 | Stacks | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
The fifteen essays in this collection explore the resonant intertextual relationship between the fiction of William Faulkner and that of Toni Morrison. Although the two writers are separated by a generation as well as by differences of race, gender, and regional origin, this close critical examination of the creative dialogue between their oeuvres is both timely and appropriate.
Toni Morrison's brilliant and powerful novels of the past two decades have accorded her a position in the front ranks of American writers, and like Faulkner before her, she has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. She has publicly acknowledged her artistic indebtedness to Faulkner on a number of occasions. But Morrison also resists the Faulknerian heritage in profound ways. This resistance is certainly, in part at least, the natural reluctance of any highly original artist to be regarded as the product of her predecessor's influence. This push-pull of Morrison's acceptance of and resistance to the Faulknerian heritage provides a major source for the critical energy exhibited in this collection. Each contributor, whether addressing broad, general issues in both writers or whether detailing similarities and differences in particular works, finds that the authors illuminate each other. No reader of Faulkner will ever read him in the same way after encountering Morrison. Carol A. Kolmerten is a professor of English at Hood College. Stephen M. Ross is director of the Office of Challenge Grants, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the coauthor of Reading Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury. Judith Bryant Wittenberg is a professor and chair of the English department at Simmons College.Reviews (1)
Choice Review
These 15 original essays take a fresh, intriguing approach to the works of two US Nobel Prize winners. Though the pairing of Morrison and Faulkner may seem incongruous, the essayists, an impressive array of scholars, quickly capture the reader's support of their belief that reading together the works of the white southern male and the black northern female makes for a "profoundly moving meditation on racial, cultural, and gender issues in twentieth-century America." The first section hangs on a long string of themes, e.g., Morrison's anxiety about Faulknerian influence in her work, the mythical consciousness of both writers, and fathering as depicted in their works. A second section looks at specific pairings with examinations of Beloved, The Bluest Eye, As I Lay Dying, and Requiem for a Nun. A third section presents engaging comparisons of Beloved and Absalom, Absalom! Patrick O'Donnell makes the clearest presentation; he asks the reader to scrutinize Morrison's movement from Faulknerian influence into inscribing black figures in new terms in historical and narrative situations. This is a scholar's book. Large academic libraries serving upper-division undergraduates and above may want it because it affords viable new ways to evaluate the tremendous visions of two of America's greatest authors. R. F. Cayton; emeritus, Marietta College
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments | p. vii |
Introduction Refusing to Look Away | p. ix |
I Intertextuality | p. 1 |
1 Toni Morrison and the Anxiety of Faulknerian Influence | p. 3 |
2 The Long, High Gaze The Mythical Consciousness of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner | p. 17 |
3 Toni Morrison and William Faulkner: Remapping Culture | p. 31 |
4 David and Solomon: Fathering in Faulkner and Morrison | p. 48 |
I Pairings | p. 75 |
5 Riff, Refrain, Reframe: Toni Morrison's Song of Absalom | p. 77 |
6 Narrative Time/Spiritual Text: Beloved and as I Lay Dying | p. 91 |
7 The Grandfather Clause: Reading the Legacy from "The Bear" to Song of Solomon | p. 99 |
8 Black Matters on the Dixie Limited: As I Lay Dying and the Bluest Eye | p. 115 |
9 Untold Stories: Black Daughters in Absalom, Absalom! And the Bluest Eye | p. 128 |
10 Reading for the "Other Side": Beloved and Requiem for a Nun | p. 139 |
11 History and Story, Sign and Design: Faulknerian and Postmodern Voices in Jazz | p. 152 |
II Absalom, Absalom! And Beloved | p. 165 |
12 Built on the Ashes: The Fall of the House of Sutpen and the Rise of the House of Sethe | p. 167 |
13 A Postmodern Absalom, Absalom!, a Modern Beloved: The Dialectic of Form | p. 181 |
14 Signifying Silences: Morrison's Soundings in the Faulknerian Void | p. 199 |
Coda | p. 217 |
15 Faulkner in Light of Morrison | p. 219 |
Contributors | p. 229 |
Works Cited | p. 233 |
Index | p. 245 |