The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye. Writing and Black Literature. What motivates Toni Morrison? What does she want to accomplish in her work?. Aim. Capturing “the something that defines what makes a book ‘black’. A quality of hunger and disturbance that never ends.
The Bluest Eye
E N D
Presentation Transcript
Writing and Black Literature • What motivates Toni Morrison? • What does she want to accomplish in her work?
Aim • Capturing “the something that defines what makes a book ‘black’. • A quality of hunger and disturbance that never ends. • Recreate black speech, “to restore the languaga that black people spoke to its original power”. • Aural • Metaphors are natural to black speech.
Aim (CONT.) • Readers to participate in her novels • Readers to say “amen” • Reader should recognize and feel the speaker’s emotion • Use magic, folktales,and the supernatural • Common to talk about dreams as real • Accepted visitations as real • Magical realism
Aim (cont.) • Distinctive irony • Being able to see the underside of something
Themes • Sense of loss • Roots, community, and identity • Ancestors • Extreme situations • Freedom and “Bad” Men • Responsibility
Themes (cont) • Good and evil • Loss of innocence • The black as other
