Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination - Paperback

by Valerie Smith (Author)

This compelling study explores the inextricable links between the Nobel laureate's aesthetic practice and her political vision, through an analysis of the key texts as well as her lesser-studied works, books for children, and most recent novels.

• Offers provocative new insights and a refreshingly original contribution to the scholarship of one of the most important contemporary American writers
• Analyzes the celebrated fiction of Morrison in relation to her critical writing about the process of reading and writing literature, the relationship between readers and writers, and the cultural contributions of African-American literature
• Features extended analyses of Morrison's lesser-known works, most recent novels, and books for children as well as the key texts

Back Jacket

"This concise volume will be of special value to less experienced (including high school) readers who want to go deeply into Toni Morrison's work, and it provides an invaluable starting point for anyone who wants to understand the works themselves in their cultural contexts. Highly recommended." CHOICE

"In this ever engaging, elegantly written study of Toni Morrison's oeuvre, Valerie Smith brilliantly enacts the role of active reader advocated by Morrison herself. This book makes an incisive contribution to our understanding of Morrison's artistic vision and range, illuminating her ethical engagement with memory and history, freedom and enslavement, love and loss, personhood and community." Sonnet H. Retman, University of Washington, author of Real Folks: Race and Genre in the Great Depression

"In her elegant and cogent new book, Valerie Smith introduces students to the power of not only Morrison's novels but also her lesser-known cultural criticism and books for young readers. By drawing on recent scholarship and her own expertise in U.S. literary history, Smith also invites specialists to examine Morrison's prescient argument that evidence of our common humanity lies within our embrace of individual and cultural specificity. For years to come, at all levels of higher education, this superb book will be taught and cited." Gene Andrew Jarrett, Professor and Chair of English, Boston University, and author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature

Acclaimed for the lyric beauty of her prose, Toni Morrison is recognized as one of America's finest novelists. But the distinguished career of this Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning author encompasses many literary genres - including editor, essayist, playwright, children's book author, and librettist.

In this compelling new study, Valerie Smith analyzes the celebrated fiction of Morrison in relation to her critical writing about the process of reading and writing literature, the relationship between readers and writers, and the cultural contributions of African-American literature. Through a close reading of Morrison's novels, children's books, short story, and other works as they relate to her cultural and literary criticism, Smith reveals the inextricable links between Morrison's aesthetic practice and her political vision, arguing that Morrison's writing simultaneously exposes the ways that language can fracture our sense of common humanity, while binding readers into a sense of a shareable existence. Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination offers provocative new insights and a refreshingly original contribution to the scholarship of one of the most important - and beloved - contemporary American writers.

Author Biography

Valerie Smith is Dean of the College, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature, and Professor of English and African American Studies at Princeton University, USA. Her numerous awards include fellowships from the Alphonse G. Fletcher Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Smith has written many essays and articles, and is author or editor of five books, including Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative (1988) and Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings (1998).