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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
100% recommend this book. Toni's only nonfinction book. From '92 (around the time of her Nobel Prize).
In this book she studies the ideas of race, whiteness, and Africanism in US American Literature.
As profound and academic as this book is, its less than 100 pages and it's not too difficult of a read. I definitely have been experiencing literature (and comics/other media) with a new lens and critical inquisitiveness.
Read it! Its good!
In this book she studies the ideas of race, whiteness, and Africanism in US American Literature.
As profound and academic as this book is, its less than 100 pages and it's not too difficult of a read. I definitely have been experiencing literature (and comics/other media) with a new lens and critical inquisitiveness.
Read it! Its good!
Nothing short of brilliant. I love Toni Morrison and this piece of literary criticism belongs on every shelf—especially for those wanting to learn more about the complexities of the American literary tradition.
4.4/5
this is the first literary commentary i have read, and i wouldn’t have wanted to start anywhere else.
toni morrisons insight into blackness and whiteness will forever reshape how i approach literature. it will have me analyzing every book i have for the semiotic meaning that hides behind the words.
seeing how she analyzed a text shows you just how intricate her mind was. if you are interested in black literature, classical literature, or american literature—i would check this out to see it in another lense.
this is the first literary commentary i have read, and i wouldn’t have wanted to start anywhere else.
toni morrisons insight into blackness and whiteness will forever reshape how i approach literature. it will have me analyzing every book i have for the semiotic meaning that hides behind the words.
seeing how she analyzed a text shows you just how intricate her mind was. if you are interested in black literature, classical literature, or american literature—i would check this out to see it in another lense.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Really excellent, quick read. While the thoughts on the texts themselves (Hemingway, Poe, among some others) are really interested, what was more interesting for me was the way in which Morrison treats literature and criticism in general. While some are afraid to even address the existence of the writer, Morrsion does only that, as she studies what effect the experience of white American authors writing about Africanist personages has made on American literature in general.
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Worth reading and re-reading. Almost made me want to return to Hemingway! Definitely looking for the Cather and O’Connor stories, to see how she sees and then try to transfer to other writers.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
After reading the introduction of Elaine Castillo's How To Read Now in which she calls Playing in the Dark the ur-text of literary criticism, I knew I had to read this work. When I saw that my local library had a copy AND it was less than 100 pages, I decided to read it before finishing the rest of How to Read Now. And I'm glad I did.
In Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison unveils the inherent racism within the American literary canon. While she does briefly discuss how Black stories have been historically excluded from the publishing industry, her analysis of the canon goes even deeper than that. Morrison posits that whiteness and the American literary canon are inextricably tied. Race and racial divides are so much a part of American culture that even a complete absence of Black people in literature shapes the inherent whiteness of the canon. Authors also constantly imply in their work that whiteness is the norm. Take, for instance, this quote from Morrison's analysis of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not: "Eddy is white, and we know he is because nobody says so." Furthermore, more often than not American "classics" will feature Black characters that merely serve as plot devices or mirrors upon which the white characters can reflect. Including such a narrow or self-serving view of Black folks is a method of declaring Whiteness by contrast.
Whiteness is the primary, implied undercurrent of "classic" American literature. And whiteness cannot exist without oppression. Thus, Morrison goes on to prove that apoliticism is impossible in American literature - how can a work be apolitical if it in any way reflects its native culture of oppression?
In Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison unveils the inherent racism within the American literary canon. While she does briefly discuss how Black stories have been historically excluded from the publishing industry, her analysis of the canon goes even deeper than that. Morrison posits that whiteness and the American literary canon are inextricably tied. Race and racial divides are so much a part of American culture that even a complete absence of Black people in literature shapes the inherent whiteness of the canon. Authors also constantly imply in their work that whiteness is the norm. Take, for instance, this quote from Morrison's analysis of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not: "Eddy is white, and we know he is because nobody says so." Furthermore, more often than not American "classics" will feature Black characters that merely serve as plot devices or mirrors upon which the white characters can reflect. Including such a narrow or self-serving view of Black folks is a method of declaring Whiteness by contrast.
Whiteness is the primary, implied undercurrent of "classic" American literature. And whiteness cannot exist without oppression. Thus, Morrison goes on to prove that apoliticism is impossible in American literature - how can a work be apolitical if it in any way reflects its native culture of oppression?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced