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hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Amazing exposition on the current state of Literary Africanism and its subjects. This answered so many questions for me in my studies and furthered my understanding of Morrison's re-defined subject matter. I ascribe wholeheartedly.
reflective
medium-paced
3.5 stars. I read this for a college class and I did enjoy it, I am definitely going to start reading American lit from a “writers”‘viewpoint. She made valid arguments and I 100% see these classic books from a different perspective now. It was good but the language was well above what I can read easily in the 2 days I read it, it’s a text intended for academia and people well versed in lots of American lit (which I am not). If I had read maybe like 10 pages a day and sat with what I had analyzed, I feel like my opinion would be a little different.
Morrison’s examination of how and why white Americans invented our particular national stereotype of Blackness is essential reading. As one of our nation’s most accomplished novelists, she asserts that American literary history has been imagined as somehow “raceless” whereas in reality, the history of Black slavery and white domination in this country appear in every American text, either overtly or covertly through symbols. Examining Cather, Poe, Twain, Hemingway, and other white authors from the canon, she demonstrates how the idea of Blackness is used by white imaginations to explore white guilt, freedom, morality, sexuality, nurturing, authority, gender, and power. Published in 1992, the volume sadly seems not to have dated at all as I can think of several recent novels by white writers who also fall prey to this reflexive use of Blackness-as-metaphor for white issues rather than as a distinct identity, experience, and voice.
If I were getting a PhD in literature, I don't think I could find a better source of recommendations for study. These were lectures, and they gesture towards what could become a full bookshelf or perhaps even library of analysis. I am not sure I will be able to read American novels again without seeing the way the characters and narrative construct what she terms "American Africanism."
this was a tough read. morrison uses intelligent language and it was hard for me to follow what she was talking about the majority of the time. i’m in no way criticizing her, quite the opposite — i’m just not able to comprehend it.
i did like her commentary on how whiteness exists because of oppression and blackness. how the subjugation and control of black people gives meaning to what whiteness is and what power is. how basically one can’t exist without the other (at this point).
i did like her commentary on how whiteness exists because of oppression and blackness. how the subjugation and control of black people gives meaning to what whiteness is and what power is. how basically one can’t exist without the other (at this point).
Really fascinating, even though navigating Morrison's brief arguments proved pretty challenging for me. The book is only 91 pages and began life as a lecture series, but I hadn't read most of the works she uses as her reference points, and it's been a long time since I've tackled anything written in such an academic style. Nonetheless, her analysis will stay with me, and make me think about what I read in a more multi-faceted way. That is an entirely good thing.
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Three essays exploring the under-discussed “Africanist” presence in the American canon. Morrison is the best literary critic I have ever read, and I only wish there were more analyses to read.
“Africanism is the vehicle by which the American self knows itself as not enslaved, but free; not repulsive, but desirable; not helpless, but licensed and powerful; not history-less, but historical; not damned, but innocent; not a blind accident of evolution, but a progressive fulfillment of destiny” (52)
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Racism, Sexism
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Xenophobia
These biases are, of course, in the books Morrison discusses.
informative
reflective
fast-paced