The objective of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine major writings of Toni Morrison which have addressed the issues of race and the outcomes of racial discrimination such as dehumanization through slavery or destruction of identity. The works chosen are mostly Toni Morrison's later novels such as Paradise, A Mercy and God Help the Child. Other crucial writings by Morrison concerned with the problematics of race may be discussed as well. The analysis will focus on the black identity and experience of the main characters (particularly the experience of African American women). Various narrative strategies and perspectives used in the above-mentioned novels will be analysed, especially how they aim to highlight the detrimental effects of slavery and racism.
Seznam odborné literatury
Primary Sources: Morrison, Toni. Paradise. London: Vintage, 1998. Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. London: Vintage, 2009. Morrison, Toni. God Help the Child. New York: Vintage, 2016. Secondary Sources: Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985. Fultz, Lucille P. Toni Morrison: Paradise, Love, A Mercy. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Furman, Jan. Toni Morrison’s Fiction. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 2014. Graham, Maryemma. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Kella, Ellizabeth. Beloved Communities: Solidarity and Difference in Fiction by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison and Joy Kogawa. Edsbruck: Akademitryck, 2000. Morrison, Toni, and Carolyn C. Denard. Toni Morrison: Conversations. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008. Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Rainwater, Catherine and William J. Scheick. Contemporary American Women Writers: Narrative Strategies. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky 1985. Reames, Kelly Lynch. ‘A Girl from a Whole Other Race’: Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Beloved, and Paradise.’ In: Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing. American Literature Readings in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Tally, Justine. The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Weinstein, Arnold. Nobody’s Home: Speech, Self, and Place in American Fiction from Hawthorne to DeLillo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.